What's wrong with breeding dogs for pets?

Question

I don't understand people are condemend for letting their pet dog have a litter. It's like the ultimate sin to some of you. We are accused of "doing it for money" and "being irresponsible."

Why can't we be more understanding and accepting of people's reasons for breeding? Not everyone wants a show quality dog. Because my neighbor's dog had puppies, I was able to get a wonderful purebred retriever at a decent price.

My family let her have ONE litter because we loved her and wanted to keep one of her puppies, and share the others with friends and neighbors who requested. Also, we thought the birth experience and caring for puppies was a good learning tool for our children.

Breeders and shelter workers, can you accept that there are good reasons for breeding besides producing show dogs or "improving the breed?" I think you are taking an unrealistic and judgmental view - please, correct me if I'm off base.

P.S. My family has also adopted animals from shelters.

Answer 1

You know what. I am sure I am gonna get 50 thumbs down, but I agree with you! Everyone freaks out and assumes people only have pups to mill them out and yada yada..blah. I had an accidental litter and I made sure I talked to the people that were going to buy the pets SEVERAL times and only sold to families and young couples. I have had nothing but great comments about the dogs and I didn't sell them to make MONEY or to make a better breed, or to whatever. It's gets a little silly on here sometimes. People take things WAY to out of context! BUT THEN AGAIN...that's the blessing of YAHOO ANSWERS, you can say WHATEVER you want.

Answer 2

I do understand what you are saying and I really try to be slow to criticize or assume I know people's motives.

I tend to let emotions get in the way when people say they have let their dog get pregnant, because I'm in the shelters often and all the dogs that deserve homes but will remain there or be euthanized just breaks my heart.

The bottom line is that there are just too many homeless animals in shelters. For every dog I adopt from the shelter, there is another person out there bringing 5+ puppies into the world....and I can only adopt so many! Until we have almost zero animals in these shelters, I hope people think twice before breeding their own dog.

Answer 3

Every puppy you and your friends had tolled the death bell for a poor homeless animal in a shelter. When there are less breeders, there will be less unwanted dogs, and once again it will be a great thing to let your dog have puppies.
You may as well be saying, what is wrong with buying a car that pollutes the atmosphere? It is only one car, and my family wanted it. Besides, I don't use much gas.
Selfishness, lack of awareness, and refusal to be responsible has gotten us into this fix, and it is now up to us to step up and do the right thing, which would be to stop the unnecessary breeding.
Have you ever gone into a kill shelter and really looked at the faces? Have you sat in the lobby and watched people bring in their dogs to be killed because they don't want them anymore? Have you walked through the kennels and looked at the dates on the doors? Do you know what those dates are for? Don't you think all those poor animals were puppies once, too?
Think about it. This is why we are passionate on this site.

Answer 4

I commend you if you bred a litter and each and every one lives out it's life in a wonderful home. Sadly in such situations it's rarely the case.

I'm sure the 24 dogs that were put to sleep earlier this week at a shelter close to me were once adorable little puppies that people could not wait to own. Their breeders no doubt thought they would be loved all of their lives and live happily ever after. Thing is that's often not the way it is. Believe it or not the number was very low for this time of year. It can often be many more.

Mutts are much more likely to end up in a shelter than a pure bred dog although of course pure breds do end up there too on occasion.

People who hand over money to a back yard breeder or pet store without a second thought are much more likley to pass on that animal to a shelter if it becomes sick than someone who has gone to a good quality breeder that has gone through the things people really need to know about owning their breed and are willing for all of that animals life to take them back should for some reason they are no longer wanted. No pet store or back yard breeder will do that.

Maybe it's unrealistic to think that any and all dogs should be bred and that they are not adding to the over crowding in shelters and the mass euthanazia that takes place all too often at many shelters.

Maybe you should try volunteering at a shelter for say 6 months on at least a once a week basis. Please make sure it's a shelter where animals are killed though. It will break your heart to see those little pleading faces begging you to save them for their certain fate. So many will stand out in your mind, but you can;t take them all... then one day they are gone. All of them. You pray they have been adopted, but chances are most of them will have succomed to euthanazia. Hopefully it will have been painless like when you take a sick animal to the vet. Often it's not. Many shelters still use gas chambers. Paws are ripped apart as they try to escape their mass killing. They suffer boy do they suffer. They scream for thei lives. These poor dogs that someone thought would be loved for life.Instead they die a death that is just too horrible to even think about. That's why I'm sobbing uncontrolably as I type this. I can hardly see through my tears.

You see this at least once a week for 6 months and then if you still feel the same please let us know. If you don;t let us know then too. I can;t believe anyone who really had a heart would ever think of breeding just any animal if they saw this happen on a regular basis. Many no matter what quality their animal was would never breed again. I had my own show quality dog neutered even though I had many people begging me for his pups including people who have good quality show dogs. I could not stand the thought of one of Snickers babies, my babies, dying that way.

I may condemn people to a few harsh words from time to time when obviously the last thing they should do is be breeding. I have never condemned them to death the way many of these dogs are when their only crime was being born or being sold to the wrong person just because they had the cash in hand.

