Are today breeders really love the breed??? - Page 1

I happen to notice on some breeders websites ( No I will not name them here) that I see breeders with at least 4 bitches ( or more) and after a few breeding with the female that I come back to the website and seeing that the female is retired and is up for sale for a retirement home. Now I sometimes over do it with my sensitive instinct but I sometimes wonder what are theses breeders motives in breeding? Why is it that some breeders say that their not doing it for the money but they go off and use their dogs like some breeding machine and when their time is up that they are quickly sold to a retirement home and then go buy a new female to replace the retired female.

Brittany, I think you just have no idea of the real plight of the breed, be it here in the USA or internationally. Sunny

Hopefully, nobody has plans to sell you to retirement home, Brittany.

Brittany, you need to distinguish between the love for a single dog and the love of the breed. You clearly love your dog, but you are not in the position that some of these breeders are in. If breeders want to stay "competitive" they need to keep up with what is current. As you can well imagine, if you keep just a few pups out of the litters 4 brood bitches for example have produced, there comes a time when these youngsters demand all the time, energy and attention of their breeder, or are ready for breeding themselves. Or a breeder wants to get new bloodlines into a kennel, so he invests in what he feels he needs to get ahead. Space, time, energy, etc all is a factor in what makes a person decide to keep a dog. Quality is as well. Maybe the female just did not produce according to the breeders plans and hopes? Maybe he just fell in love with another dog, but space is limited. Maybe the wife has always hated the dog. Or it kept growling at the husband. Could not stay out of the trash. The reasons are very individual. You are also forgetting that the GSD was bred specifically for its versatility and being able to adapt so well. It would be a sad testament to this breed if they would not be able to handle such changes well. After all, service dogs go from breeder, to home that raises them, to trainer, to handler. So do many other show and working dogs. Sometimes letting go is just as imporant as holding on. It is a matter of personal priority. People are entitled to determine their own priorities. You of course are entitled to disagree :). Tolerance is very becoming. Let them do their stuff, you do things your way, and hope not too many people give you a hard time about it.

Interesting, DH - new game plan?

Very well put D.H. !!!

I think that Love of the dog is what makes them let this dog go to a retirement home. If they kept them all then the dogs would just live in a kennel not haveing much time for them...you have to sell them because most people don't respect what is "given" to them, so an appropiate price is always good. And the dog gets to live the life, in the house all the attention. So I think that this shows how much the breeder loves thier dogs, alowing them to have a better life. Think about it that way as do the breeders. Heather

Yes DH, as usual you make perfect sense! Also, ever given it a thought that from some kennels/breeders it may be a 'good' place to leave from and its actually better for the dog to be given or sold to a regular good home and live out its years? I gave up (for free) a very nice 3 yr old brood bitch ,which I loved dearly, to friends awhile back. She simply was the alpha, but she did NOT want to be the alpha... She now lives in a great home with her daughter and, of course, is spayed and spoiled rotten. I still see her about once a month. Then, I recently brought in an older female from a kennel situation, which is now happy as a clam here, living in the house with the rest, running the land etc etc etc. The UPside of taking in an older female / male is that usually they are mellower, have been socialized already, and folks often like that idea, and very easily adapt to their new homes, have had leash training & so on. The Downside is that some are not housebroken if they come from a lifelong kennel situation.

If breeders kept all their dogs' they would have a house or kennel full of elderly dogs who are no longer able to produce or compete. Like D.H. said if they want to stay "competative" they must keep up with what is current and keep competing and producing to improve the breed.

I think that too many breeders rely upon the "stud of the moment" instead of creating a vision of the type of dog that they want and building their lines toward that type of dog. Unfortunately, to create something resembling your own line takes resources and breeding stock far beyond what what Brittany would consider to be reasonable and fair to the dogs making up that breeding stock. A good breeding program works to put together the right combinations and to build the kennel's lines to what the breeder wants - you simply can't do this with one or two females and a lot of stud fees. Instead, the breeder is keeping dogs from each litter to evaluate them and bringing in new females to add specific lines - many breeders have two "lines" that they bring together very judiciously. A program of that sort, means a lot of dogs that need attention and care. Let's face it - GSD's need a lot of personal attention and most breeders can't afford to hire a bunch of assistants in their kennels, nor can they stretch their family any further than they already do. Instead, they have to work to create co-ownership agreements in good homes for their breeding stock or find good homes for their breeding stock - Just as the example Brittany mentioned. The alternative would be just as bad - breeding one or two bitches far more times than they should be bred - or keeping and neglecting a bunch of dogs. While this is a business and the goal is to improve the breed, the good breeders are the ones who care about the dogs and where they end up. A retired bitch can have a great life in a family/pet home that will dote on her.