Thursday, September 26, 2013

Tell them what they don't want to hear

Lots of people buy dogs every year. Lots of people buy puppies every year. They get them from a pet store, or the newspaper, or Craigslist. They get them from a breeder that advertised their litter on the AKC web site. Every day.

So, what's wrong with this?






I didn't know there was anything wrong with that. I didn't come from a family of animal people, not really. Somebody would occasionally get a "free cat" from the paper; "free to a good home", probably an oops litter, I didn't think to think about it ever. That's where my first cat, Ripple, came from. The subsequent kittens, Piper and Gracie, came from shelter adoption events.

Elka came from what might commonly be referred to as a "back yard breeder". The litter was advertised on the AKC web site. Her sire and dam were registered purebred Dobermans. No titles. No real health testing; I knew to ask about health testing, but I didn't know what answers to actually look for. I knew their vonWillebrand's status. Subsequently, the breeder did post that Elka's dam tested negative for the DCM gene. The last time I visited the breeder's web site, Elka's sire was dead. He'd passed away in December, apparently. He was 9. Her ears were cropped, because we opted for a cropped Doberman. She was sold to me on a full registration.

Elka's litter was in one room of the breeder's house. A litter of Border Collies was in the other room. We didn't see any other Border Collies. We didn't see any German Shepherds, though there were some on premises somewhere. We saw one female Great Dane, not old enough yet to be bred.

I'm not calling Elka's breeder a puppy mill; that isn't correct. This individual would certainly fall under the category of "back yard breeder", however. No health testing is a red flag. No titling of adult animals is a red flag. Selling on full registrations with no prior relationship and no mentorship (or experience in the thing one would be mentoring in) is a red flag.

Most reputable breeders will not sell an uncropped dog. However, some working breeders are leaving their dogs natural nowadays, and this on its own will never make somebody a "bad" breeder. Look at all the pieces of the puzzle.

Multiple breeds on its own is not enough to make somebody a "bad" breeder, though more than two different breeds might make it difficult to be fully dedicated to the breeds of one choice. Multiple litters on the ground at all times is worrisome.

Both parents on premises is not necessarily a good thing. It's nice to be able to meet your dog's sire and dam, I don't disagree with that. Elka's dam came and investigated us, and did the signature "Doberman lean", and if my fiancè wasn't petting her, then she needed me to be. Definitely a thing that sold me on the breed. Elka's sire was not released from his kennel (there were outdoor kennels for many of the dogs), but he showed off some of the tricks he knew.

He was also a big, big dog. Breeding outside of the standard is another red flag. While size is not a disqualification in the Doberman ring, the Doberman is a medium sized breed. People selling "warlock" or "king sized" Dobermans are using back yard breeder strategies in order to make their dogs seem the most unique, totally stand out, the dog everybody will envy. Your Doberman should not be 125 pounds. Should not.

In the pages on the top, I have "Picking a breeder", where I try to cover what to look for if you're looking to add a Doberman to your home. These are things I wish I knew when I was looking for a dog. I didn't know the AKC was just a registry, and is no guarantee of the quality of the breeder providing papers (if they provide papers) and the quality of the animal you're buying.

I didn't know that dogs in pet stores came from puppy mills, and were trucked in from Missouri, or Kansas, or wherever else they found them. I didn't know just how much health testing was available, and for each breed. I didn't know the things that plagued different breeds.

You know what? Puppy Mill Awareness Day was on September 22. I don't think I saw anything about it. I posted about it two years ago, but not this year. I'm not a total expert. I'm inexperienced and still trying to do right here, and give out good advice. I can't reach everybody, and not everybody wants to hear this. One of my college friends is on Facebook, and when his little Dachshund is in heat, will post asking about intact males around. When I asked him about health testing, or if she's titled, I got ignored under the deluge of people squealing about the possibility of cute puppies. I still ask, though. If one person sees that, and thinks twice, that's a step in the right direction.



Puppies are cute. The cutest. Having a litter of puppies can be very, very expensive. And time consuming. Worst case, your female could die, could get mastitis. Any number of "what-if's", I know. But does that entire litter of puppies have guaranteed homes? What kind of homes are they? Do those people want to breed their puppies? And so on, and so on.

