I am very interested in becoming a professional dog breeder and i would like to ask how to get started? I am doing a national certificate in animal care would that be of any use?www.markothemal@hotmail.com

Apart from Puppy farmers, which I would hope you would not wish to be, I don't think there is such a thing as a professional dog breeder. If you as I understand the term professional to mean you make the most part of you living from the undertaking, if you do, then in my opinion to do so from breeding dogs is not possible if you care at all about the welfare of the dogs.
Jackie

What Breed are you hoping to go into?
Are you intending to breed solely for profit? Do you already have a dog and or bitch that you intened to use?
Lots of questions, but there are loads of very experienced breeders on here who can help and advise you if they know more about your situation :)

Ali C, I hope you are not suggesting that you could possibley make a living out of 1 dog or bitch, I am sure you aren't. To make a living from breeding dogs one would need far more than 1, I would think that if you were to stick to the recomended number of litters per bitch you would be talking in the 100's and I am not sure how you would make a profit as you would need special buildings and a good few staff. to say nothing of having to find suitable outlets for your pups and someone to take on the oldies unless of course you choose cull bitches past breeding age. Jackie

She never said she wanted to make any money out of it, only become a professional breeder. Perhaps she meant she wanted to do it properly rather than putting any old two dogs together and putting a for sale ad in the local paper! :)

Thats what I took the original question to mean too Quinn ;)

<<<<Professional adj pertaining to a profession. One who makes his living by arts, sports etc. as distinguished from an amateur.>>>>

I took it the guest meant it the same way as the above dictionary definition of professional :(
Dot

Ali said "are you intending to breed solely for profit"
I know the original poster didn't Jackie

Yes I did Jackie :)
and it was a fair question, not an accusation or a encouragement. :)
I asked the question, so that if the intention was to make a living out of it then the breeders on here could actually offer the facts on breeding, i know from being a member of this board that most breeders are not in it for a profit and very often break even!!
So at least the guest could get an idea that it wold be very hard to make a living out of breeding.

Yes I know Ali, I think you and I are on the same wave- length, it was Quinn who suggested I had mis-read the original posting. Jackie

Jackie :)
Yes i am completley with you :) Thats the trouble with the written word it so often doesn't come across how it is supposed to. :D
I am very good with words in the real world ;) but written down, it can sound so different :D :D
I hope this Guest does register then he can tell us more about his hopes and plans so we can all help him as much as we can
Ali :)

Hi Jackie :)
No I am suggesting no such thing :)
I know nothing (absolutely nothing) about breeding. My only input on this thread was to suggest she gives a bit more information, so the people on here who are experienced people are better able to advise.

I just thought that if the guest gave more info regarding the breed/ wether she actually had a dog already she was intending to use, she would receive much more constructive advice from than being jumped on and attacked which is so often the case.
Thats all.
Ali :)

"I am doing a national certificate in animal care would that be of any use?"

Has anyone got any constructive advice to offer this Guest? :-)

I don't think I could give any constructive advice without knowing why the guest wishes to become a professional dog breeder and what they want to get from breeding.

I would suggest that the guest registers (it's free) so they can give a bit more info because without more info my understanding of their post is that they wish to earn a living from breeding dogs which is not something I would encourage. Also, I have no idea what is included in a national certificate in animal care so more info on that would also be helpful.

Sorry, I can't be helpful at this stage.
Dot

The NC in Animal Care is a one year course covering the general care of a wide variety of animals, including exotics and farm animals. It really only briefly touches on the various aspects such as nutrition, housing, behaviour, anatomy & physiology, genetics, diseases etc. (as well as various subjects that are not directly related to animal care).
The course actually covers very little in the way of breeding.

HTH
Jacquie

Hi guest
I would of thought the course would be a start as anyone keeping a animal dog cat ect needs to have some understanding of animals and there care.
Then are you thinking of showing,or runing a kennels do you intend to look at one breed or more then one breed as this would be your next step finding out about the breed you intend to keep,
If setting up kennels is your goal then constrution and planing there houseing maybe kennel management might be the course to take.
before you under take anythink you should no what it is your looking to get out of it a hobby,
if to make money look at feed bills vet bills and cost of rearing pups the time effort out lay of dogs in first place adverts ect oppssssssss its just cost me.........lol
all the best sandy.

Hi Guest
As you can gather your question is not as clear as it first appears.The word PROFESSIONAL in the canine world I`m afraid does lend itself to meaning you want to earn your living from breeding dogs.PROFESSIONAL HANDLERS,GROOMERS,PHOTOGRAPHERS etc.all these people earn their living in the canine world.I have been breeding dogs as a hobby for 20 years I hope in a professional way,to do it properly it is an expensive pastime.the saying `you only get out what you put in` is certainly true in my opinion.In all this time I have never come across anyone who has descibed themselves as a
`PROFESSIONAL BREEDER`To raise a litter properly is really hard work,how anyone copes with a number of litters at the same time is beyond me.I only breed when I want a puppy to continue my line,I can`t envisage having the stamina to have a litter on the go all the time never mind a few at the same time.As I sleep with my bitch and her babies for the first 3 weeks or so and stay awake for the first week watching over them and their mum.I don`t know how anyone could keep that up.
As A previous poster has said the overheads would be hefty to say the least for the number of dogs you would need to keep to make any sort of living (if that is possible)
The study you are doing is a start I suppose but you need a more specialised one DOG BREEDERS CERTIFICATE
I think it is called.
I think you would be better to find another area of the canine world if you want to work with dogs and if you are keen to breed make it your hobby.
Best Wishes
Carole

I would agree with everything you say. Breeding dogs ethically and properly can only be a hobby/passtime, and the sale of puppies at best help to defray some of the costs of this.

Proffesion to me also means how a person earns theri daily bread, and the only way to do that out of dogs is running some service that caters for them and their owners.

Many dog breeders earn theri living from dogs by running boarding Kennels, Animal Supplies outlets, etc.

Anyone that can make a living out of BREEDING dogs would be one of the mass producers who thrive on the must have throw away society that we live in, and have no interest in their pups after they leave their premises. A large proportion of dogs in Rescue centres and that are Put to sleep each year are from such breeders, whose owners buy them on a whim.