Are today breeders really love the breed??? - Page 2

Retiring spayed bitches to a good home is one thing and admirable. Selling 6 year old or older bitches "with a litter or two left in them" is another. THAT is one of my pet peeves. A breeder who makes money off the dog, and sells her off to anyone with some cash so he does NOT have to deal with her is one of my pet peeves. You see them advertised on here alot. Also, bitches who produce poorly, are often advertised for sale. Three or four dogs who were in - I use the term loosely - "commercial breeders" possession have been advertised on here. One bitch, just advertised, is probably available to her 4th home in the US....she produced a ton of severly dysplastic pups locally. Now, this bitch with a highly desireable kennel name is available to some other "breeder" who will think he is getting the bargin of the century. Adage of the story: If it SEEMS too good to be true, it probably is!!!!!

DH makes some good points -- Brittany, "Life is not Fair" Yes, there are people in it only for the money. you have to distinguish between those and the ones that "simply can't keep everything". We kept promising pups from every litter we ever had - some still live with us (they are all spayed and are 9.5 and 10 years old) Some never got bred - but we are not in "business". We never had a little to "make money" - that was not the intent - as it is with some people -- Maybe that is why we were blessed with litters of 10 to 16 !! (Oh, yeah, healthy dogs needed to do that too). You can buy a good bred bitch for around $8,000 (as I udnerstand it) maybe I'm talking to people in the wrong neighborhood) but you can do that and recoup your investment with the litter that comes over in the oven -- Then have 2-3 more litters and place the retired matron -- sometimes for free -- to make room for one of her kids or another brood bitch. One kennel we talked about recently - 3 names (california) was well known for having "milkers" as I will call them. They would take the pups from the mother after a couple of days and give them to the brood bitchs who they kept in milk for long periods so as to save the "show dogs", prevent sagging brests, get them back into shape faster for the show ring, etc. (The long term brood milkers probably had better temperament anyway to raise the pups!) So, like everything else -- know the people you're dealing with, there are all kinds out there -- people that are on the edge of being banned from the AKC because they registered 40 or more litters in 12 months !! Do you think they "love the breed" 40 times better than you or I if we have only 1 litter a year or 1 every 2 years !!

Jochen, Kougar and Pineridge, Some wonderful insights, people. In this field, I hadn't heard about use of 'brood milkers' before. Is there much of this, Pineridge? Cheers.

I don't know -- I bet people who do it would rather keep it a secret -- Do I get credit for new terminology? If nothing else it was a pretty widespread rumor in it's day and if you are into showing and want to breed your top winning females, then it seems an economical way to get it done and not "wear them down" -- However, if you're the old bitty stuck in the whelping box and the puppies never seem to leave -- just get younger and keep sucking-- well, you have to wonder if you are stuck in one of those Movies (Christmas every day - 50 first dates). It's one thing to have to move pups to an already nursing mom (excuse me -- mum) if you have an absolutely horrible first time mother, or 1 puppy that she won't nurse -or something serious -- but if it's just to keep the factory running at top production -- I can't say I would like it as a practice --- Some of those pups might have been better off raised by their auntie if she had the temperament to take one anohter litter after her own. Let's hope it was only a big story then, started by someone who didn't like the girls or their motorcycles or something. KOUGAR -- You hit the nail on the head -- Buying a good bitch - importing her pregnant by a known good producer or something -- you pay a top price and get what you pay for -- Yeah, if all of a sudden, Suzy Q is available for $3,000 -- you gotta ask why ??

Yeh, it's pretty handy if you're big enough and can organise things so you've got good brood milker on stand-by. Mustn't hand some of those backyard battery breeders more ideas though!