Breeders with puppies to sell - question

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SouthWestWhippet

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Just went out and bought this weeks HH to see if my mum's advert re her whippet puppies was in it. It is... but so are anouther 6 adverts for Whippet pups!!!

So - this got me to thinking. My mum's an acreditted breeder and has a couple of litters each year and this is the first time she has ever needed to advertise outside of the KC website. Usually the phone is ringing off the hook for pups. But this time, it has been really quiet.

Have any other breeders found this? Here's a poll... please only fill it in if you have had a litter in the last 2 months. Do reply with any thoughts as well or details etc! thanks!
 
I don't breed at all but am buying a puppy from a breeder, KC reg etc.
The bitch had 10 this time (labradors) and she has struggled to sell them despite advertising via KC, H&H, locally. I'm getting mine tomorrow and he is 4 months old already, she has one further left to sell.
 
Yes, appriciate your point re Xmas... we already have a buyer who doesn't want to pick up theirs until after Xmas which seemed a sensible idea.

However, my mum didn't actually WANT a litter at this time. She has the mum and dad as family dogs and usually the dog takes a little holiday (!) with some foster friends when the bitch is in season. Unfortunately the foster family were away this time and despite my mums best efforts nature had her way. The bitch was still standing at 14 days! She is crazy keen for her man
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I know people who have had a really really hard time to sell pedigree pups, especially labradors.

When we were selling our 3/4 border collies the phone never stopped ringing, its the same with our moggy kittens.

IMO more and more people want crossbreeds- they live longer and don't have as many problems (i am generalising here so no offence).
 
"IMO more and more people want crossbreeds- they live longer and don't have as many problems (i am generalising here so no offence). "

........(sigh) NOT TRUE I do get fed up with this old chestnut being brought up it simply is not true - the oldest recorded living dog is a PEDIGREE Papillon aged 27 years - the reason that crossbreeds and mongrels appear to have so few health problems is because they are not tested for them so no health data exists - however a common cross (GSD x Border Collie) for instance will have inherited both the tendency for HD AND collie eye anomoly- making it twice as likely to have health problems not less !.

True hybrid vigour only exists where dogs are not saved by veterinary intervention ( such as feral dogs) - dogs with inherited faults or problems would simply die and therefore not be able to pass on their genes. In the western world we take them to the vets and therefore they ARE able to perpetuate inherited problems.

DNA testing is the most effective way of ensuring that genetic faults are excluded from a breeding line - and guess who does this - yes it's the reputable PEDIGREE dog breeders !

of course there will always be those who try and save money by going to back yard breeders or puppy mills who do not give a toss what the pups turn out like but you get what you pay for.

Personally speaking I would never have a winter litter because of the Christmas factor and because it is so difficult for the pups to be outside in the fresh air - I suspect that it is also much harder to sell pups at this time of the year too
 
Well maybe so, i did say i wasn't generalising but it is true that crossbreeds are a lot more popular- look at the Guide Dogs for example, they are getting rid of the labs and retrievers (i know someone at head office) and replacing them with crosses.
And people are finding it harder to sell pedigree pups. Someone i know had a litter of labs in the summer (from Champion parents) and had a hell of a job selling them, she actually had to keep one!
 
I think too many people are breeding their dogs and therefore there are more pups around and hence it is more difficult to sell them.

Plus why did you guys decide to breed your dogs? Cos I'm interested, to me it seems like too much effort and risk etc.

Emma
 
Yeh thats true too, more and more people are having puppies now unlike kittens where no one is having them making the demand huge for them Do you know we sold all of our kittens a week ago and we are still getting at least 2 phone calls a day!

Anyway we bred from our dogs because we wanted 2 pups from them and our next door neighbour wanted one, so we've got 2, neighbour has 1 and we sold 3. Best thing we did they are just fantastic. But thats it our dog was castrated after, and our bitch won't have another litter.

They are 3/4 border collies-

Socket (our next door neighbours) and Turbo (ours)
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And Turbo and Diesel (ours)
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I decided to breed my first litter after owning the breed for 6 years and showing them. I was fortunate enough to make up a Champion bitch and I wanted a puppy from her to continue her outstanding 'type' When she was 3 after extensive research I found a stud dog that suited her lines - both mum and dad were eye and hip tested and went on to produce a litter of 5 puppies. I kept 1 and she went on to win 1CC and 2 res CC's. I bred on from her and had a litter of 7 - three of which became Champions - I have now owned the breed for over 20 years - I only breed when I want a new puppy to show ( on average about every 3 years ).

