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Legitimate Breeder Vs BYB and Puppy Mill?

It seems that many people are being confused, and possibly taken advantage of due to a lack of clarity on this issue. I'm not a breeder, I do remedial behaviour work with power breed dogs, and obedience trial, and I've been a dog owner for forty plus years. I've purchased dogs, and rescued dogs, I've owned mutts, and pedigree stock. So it could be argued that I'm not biased as a breeder and have some experience to define these terms and provide a few guidelines to help people understand the differences. A legitimate breeder is breeding Confirmation Champion Stock which is fully health checked. A legitimate breeder can provide three generations of genealogy to a client. A legitimate breeder sells their best stock to other legitimate breeders, and all the other puppies are sold to qualified applicants with a 'non-breeding' clause. A legitimate breeder is selling registered puppies. ByB's and Mills are breeding dogs that are not breed stock, they may be showing a client the parents papers, and saying something about "we don't believe it's worth while to register our pet dogs", look carefully at the papers, because dogs can be registered as 'Pet Stock", but the Kennel club will not allow puppies from these dogs to be registered. That's a sure give away. "We just love this breed, but don't believe in show dogs," that's a sure give away. Pet stores are not selling legitimate breeder dogs. A breeder that is 'specializing' in several breeds, think about it, what does specializing mean? Not a legitimate breeder. A puppy should come with a contract, usually specifying that the dog must be fixed. That if the owner for some reason can not keep the dog, the breeder will take the dog back, and has first option in all such cases. Contracts vary, and may contain a considerable list of promises as to the life the puppy will have. Obviously legitimate breeders are not cross-breeding. How well the dogs are cared for and loved has nothing to do with this question, it is assumed that all responsible dog owners are doing that, ByB does not mean bad home necessarily. Legitimate breeders are participating in the Breed Kennel club, the local Kennel Club, and the National Kennel club, goes hand in hand with Confirmation showing. Legitimate breeders will not be letting you come and view and handle new born puppies, they will not allow anyone near those puppies until after first shots, for what should be pretty obvious reasons. If you are getting a puppy under eight weeks old, you didn't get it from a legitimate breeder. Those are the key points, but I'm sure the community can add more in the way of 'Warning Signs'... What are the Warning Signs that people new to the dog world that want a legitimate pedigree dog should watching out for, aside from what I've listed? Hello Try'n Again... I agree, most breeders can supply longer genealogies, that's just a minimum guideline that I will accept. Point taken on the club, I should amend that to participating in Kennel club activity rather than being so specific. Yeah poppy, that one really rings bells, because typically that breeder will use the term "specializing in...fourteen different breeds" I agree completely. Hello bw... the primary difference in your previous question is one of degree. A ByB might have one to three or four brood bitxhs, a puppy mill could have dozens, even scores. Both are essentially doing the same time, both tend to think of dog breeding as a 'for profit' enterprise. Ones a corner store, the other is Wallmart. akitagrl... Good points, thank you, and thank you for the clarification on Conformation... *S* ...good thing I admitted from the start that breeding is not my thing. fathom01 ...I know little about horses, other than their bigger than my dogs, and more likely to bite me. *S* ...but I was surprised by your comment, I guess I assumed, (always a bad thing to do) that horse breeding was at least as meticulous as dog breeding if not more. If you are interested in becoming a breeder, the best place to start is with a mentor in you chosen breed, but man it is a lot of work, and can really end up being expensive, I'm very glad people do it, but can't see myself ever walking that road, I'm just happy to be on many Dane puppy lists, accepted in their community as an excellent placement for their pet stock dogs. sjmdutch... Excellent point... and a terrible oversight on my part, ironically as a teenager I even worked for a couple years for a Gordon Setter breeder and his dogs were all field champions.

Public Comments

1. Absolutely!
2. YES!! Excellent post. That's it in a nutshell. Thanks for posting that information.
3. Must take issue w/a point or two... Three generation pedigree? I can do six(or is it seven by now) of my own dogs! REAL dog-people can go back WAY more than 3. & belonging to the parent club is NOT a requirement. I've been courted for ages & refuse to join mine.Sorry,I know a lot of those people & do NOT want to be a member of anything they are-LOL added-Hit a nerve there, lathom?? Can't handle the TRUTH??? Too funny-only guilty squirm so when put under the spotlight,dear. A very sensible ethical ADULT reason to breed huh...SPITE??? Thanks for displaying your true colors & level of maturity. ;-)
4. Great post..being a breeder, I couldn't agree with you more!! Thanks for taking the time to post this!!
5. Some good points...some not.
6. I dont know if you mentioned it, but a breeder breeding multiple breeds, especially very *different* breeds=not a good idea.
7. Thank you! Excellent! I wish you would go back a bit and answer the question I posted about an hour ago.
8. For myself I have noticed that "Legitimate" Breeders tend to babble and have a very high regard for themselves. They tend to be a bit snobbish and are really quick to bash other breeders. They also tend to take themselves very seriously. My advice as a breeder is to meet the snobbiest breeder you can find to get the best puppies. If they are wearing a single optical lens tied to a lanyard, nose in the air, and maybe smoking a pipe you have found a quality breeder. Really, if you are looking for breeding champions you should already know more than you can learn on YA. For people looking to buy a pet. Just make sure the paperwork is in order, look over the dogs, if you have any indication that they are not treated well of the parents arnt treated well go somewhere else. As for pets its usually the buyer who has not done thier homework and selects an animal that doesn't fits thier lifestyle vs bad breeders. Picking out bad breeders is easy. Myself, if anyone buys from us and nolonger can care for thier dog they are ALWAYS free to bring it back and we will find it a new home.
9. I would like to add: a legitimate breeder will be able to SHOW potential buyers the certificates/results from OFA and CERF tests performed on their breeding stock. They will NOT breed a large dog who is over the age of 5 or any dog under the age of 2 years. (I don't know the uppper limit for small dogs breeding, sorry.) They rarely, if ever, breed any female more than twice and never more than 3 times. They do not regularly breed two non-champion dogs with one another. It does happen, but it should be a rare exception, not the rule. Also, I would like to disagree with the idea that a breeder should only breed two breeds that are very similar. As long as they are excellent breeders of both kinds of dog, what does it matter if they are very different? I know at least two breeders who have both Whippets and Akitas, which I think we can all agree are very different, but these people are excellent breeders of both. However, anything more than two breeds makes me VERY suspicious of ANY breeder. Finally, and I'm not trying to be rude, but too many people get this wrong who should know better: dogs are shown in "conformation" not "confirmation."
10. I think your first "requirement" needs to be modified to read "Confirmation OR WORKING Champion Stock". "Working" Labs and GSD's don't even resemble their "confirmation" counterparts....yet are the more "correct" version of the dog other than for the show ring.