I wish somebody had told me, but they didn't. We wouldn't need things like the Tuesday tails blog hop if every breeder was responsible, and if every owner was educated and ready for the dog that was going to come into their care. Life happens sometimes, that is true, and not every home can be a forever home. Even up here on my soap box, I can't be that judgmental. Sometimes you can't keep a dog you thought you would have forever. Sometimes that dog needs somebody else.

I understand that not everybody is going to go totally dog crazy the way I did. They're not going to have a degree in psychology, they're not going to read every book they can get their hands on about dogs, and dog training, and dog behavior (and I can't claim to have read every book, but my fiancè occasionally remarks that he didn't even know there were that many dog books, when I've come home with another.)

Dogs are "just dogs", right? But they're also our responsibility. They don't have a choice, not any kind of choice. We do. We have the choice to educate ourselves, and to do the best we can for the animals in our care. I'm still learning about dogs, and Dobermans, and the more I learn, the more I want to share, whether people want to hear it or not. I don't know how many minds I've changed, if any, but I still try. I link to shelters, I link to rescues. I link to breed information and breed health, if somebody I know wants a dog. I try to find out what to look for in a good breeder. I try to get the person to consider whether the dog they'd like is the best fit for their lifestyle. Cute and beautiful though they may be, dogs are not decorations. They frequently have their own idea of what they want to be doing in the course of a day, and what they need. These are important things to consider. These are not things that everybody considers.

I wish I knew. Now I did. I hope that by talking about this, perhaps too often perhaps not often enough, I help somebody else, and help other dogs.

18 comments:

  1. Jen, such a good post. Have you seen the film Pedigree Dogs Exposed? Such an eye opener. If your haven't, or anyone else reading this hasn't, it is available on line.

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    1. I've seen parts of Pedigree Dogs Exposed, though not the entire thing. There's also a blog: http://pedigreedogsexposed.blogspot.com/

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  2. Just keep writing, that's all I can say. I think raising awareness starts by posting 'soap boxes' like these. I know I rarely read from your site but I do appreciate these kinds of posts. They're raw and realistic.

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    1. Well I'm glad you came by today!

      Talking about it is the only thing that's going to raise awareness and educate, I agree.

      Thanks!

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  3. I've always gotten rescues, so when I actually purchased a puppy, I had no idea what to do. Reading this made me feel confident in my choice, our Keine is awesome, healthy and well. I actually found The Elka Almanac while searching the internet for info on our breeder and have been following for just about two years now. Love it!

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    1. I'm glad you feel confident in your choice (And thanks for being a reader too, I dig that, obviously)! It's great that Keine is healthy and awesome, it's what we all hope for when getting a dog or puppy.

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  4. Clicked over here from AW. (I'm ralf58 there.) I hate the way dog breeding has become a business. We didn't get a rescue. I bought from a backyard breeder who was highly recommended. (She doesn't do purebreds. She breeds a "designer cross"--schnoodles.) We were in a breed discussion group on the 'Net, and I thought I knew what I was getting. But our dog ended up with lots of health problems that I didn't expect--even though I knew at least a dozen owners of her dogs. We love our boy all the same. He has the best personality in the world. I just wish the standards were clearer. I don't know yet what we'll do when he's gone and it's time for our next dog.

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    1. I'm sorry your boy has health problems :( It's good his personality is great, though! I know I wouldn't trade Elka for anything.

      "Designer" breeders have no standards. They have no registries they "answer to" (as stated, the AKC essentially goes "Is it an ____? that'll be $X, here are your papers"). And unfortunately, when you put together purebreds, rather than the hybrid vigor people hope for, one is gambling with the health problems of two breeds.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. Excellent post. So many people still think the AKC is some kind of mark of quality instead of a closed registry that insures inbreeding. As more and more people learn what they really are (a puppy mills' best friend) they are going the way of newspapers and dial up connections to the internet. Sadly there are still people paying $500 and more for many years of veterinarian bills from their AKC dogs.

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    1. I've in fact had people tell me, when I asked what made their dog special enough to breed (I didn't phrase it like that, but really, we all think are dogs are awesome. Doesn't mean they should all be bread), say "Well, they're both AKC". If pressed further (conformation showing? Hunting? any titles ever at all?) they look confused and demur. I frequently don't even get to health testing. Unfortunately, the conversation can be viewed as my being snobby and superior, rather than having concern for the dogs. It's a fine line.