Yes it IS a lot of hassle, hard work and heartache but I get great satisfaction in knowing that I have helped to improve the breed and produced dogs that are healthy beautiful and of good temperament.
 
I was tempted to put that there has been trouble selling although this is not entierly true. We had a litter of 5 Patterdale babies, three girls and two boys. The girls went immediatly however we still have the two boys although we always planned to keep one of them, probably Red as he's a darling. The other boy also a right dude
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still hasn't been rehomed. I think if i was in the UK there would be no problem and he will probably go abroad as theres no demand here (supprisingly so lol - not) once he has his passport and rabies jabs and is allowed off into the wider world.
 
Personally I hope more people are going for rescue dogs as so many beautiful healthy dogs are destroyed through no fault of their own. I'd never buy from a breeder and have always had fantastic rescue dogs.
 
I agree but the trouble is its so hard to get a rescue dog.

We had a beautiful rescue dog for 16 years from The Dog Protection League. When we sadly had to have her PTS at 16 we went back to the same place. We wanted a puppy or young dog. 1. We would have to have house checks 2. We would have to go to at least 3 puppy classes 3. We wouldn't be able to have one anyway coz im at college (even though im only gone fo at max 3 hrs at a time) 4. They wanted £110!!!!!

Its such a huge hoo ha! I know they want good homes but IMO this is too much. We've sold at least 3 pups to homes that wanted a rescue dog but just thought it was too much bother, but we always make sure ours go to good homes and keep in touch with them.
 
but surely we should all be aiming for a time when there are NO rescue dogs ? - if folk only bred after lots of careful thought and planning ( and not just because fido has a nice temperament and the kids would like the experience of some pups around !) then numbers would be greatly reduced and far less dogs end up on rescue.

Having a litter and owning a dog is a HUGE responsibility and most dogs that end up in rescue are the result of people who do not take that responsibility seriously.

My own opinion is that no cross bred or mongrel dog should ever be deliberately bred from - take a good look round your nearest shelter - it is stuffed to the gills with the results of such matings - plus badly bred/socialised staffy's and the sad fall out from the greyhound racing fraternity.
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What a load of rubbish, well i've bred from my crossbred got fantastic pups and had no end of calls for them!!!! Pedigrees aren't superior you know! Jeez i hate it when people look down on crossbreds. Are you saying that crossbred horses shouldn't be bred either just because there are loads of horses at rescue centre??
 
I have to agree with you, Milor. There are way too many amateurs out there throwing two dogs together without any thought given toward temperament, health, screening potential owners etc.

I've see all sorts of daft crosses recently -- "Bugs", "Puggles", "Jugs", "Chi-fons" -- pups for which the new owners have splashed out $1000+, only to find that, shock horror, even though they're crosses, they actually have severe allergies/patella problems/cherry eyes etc. because the parents dogs were far from breeding quality. But who cares -- they're cute, right?
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Great breeders are not in it to make money. I met with a fantastic Boston Terrier breeder last weekend. She has litters rarely, every single parent dog is health-tested and she spends every weekend going to shows/obedience trails. She is so passionate about her breed and requires every potential owner to come for an interview at her house.

With so many dogs languishing in shelters (Pits and Shepherd Mixes are the biggest problem over here, in the US) I don't think anyone but the kind of breeder I've described above has any business churning out more dogs.
 
I disagree with the Lab comment - the litter I got mine from were all sold within days - without an advert in sight. It was a family bitch from very good breeding stock - good hip and eye scores and so had the dad. If they come from good breeders they are sold through word of mouth - it was actually our friend that had bred th bitch from her family bitch and we knew the dogs had fantastic temperaments. At least there is moe of a guarantee with pedigree bred puppies that there is less chance that they develop health problems if bred well. KC won't register Labs unless both parents have hip and eye scores.

There are pleny of unwanted cross breds out there - I do think that you are being slightly irresponsible breeding dogs and cats - for what reason?
 
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reat breeders are not in it to make money. I met with a fantastic Boston Terrier breeder last weekend. She has litters rarely, every single parent dog is health-tested and she spends every weekend going to shows/obedience trails. She is so passionate about her breed and requires every potential owner to come for an interview at her house.