Answer 5

Breeding just to produce a pet, is like going to all the trouble of making a cake, but not putting any icing on it.. If you are going to breed a litter, why not breed the best litter possible..
If you start with mutts you always end up with mutts.. You start with mediocre you end up with mediocre. You start with quality, you produce quality.. If you can produce quality why would you want to accept any less and produce mediocre or less?

If you think that every single dog in a show litter is show quality, then someone's feeding you a line.. It just really rarely happens ... If you are going to buy a pet, why not buy a pet from a quality, well bred litter? Where the health testing has been done, dogs raised properly, well taken care of.. Just a bonus if the relatives are all Champions or have a nice Sch title or CD after their name.

There are more breeders out there than just show breeders.. Show breeders rarely take working ability into consideration when they produce a litter.. Correct and proper structure is important to get the job done, but a Championship isn't the be all to end all... Lots of dogs have gotten Championships and don't even deserve them...

There are alot of pets in people's homes that probably should have / could have been shown. But when you try to put the right dog in the right home.. It's better to take that one that might do well in the ring and put it in a good loving family home where he will be part of the family.. In my mind anyhow.. I would always choose the good family home, looking for a good dog to love and cherish and have as part of their family, than to put a puppy in a show home..

But if you aren't going to make things better, improve on the dogs, then why bother?? It's like doing 1/2 the job.. Breed for the best you can, and you produce the best and you provide the best show / working / companion dogs that you possibly can. If you don't try to make things better, then things will slowly degrade to a bunch of mutts full of health issues, and no one wants them.. I would much rather have a dog from someone who cares and loves the breed, than someone breeding for a pet and really doesn't care much at all, cause if they did, they would try and produce the best dog that they could.

Answer 6

Yes and those so called friends and neighbors are the same people who wouldn't think twice about dumping their so called pet into a shelter. !/2 of the people in this country have now clue when it comes to being pet owners. Qualified and reputable breeders sell their puppies to people they have done extensive checks on. And they have first rights to take that dog back if the owners no longer want it. There are far too many who don't care about their pets and can so easily throw them away like garbage. Which leaves shelters and rescues over loaded. Also when people breed just to breed, it can cause many health issues with the litter. Issues your averege person would have no clue about. Reputable breeders work years on breed for the quality of the breed. In my opinion, if you are not a reputable breeer, then you have no business breeding.

Answer 7

Health is a good reason why not to. If someone doesn't know enough about that pet's health or health history, diseases that particular breed is suceptable to, genetic health problems directly from that pet's bloodline, they don't need to just be breeding pets because you will not be looking at how to improve the health of that animal and only passing on more problems to future generations. You are not only not doing those pups any favors, but neither are you doing any favors for any potential buyer who finds out they have to put it down at a very young age because of a fatal disease passed on to them. It is plain ignorant and irrisponsible on the part of people who think it is just OK to breed pets. This is in part why professional breeders are so into "improving the breed." Why is it so unrealistic to want to make sure you have healthy puppies?

What is it with all the answers that say it's OK? Hasn't anyone heard of being responsible? There aren't any other good reasons to breed because there are are too many things to have to consider first. "Not" breeding is also responsible breeding. Why do people who only want "pet quality" not care about an animal's health and not get the proper(ie., holter monitoring for heart problems, hypothyroidism, hip dysplasia) health testing (not just a vet health check/ first shots)done first before they breed? Show breeders have "pet quality" and for a reasonable price with more of an assurance of health. People have every right to judge if they want "excellent" quality in a pet's health. But it's people like you who sell to people who are uneducated about a breed, so they have no way of knowing how to judge if they did want better quality. That just isn't right. I don't want to buy from someone who cuts corners. What's wrong with having an animal with more assurance of long life and few health problems? OK, so you don't care about the conformation of a breed that makes it what it is. Temperament should still be important in pet quality. But if the issue is only having "pet quality", the health is still a BIG issue to me. So, yes, it is like the ultimate sin if someone doesn't care enough about the health and do what is right when it comes to that.

Answer 8

My local humane society received 1,315 animals as surrenders and strays in the month of July. This year, to date, they have received of 13,300 animals. That's what is wrong with people breeding their pets!

People that breed their pets typically do not do genetic testing on them (did you???) for all you know, you passed on hip dysplasia, a painful condition that may mean surgery or euthanasia to EVERY single puppy that you created. People that breed pets don't often find forever homes - they give them to families that "think" that they want a dog, so they get a puppy, realize that it's too much, too big, too ill-tempered (oh yea, because you didn't consider temperment when breeding either - back several generations, not simply what your dog acts like), it snapped at their kids, it's too much work, ohh what? you have to TRAIN a dog. And you don't take back the puppies if those owners suddenly decide that they don't/can't/won't take care of them anymore for whatever reason, so they become part of the 1,315 surrenders that happened at my shelter. You know what- my shelter can't hold 1,315 animals so you know what happens to them? They get put down. And don't say, oh they won't put down puppies or kittens - they CAN AND DO.