      Popular sires are a big problem, even with people who DO title and health test. As a Doberman example, Cambria's Cactus Cash is a dog in many many pedigrees, and while his cause of death was not heart related (ruptured prostatic abscess septicimia is his confirmed COD on Doberquest), he's in many many woodpiles and it's hard to imagine that dog was SO RIGHT for so many bitches.

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  6. Excellent, well-voiced post on this topic. Stay on your soap box, you are very articulate! While I agree the AKC should do much more to eliminate puppy mills, they are completely innocent when it comes to the thousands and thousands of designer dogs that are out there. Those dogs cannot be registered w/ the AKC. While they may come from an AKC registered Poodle and Golden Retriever crossing, it is the person intentionally letting those dogs mate that is at fault and it is also the person who is buying the puppy. There are plenty of people out there who don't give a hoot about puppy mills, all they want is that whim purchase of a cute puppy to plop in their handbags. That's why pet stores are successful at selling pups. People either don't care about where they came from or they wrongly believe they are "rescuing" the puppy. This "rescue" only serves to increase demand for that particular breed and the puppy mill pops out another litter to fill the void in that pet shop's window. It truly is about education on so many different levels, but until some people stop viewing puppies as a consumer product, it's going to be hard to win this war.

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    1. Thank you!

      I think the AKC is in a tough position, where they need/want the revenue, but have a hard time actually closing the net on things like puppy mills. I think only 17 inspectors exist for the county? (that might be a random number; I saw it in an article somewhere this year)

      Yes, designer dogs obviously cannot be AKC registered. And you know? Some people don't care about papers because "they don't want a show dog, they just want a pet". And while valid (I just wanted a pet. I ended up with a full registration and spayed Elka before her first heat), a centralized registry SHOULD be able to mean something. It would be invasive (and perhaps impossible) for AKC officials to visit every single registered breeder's facility/house/property, but registering a litter should involve more than filling out the forms. Titling should be more important. Health should be more important.

      "Rescuing" a puppy from a situation like that only lines the pockets of those who produced the puppy. It's a knife in the heart, to deliberately leave a puppy in a situation, and a lot of people just can't. But those dogs aren't rescues; they're part of the machine.

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  7. Thanks for writing such an open and honest post! I thought that Elka seemed really tall. :)

    Years ago a friend researched miniature pinschers and bought a beautiful puppy from a great breeder (titled dogs, limited litters, spay/neuter pet contracts, home visits, reference checks, etc.). A few years later she saw a sick min pin at a mall pet shop and "rescued" it. Of course she ran up vet bills, but the puppy grew up fairly healthy and about TWICE the size of her first one, who met breed standard. Many people thought the 2nd dog was a Manchester Terrier and didn't believe he had "papers", he was definitely a puppy mill dog. He was super sweet, but had socialization issues and took a lot more time to train than her first dog. She warned everyone never to buy a dog from the pet store! It closed a few years later. :)

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    1. You're welcome! Thanks for reading ;)

      Yes, Elka is out of standard. Her papa was a big dog (I won't even guess at how tall he was, but 29 inches or more is a given,I think).

      And wow, that is one big minpin! I'm glad that pet store closed.

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  8. A Facebook friend just bought a mini schnauzer puppy. It took all my internet willpower not to say "I hope you didn't get that dog from a puppy mill."

    On backyard breeders: I grew up in a place where it's a reasonably popular hobby, and I find it hard to make blanket statements. I mean, I probably wouldn't get my own dog from one, but they were SIGNIFICANTLY better dog owners than the average people of my rural town. They didn't do health tests, but their dogs went to the vet, lived indoors (or at least in fenced yards), had some training, and ate decent food. I don't know.

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    1. It's so hard for that to not be your first reaction, isn't it?


      It's hard to make blanket statements (and I know I'm "speaking from privilege" when I'm on my soapbox). There are many shades of backyard breeder, I'd say. Not everybody just wants to make money on the backs of their dogs, certainly, and when I think of somebody as a BYB, I don't think they necessarily neglect the dogs either.

      It's a hard issue, one that's hard to address without laying down a lot of offense.

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  9. It's okay that you didn't know, you know now. I didn't know either, but I educated myself just as you have. It's good that you keep putting it out there, sooner or later we will make a difference!!!

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    1. Thanks!

      I think educating oneself is important. I'm constantly learning, and trying to share, sometimes to the chagrin of others.

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