SERIOUSLY!! How do we kill the myth that "you can make a bomb breeding huskies" or any other dog for that matter!?
It seems to be a rediculously common thing for people to say to me when they learn I have one of each sex, and they all seem totally shocked when I tell them actually no if you do it PROPERLY you can make a loss or might only just break even if your lucky!
I really think I need to have a t-shirt printed saying "NO I'M NOT A BREEDER, RESCUES ALL THE WAY!!!"
Don't get me wrong I have nothing against people wanting to breed if they do all the nessesary health checks, have a list of homes ready, know their breed well, and the dog is proven in its feilds; but just because I happen to have a dog of each sex people look at me like I'm stupid when I tell them their both neutered... they dont even hear me when I say their not up to breed standard, one is a rescue so may even be a cross, that they are pets not shown or worked or anything (apart from abit of light scootering for fun and exercise)... their too busy seeing all the pound signs drop away it doesn't ever seem to sink in how expensive it is to breed responcibly! 
I am totally at a loss as to how I can make it any clearer to people that breeding animals is not a job its a life choice!

Good post but when money is involved, people lose all sense of right and wrong.  I just wonder when pets turned into cash mashines?  I remember peoples dog having puppies when I was young but the pups just got given to families round about.  No money just a promise of a good home.  But now, well, it's big business.  I suppose if you think their way, they've just paid all this money for a pedigree, KC reg bitch and that get's them thinking.  I remember someone buying a pup from me asked me what I was going to do with 'all that money'.  He had counted how much I was making off a litter so thought he knew it all.  I soon put him straight that I was keeping a pup, the stud owner and friend was getting a pup too, I had to recoup my petrol to/from stud (long distance), overnight stay costs, and of course, vet fees, puppy food costs, puppy pack cost, vetbed, and that's before you even think of the £500 or so allready spent on her necessary tests before breeding or unpaid leave from work!! And do you want to talk about showing cost to make her a name before bringing pups into the world too?!
Yeah, I suppose you can make a quick buck and as soon as I do, I'll post on here!!

i think that people did used to make a lot of money a few years ago. i think there was more money around. a friend of mine bred his staffs over and over and made a fortune until the bottom fell out of the staff market. i think these days its mostly money grabbers breeding the doodles that are still making money, mostly because the public believe all the stuff from pde

> I just wonder when pets turned into cash mashines?

Around the same time as houses did.  The bottom has fallen out of both!  Hoopefully things will settle again and houses will go back to being homes rather than investments and dogs will be pets rather than money makers.

> i think that people did used to make a lot of money a few years ago. i think there was more money around. a friend of mine bred his staffs over and over and made a fortune until the bottom fell out of the staff market.

I don't believe anyone could make money by 'breeding properly/responsibly'.  For a start bitches aren't bred over and over, on average two or 3 litters, maybe four if they were small.

I have been breeding since 1995 and have never made money.  I have when lucky recouped my expenses and had enough left over to repair fences/buy things needed for the dogs, and if really lucky enough for a couple of entry fees. 

Of course you still have to keep and feed numbers of older/retired dogs for theri lives, so theri couple of litters at most won't come near it (the BYB often gets rid of the bitch along with the pups, and puppy farmers don't keep 'unproductive' animals).

The  there are the expenses liked to being responsible for the lifetime of the dog and the pups that inevitably sadly come back (anything from months to 9 years so far). 

These may need vet treatment, boarding, feeding of course, and finding a good home after rehabilitating.

The ones making money are those charging good money based on the prices the god breeders charge to offset their costs,b tu ahve noen of these costs themwselves.  No helath testing, no travel for stud, often no stud fee to pay out, chepest fodo possible, and certainly nothign spent ofnprovign their quality (shows/trials).

I hear you, sadly it is a trend that has swept our area like mad. Almost every street has two or three Siberian Husky owners, they are everywhere and almost all are from BYB. I have bred one litter and ended up with a serious loss in money, I can not imagine how anyone can make money breeding these dogs? Will say the litter was to increase my kennel for showing/working and NOT for money reasons but I did sit down and count the cost one night.
My older girls are spayed and I still get people asking to breed my 'wolfdog' and sadly noone wants to use a good show or work stud as it would work out better for them to buy a cheap intact dog from certain websites and use him repeatedly on their bitches.
Some days it makes me want to cry that this breed are being abused in such a manner, I only hope the used bitches get the care they deserve in their 'past-breeding' old age and that the tax man catches up to these people.

I don't believe anyone could make money by 'breeding properly/responsibly'.  For a start bitches aren't bred over and over, on average two or 3 litters, maybe four if they were small.

i dont agree, he had several bitches and bred them at every season and made loads of money. i never said he was responsible

It seems a common idea around here by me that if u want some extra cash just breed your pets. I breed fancy mice and ive been asked a few times now is there much money in it, to which i reply no but thats not why i breed. I know a couple of people who have bred there pet dogs, with no health testing, no showing or working to see if they are good quality for the breed or any thought to there dogs wellbeing or the pups future, and charging the same price as someone who has.

If puppy buyers did there home work and found out whats the diffrence between a good responsible breeder and someone who isnt and why its important to go to a good breeder and only went to the good breeders then pups form these people who are only after money wouldnt sell so they would stop breeding.

i see 'cockerpoos' on the popular site are still £800 and £900 each!

> i dont agree, he had several bitches and bred them at every season and made loads of money. i never said he was responsible

I was making exactly that point, only dogs bred irresponsibly or with the bare minimum outgoings with a commercial attitude/approach (Don't health test,breed as often as you can and get rid of unproductive animals, use the same dog on everything, skimp on rearing costs and maintaining adults) can make money.

That's not 'breeding' that's 'production'  (Think bespoke hand made Saville Row suit compared to Far East Sweat shop produced suits).

The current trend in crosses means that kind of puppy producer can have a number of bitches of different breeds and one randy/overworked Poodle stud to 'service' them all, and no-one can check how many over the legal limit of 6 litters the bitches have.

Lady in Wales not far from my parents breeds and sells Cavachons at £800 each!!