And what if something went wrong during birth? Would you know what to do? Did you have the money to pay 10,000 for your dog to have a C-section to deliver the babies? What if the mom bit off the umbilical cord right at the belly and it's guts were falling out, or it was bleeding to death? Would you know what to do? And how would that look - how traumatic would that be - to your kids who you were allowing to experience the birth. What would you say to them - ooops, I guess God didn't want that one to survive, when in all reality, you didn't know what to do?


And what of all the puppies - how many of them did you deworm, pay for their first shots, pay for spaying and neutering? Let's say you had a litter of 5 puppies (I think that is reasonable if a little low) - and let's say that each one of those dogs went on to whelp/sire (I don't think that is the right word for dogs) ONE litter because those owners wanted their children to have the same experience. Let's say each of those dogs sired/whelped a litter of 6 puppies - that's 30 more puppies that are created in addition to your 5 - that's 35 puppies. And so on. See how something like this gets totally and completely out of control. There are approximately 26.2 million people living in this country and over 35 million pets. That is more than 1 pet per household. How many people do you know of that don't have pets? Or only has 1? Where does that leave the rest of them? On the street or in shelters.

So that is why people like you should not be breeding.

I have kept my temper, I have given you countless reasons why what you did was wrong and why you should never do it again.

Answer 9

I can understand why people don't understand how some of us show breeders feel...but we have all been around a lot of dogs...good and bad. I have groomed dogs for many years and have bred cockers...one of the breeds you see that are continually bred inproperly. I have been biten by so many poorly bred cocker spaniels...it bugs me. Many of them don't look like what the breed should look like. In the past, some people asked me what my dog breed was when they saw me out with them and when I say a cocker spaniel, they say "oh...it doesn't look like one"...that's because there are so many out there that look so totally wrong...not only do they not represent the breed as the standard says, but they also have poor temperments and health problems. I don't know how many times it urkes me when I hear people say "cockers are bad with children" or "cockers are prone to having ear infections". I'm sorry, but over the last 25 years, I have never owned a cocker spaniel with ear problems or with a bad temperment....You also see submissivness and shyness...another example of what a cocker spaniel should not be. I can appreciate people who want to breed thier dog because they want another one just like the one they have....but what about testing for genetic problems...do you even know what health problems are common in your breed? You find a lot of cockers who are blind...because people unknowingly are breeding dogs without making sure they do not have cataracts...you can't always tell...only an opthalmologist can by dilating the eyes and using a light to look at the lens. Breeders who want to improve or save the breed test for cataracts every year. Hip dysplasia is another problem seen in some breeds. Any dog who produces a litter should have thier hips checked and only bred if they are "Good" or "Excellent". Show breeders try to better the breed because if you don't pay attention to these fine details...the breed will be ruined. If you are wanting to breed your "pet" it's probably not from a quality breeder because they would make sure you had the dog spayed or neutered...which is another worry..if you are breeding your dog and it's not of quality...you are contributing to the pet population that doesnt' look like the breed, cant' do what the breed is bred for, have poor temperments and may even have health problems. Even if your dog doesn't have health problems...it could be carriers for health problems....if you dont' know the pedigree..it could be a problem to just breed your pet. Pets are pets...they should be spayed and neutered. Breeding should be left to the people who know thier breed and make sure they bring puppies in this world that are healthy and have a good temperment and represent the breed standard.

Answer 10

Here is a bit of a conversation I had recently. It might help you to know that I do indeed have two mixes as pets, and don't "hate" mixes.


responsible breeders show to get opinions regarding the
quality of the animals before breeding. Maybe you all don't have the
overpopulation problem we do, but I personally still feel that breeding dogs
that are not a good example of the breed standard is not being fair to the
breed's future. If everyone keeps breeding dogs that aren't up to the
standard, thinking, "It's just a pet, so what if the bite is off..." "so
what if the legs are crooked" "so what if she doesn't act like most
", eventually the offspring aren't going to look or behave much like
they are supposed to. If that happens, what's the point of having a
'purebred' dog? It will look and act like a mutt...totally unpredictable.

Not only that, but what aobut not doing genetic testing? Here's another excerpt from a different conversation....


As far as "Who cares if they have problems?" Ever think maybe the dog
suffering from the problem does? Would you want to have knees that slip out
of joint while you walk? Or hips that ache 24/7? Would you want to have a
heart that gives out when you are only a teenager? How about the horror of a
liver disease? Would you want to suffer like that, and know NO one cared
enough about you to do the tests that would have PREVENTED that?

See where some of us are coming from? If you aren't willing to be responsible aobut your pups both before and after they are born, you should not breed. It is aobut RESPONSIBILITY, not hate. I do rescue. I love my breed. I have to put up with seening all the results of the horrible things and ignorant things people do to the animals I love. I've been at it for 20 years. I feel I have a right to disagree with people screwing up the same way over and over again, when is so simple to do it right. The information is out there. All it takes is a little initiative to educate yourself. I never say, "Don't breed." I say only breed if you can do it responsibly.

Answer 11

I understand wanting a Purebred dog. I own a doberman.
the problem is the general public is irresponsible when it comes to pets. If breeding was controlled, and pet owners were screened and actually had to pay money for the privilege of ownership, the over population problem would cease. But because it is a huge problem, anyone breeding for specifics is looked down on.