Well said brainless I agree with everything you say but some people are just to quick to judge others as I were once judged before I started,

?? Brainless said no different to the rest of us! You on the other hand encouraged somebody inexperienced with one pet dog not worked or shown to ignore advice and go ahead and breed, see below.

I would advise you to do as much research as possible and speak to breeders i would also advise you to ignore all of these people who say don't do it as they were inexperienced before they started breeding themselves

Well said brainless I agree with everything you say but some people are just to quick to judge others as I were once judged before I started, but everyone has to start somewhere and if those people considering breeding can get good advice and information rather than negative comments then they deserve that at least
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Have you read this thread? There is loads of good advice what else would you have people say, how can you say yes, go ahead when you know it is not a good idea, what can't be the sort of help and advice you were thinking of so what else could anyone say except don't do it.

Experience of breeding is not the problem this OP does not even have a suitable bitch and no experience in dogs - please what better advice can you offer, just saying ignore the advice you have had is of no help, you need to replace it with something meaningful.

Too many decide to start breeding with pets who do not meet the breed standard rather than buying a show/breed prospect pup, I know of many breeders of dachsies around the world who have had to rethink their breeding programmes because they realised the dogs they had just would not produce pups which would meet the breed standard, unfortunately many others say they are only breeding for the" pet market" I feel pet buyers are entitled to a pup which at least look like the breed and behaves accordingly after all the breeder is responsible for any pups for the remainder of their lives and take them back if needs be.

It took me 7years of research and finding the right dogs before I had my first litter, going to shows to see what was out there. I also wanted PRA clear if possible and they were rare when I started out, my male had DNA tested clear, the girls I eventually found were tested clear too as their dams were carriers and their sires were clear, my pups by outside studs have been hereditary clear.

It would have been so easy to just buy any pups and hope for the best but that was not the route I wanted to take as I wanted to do things right from the start.

> I would advise you to do as much research as possible and speak to breeders i would also advise you to ignore all of these people who say don't do it

kit74  Well you can't have it both ways - you either advise people to do their research and speak to breeders OR advise them to ignore the naysayers.  If the OP is going to do her research she'll soon discover that not everyone agrees with what she is proposing.  The whole point of research is to extend your knowledge in order to make a qualified decision and that includes listening to the negatives as well as the positives.

Just because you feel you were judged doesn't mean that this is what is happening here.  You say that "everyone has to start somewhere" - no they don't.  NOT everyone has to breed and it's important to look at the reasons someone chooses to do so.  With that in mind the OP has received well intentioned advice from a range of people/breeders with different experiences.  If you really feel this is a person deserving of support then maybe you could answer her specific questions from your point of view rather than criticise those who have offered advice.

> I feel pet buyers are entitled to a pup which at least look like the breed and behaves accordingly after all the breeder is responsible for any pups for the remainder of their lives and take them back if needs be.

This for me is the absolute clincher, and why I honestly can't see myself ever breeding dogs. I have bred many other (smaller) animals, including pedigree cats over the years and have always been open to taking those I have bred back again if needs be - with words to the effect either verbally, or more often in a written statement in my info packs. [I stopped short of contracts, though many now do, and I would too in this day & age]. It hasn't happened very often that I have had to take animals back, but the agreement has always been there.

If that one requirement was made law, then I can guarantee the casual breeders would be stamped out almost overnight..... or at least in their last litters' lifetimes. It's one thing to be physically able to take back unwanted small animals you have bred; but cats & dogs are much different.... especially dogs, unless you are fortunate to have a very large house with a great deal of space and/or outside kennels.... and can guarantee you will still have those facilities in 10-15 years' time!

I cannot wait for the current era of "zero responsibility" by those who stick two animals together (for any reason), then wash their hands of the offspring once they are sold, to end. These breeders might as well sell them to dealers or pet shops for all their ethics are worth, despite their best intentions at the start.

<<i would also advise you to ignore all of these people who say don't do it>>

Ouch.  Did it not occur to you that we were perhaps advising her not to as much for her sake as anything else.  At the end of the day breeding is not just as simple as putting two dogs together and four months later puppies have good homes.  Yes I've bred two litters in total.  I thought long and hard and knew the risks involved both times.  I went in knowing the risks and weighed them up each time.  And IF I do it again I will weigh it all up again.

If I were in the OP's situation I would not breed.  When I WAS in the OP's situation I didn't breed and never believed I would.  Circumstances changed and many years on I did breed, but with full knowledge of the good the bad and the ugly, and with my heart in my throat. 

Anyway I just think its completely irresponsible to tell anyone to just ignore those who say don't.  No one is saying it to be judgemental or precious or elitist and if you read the posts you'd see that very clearly :(

> Anyway I just think its completely irresponsible to tell anyone to just ignore those who say don't.&nbsp; No one is saying it to be judgemental or precious or elitist and if you read the posts you'd see that very clearly :-(

We are in a very strange position these days, where you can go into a local butcher's shop (as I do when buying bones and meat to feed to my dogs - yes that is ironic!) and see chalked up on the board the name of the farmer, the village, and the official source code for the pork, lamb, chicken or beef I am buying that week.

But you can buy any puppy anywhere from anyone - even in a pub or motorway services car park - which may live for 12 years; may even go on to bite children, or may kill someone else's dog; might even have 10 homes in its life; go through rescue more than once; could easily cost someone £1,000 in vets fees for health issues in just one year, never mind its lifetime (and the next owner that picks it out of a rescue home); might chew its way through an insurer's nightmare of furniture and walls; could be the dog you see advertised on Gumtree and the Freeads, or even the one reported on the news found drowned in a canal, or parts found dismembered in a remote wood after being used as bait for a dog fight.

Traceabilty? nil.... yet this one "pet" has this potential trail of damage, heartbreak, cost, need for charity funding, all through its life, and the scary bit is there are thousands like it being punted out to the general public every day, with no recourse to the "farmers" producing them.

MsTemeraire that is an excellent post..

I just wanted to update for those who wished me well with my pups from my post, and also to update the OP, that my last two boys are finally booked, though they won't be going to their new homes for almost another 3 weeks (half term), so they will be just over 5 months by the time they go to their forever homes.  That's about 3 months longer than most breeders expect to have their puppies.  3 months that the girls I've kept haven't had the quality and quantity of training I had planned to put into them for now, 3 months that my adults have missed out on having me at my best due to worry and stress.

As I said in my previous post it's been pretty tough, and while we all know it can happen (like I said above regarding the possibilities of losing your bitch, c-sections etc) most of don't expect it to.

I appreciate the mods leaving my post intact, and wanted to say that the buyers I got came from word of mouth (one being parents of someone who had bought one of the other pups, and another through a breedclub secretary) so it wasn't from my post here ;)  And I hope that by writing this my post above will definitely be able to stay as I think it's important for anyone considering breeding to hear first hand experience rather than 'this or that could happen' and just be anecdotal.

So they're still here, but it's got a bit easier over the past couple of weeks and now that I know they're going home the stress is off and I can enjoy them all a bit more.  Unfortunately there is one boy who is going to break my heart when he goes (sigh).

Pleased for you Wendy. Lovely as they are it must be a great relief.

Very helpful post Wendy, the reality of breeding and homing. 

Then comes the next year or two which tends to be make or break on the homes working out OK. 

Then after that there is still the slight chance of that dreaded 'we need to re-home' phonecall art any tiem through their lives, or worse still hearing your former pup has found it's way into rescue.

Congrats on finding homes for the last of the puppies.

First hand experience of problems relating to breeding are well worth sharing with others, if it only stops one person breeding from dogs which just don't pass muster it is a job well done.