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Th0r

Well-Known Member
People need to take responsibility for their own choices.
Breed standards is the biggest cause of all sorts of issues since we decided to breed for looks first and foremost!

Anyway things are getting to elitist for me in here so I'm out.

Sent from my Nexus 5
 
Last year my mastiff/dobe x had an accidental litter. I had never intended on breeding her, as I know the phenomenal amount of work it takes to raise a litter. I held off spaying her until she turned 3 so that her growth and bone density would not be affected. Unfortunately she went into heat earlier than anticipated just as she turned 3 and became pregnant. She ended up having *15*! You never know how many you will get. Even 7 pups are a tremendous amount of work and money to raise, but with the larger Bree's you never know how many...
It is also a ridiculous amount of work trying to find them good homes where you feel they will live happily for their entire lives. You will want nothing but the best for them, because you will get ridiculously attached. It's just about impossible not to. Also, you may not be able to rehome them at 8 weeks as you would anticipate due to unplanned circumstances. Despite all of my adults being utd on all vaccinations and my taking all 15 of the pups into the vet for vaccinations at 7 weeks(huge money once again in addition to all of the money you have spent raising to them to that point) they developed parvo just 2 days after turning 8 weeks old. I had to put a stop to adoptions and spend more money, time and heartache trying to get my babies through parvo. It as one of the *worst* experiences of my life! I did not sleep for almost two weeks as I was continually going through the rounds of sub-a I. Fluids, medications and syringe feeding and cleaning of severely I'll and dying pups. In the end I lost 2 of my little girls ruby and kitty and one of my boys zedno. They died in my arms just as they had appeared to have turned a corner. It was absolutely horrendously heart breaking and cost me thousands of dollars to get them through it. I just wanted to share my story, as much as puppies are great, raising them can be one of the most difficult things, as you never know what can happen. Insane number of pups, c-sections, pups with health issues, not being able to find good homes for them etc. just something to consider.
 
I also needed to supplement them with formula (again big money) as there were just too many for her to feed. Some bitches also may not produce enough milk. I had to supplement them every 3 hours I addition to sgimuting them to urinate and sets are, as there were just too many. Some bitches will also die or completely reject the pups and then it's all up to you.
 

ruthcatrin

Well-Known Member
I'm going to play Devils Advocate here and say that that chart is nonsense.
If we go by it, only registered dogs should be breed!
I have no problem with BYB as long as they know what they are doing and are only breeding the best males and females.
I personally know about 11 people that purchased puppies from registered reputable breeders that all have issues.
Puppy Mill puppies should be avoided at all cost but non registered breeders are not always bad!
How many times have we in this very forum be very critical about registered breeders and how dishonest they appear to be?


Sent from my Nexus 5

I don't have a problem with someone breeding un-registerable mixes, as long as they're doing so responsibly. At which point they're NOT a BYB. If they're health testing their dogs, and ensuring all appropriate health care for parents and pups. If they have a reason for breeding beyond "I want her to have a litter". I don't care how nice a pet your dog is, do something to prove your dog's genes are worth passing on, and no, a nice temperment isn't enough.

As for the responsibility: if you decide you're going to take steps to bring life into this world, life that does NOT have the ability to make its own way like us humans do, then you'd damn well better be prepared to ensure that life always has a home and isn't going to get dumped in a shelter cause the owners decided they didn't want that dog after all a few years down the road. Its YOUR responsibility, as the person who cause that life to be, to be that home, and that caring person who ensures they will at least not die alone ( the person manning the killroom at the local shelter who does the hearstick or shoves them into a gas chamber doesn't count). And if you can't handle that responsibility then damn well don't deliberetly cause that life to come about.
 

ruthcatrin

Well-Known Member
I'll add that registries and conformation standards absolutely have a place even if modern society has screwed some of them up.

But I have no problem with (for example) that breeder who takes their two agility grand champions and breeds them to produce (hopefully) better pups even though it will result in unregisterable pups, as long as appropriate health testing and care and responsibility is taken.