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Here here, this is how my mum sees it. All her potential owners are carefully vetted and she has turned down people that she thinks aren't 'right' for her pups. She has people who have come back several times for puppies and these people have become friends of the family. We have the pups back for holidays if the owners go away etc etc. When the pups are growing, she is very careful to make sure the are all exposed to really young children - we invite people with babies over to 'mash' them a bit
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- also they meet our very friendly siamese cat who loves dogs so they learn that cats aren't for chasing etc. We love giving them 'family' training!

Anyway, hopefully this litter will also all find good new homes. I seem to have stirred up a bit of a hornets nest so I'm going to bow out gracefully on this one. Chacun a son gout and all that. I think we all have to make our own decisions about the dogs we choose to share our lives with.
 
Well there are hardly any kittens out there for starters thats why when we advertise we get about 50 phone calls, people have to ring about 8 people before they can find one. (although we have just had our last litter as it is hard work).

Our only litter of pups was so that we could have 2 and our neighbour had 1, the rest went on the day they were advertised. Thats our only and last litter.

However my uncle does have a litter of pure Border Collies every 4 years to carry on his line of working dogs.
 
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What a load of rubbish, well i've bred from my crossbred got fantastic pups and had no end of calls for them!!!! Pedigrees aren't superior you know! Jeez i hate it when people look down on crossbreds. Are you saying that crossbred horses shouldn't be bred either just because there are loads of horses at rescue centre??

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You may have got fantastic pups but so have 1000's of other people who breed. Why not take time to visit dog pounds where thousands of dogs die when their time is up after being handed in unwanted for some stupid reason.
No one is saying that pedigrees are superior, I'm the first to agree with you but to breed crossbreeds when 1000's are dying is in my mind irresponsible.
 
the big difference between horses and dogs is that the latter share our homes and lives to a much greater degree - dogs become - to many folk - another member of the family and therefore MUST be bred with the utmost responsibility. Horses also only have one or maybe two offspring from each pregnancy - dogs can produce up to 10 pups in a litter and can be bred from twice a year - you do the maths ! - poorly bred dogs can become a HUGE problem and it's other people who have to pick up the pieces.

Dogs as a species deserve more than this - they are the one animals that would give up their lives for us - how many more have to die needlessly because thoughtless breeding adds yet more poorly bred pups onto rescue once their 'cuteness' has worn off.

In order to breed you must have a good and valid reason - simply wanting a litter is NOT ENOUGH !!!
 
Well i love my dogs and all the puppies have excellent homes so i reaslly don't care what you think. If your so worried about all of these dogs in rescue centres why don't you stop breeding and you can go and take a few home. Plus i've had 2 rescue dogs in the past both living till 16. When we went back they said we would not be able to have one so that is why i have bred my own. The 2 pups are 3/4 border collies and are now working with our sheep.

I really don't know what your problem is.
 
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I really don't know what your problem is.

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Quite frankly a lot of people are concerned that anyone can breed their dogs.

Pedigree breeders at least have a writtena greement stating that if the dog becomes unwanted they will take them back. They agree to ahve responsibility for their puppies for life. Most people that just breed their pups don't do that. Have you done that? If you couldn't get a pup from a rescue centre why not get one from the paper rather than breeding more?

We as a culture have become very much dominated with I want it now culture. Why couldn't you have asked the rescue centre why you couldn't have one and instead tried to coem to some agreement. There were more options available other than bring more life into the world where others are beign killed....

You probably won't understand this point of view and I probably won't understand yours.
 
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I really don't know what your problem is.

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Quite frankly a lot of people are concerned that anyone can breed their dogs.

Pedigree breeders at least have a writtena greement stating that if the dog becomes unwanted they will take them back. They agree to ahve responsibility for their puppies for life. Most people that just breed their pups don't do that. Have you done that? If you couldn't get a pup from a rescue centre why not get one from the paper rather than breeding more?

We as a culture have become very much dominated with I want it now culture. Why couldn't you have asked the rescue centre why you couldn't have one and instead tried to coem to some agreement. There were more options available other than bring more life into the world where others are beign killed....

You probably won't understand this point of view and I probably won't understand yours.

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Totally with you on this one, I would love for everyone to visit pounds and dogs homes and see those little faces looking up at you when they are on death row, then go away and breed yet another needless litter. Its so so irresponsible
 
Calls are only high at the moment because 'kitten season' is over, most kittens are born and reared by Novemeber, meaning the few kittens that are born after this time are popular for that reason, there are few about.
 
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We had a litter of 8 long coated white German Shepherds and are keeping one girl and this little chap is still looking for his forever home at nearly 14 weeks. I know that as it is coming up to christmas I will have to vet everyone very carefully.
 
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