Have you seen these ?

http://puppycontract.rspca.org.uk/home

OK ....I've had a chance to have a good read through this and I must admit to tempering my initial enthusiasm - I've downloaded all eight pages and looked at all 46 questions and personally I think this is unworkable....I'm puzzled who the contract is aimed at - after all why would I need to give my bitch's microchip number to a prospective puppy buyer ? - why would they need to know the stud dog owners address and telephone number and the stud dog's chip number too ? - why would they need to know if their puppy is born by Caesarean section ? - and rather bizarrely why would they need to know if the puppy has interacted with rabbits !!!? - the whole section on what they rather coyly title 'The relationship between the puppy's parents' is fraught with difficulties too - as a breeder I decide on which dogs to use bearing a huge number of factors in mind - this might well mean line breeding ( and often does in many breeds ) simply ticking a box gives no insight into the reasons behind the mating - the box requesting the puppies COI number is equally problematic - if we're using the Mate Select calculations then they are often pretty meaningless as they do not include dogs born before the breed was registered in the Uk so in most continental breeds the COI numbers will be artificially low - and lets face it most puppy buyers would'nt know what that number means in relation to the breed as a whole - so again just who is that question for ?

The mark of an effective initiative is that it leads to improvements - this initiative will change nothing - the only people who might fill in one of these PIP's are those breeders who ALREADY issue contracts and give their puppy buyers information packs with all the information they need regarding worming, feeding etc - as required by the KC's assured breeder scheme - hand on my heart I cannot see those who do not give a flying fig about their breeding standards voluntarily completing one of these - especially those that breed huge numbers of pups - can you imagine how long this would take !

The whole thing needs to be rethought and this time they need to talk to experienced breeders and the KC about what is workable and relevant instead of pushing their own agenda - sorry but I won't be using these any time soon !!

I suppose you need to look at it from the RSPCAs perspective :)  It seems quite a positive intitiative to me and hopefully one that will encourage those who don't understand the significance of certain aspect of chosing a puppy to educate themselves further when they read the guidance notes.

Regarding line breeding, I suppose the RSPCA are bound to take a narrower view on things as they have no interest in breed type, however they do quantify in their guidance notes that just a couple of relationships to avoid thereby implying wider relationships are less undesirable I suppose :)  I think if your puppies' COI is an anomaly due to an imported parent you would simply note that and explain to purchasers who could then investigate further if they wished. 

The information about cats, rabbits and any other animals makes sense to me.

I would definately want to know if my puppy was born by ceasarian if I was purchasing from one of the breeds where this was an issue and would therefore want to consider what my contribution to the continuation of that situation was by purchasing such a puppy.  A very positive initiative on that one I would say.

It does state you will only have the stud dogs information if they agree to it but again I would want to know why not.

As regards to the information on the parents id chips, well the RSPCA may be looking forward to the day when all dogs are microchipped and, given that the Kennel Club does not have a monopoly on registration they may not always be the single source of information held on health checks, COIs etc

Reference: in the news today.

I thought the same and then I thought that if you buy from byb or puppy farmers this information is actually useful as you can then identify the right parents... for reputable breeders the information is over-kill, and we would want to encourage people to buy from reputable people.

Personally I looked at it and thought that there were a couple of things I could include in my own information pack, rather than actually using theirs... far too much for most puppy buyers who would be daunted by it!

>why would they need to know the stud dog owners address and telephone number

Just to answer this one - because the stud owner is as responsible for the future welfare of the dog's offspring as the bitch's owner! Too many stud dog owners think their input (as it were) ends when the stud fee's paid.

It should also help prevent falsification of parents details which does seem to happen occasionally and it will certainly be an eye opener to the buyer if the breeder says "don't know it was some bloke down the pub's dog". :)

but that's my  whole point - the kind of breeder who is likely to say "don't know it was some bloke down the pub's dog" is hardly the kind to fill in one of these anyway !

Yvonne

I think the aim is to make the purchaser more aware which is the best way to tackle BYB and puppy farming isn't it?