We were away last night in a lovely 15th century dog friendly inn.

The girls had a lovely time and were being well behaved until somebody brought in a black lab bitch.

My two went to sniff and say hello and got greeted by a lunging growling lab.

Settled the girls down and a very loud American lady walked past and went straight towards the black lab.

Then ensued a conversation about her lab dog also black who she was looking for a wife for him. She said he was a randy thing always escaping but had installed an electric fence  to contain him. She though the bitch would make a lovely wife for him and were they interested. They said funny as she was 4 and they wanted just one litter from her as that is what you should do and he sounded lovely and ideal. They exchanged mobile numbers and the American woman went away screeching at the top of her voice ' ah gee I have found him a wife'

I by that time was sat with my mouth wide open speechless in what I had just witnessed.

Stupid , stupid people :-(

Unfortunately the majority of people have no idea what damage they're doing to breeds.

I can completely empathise. I was out yesterday and we ran into my OH's friend's girlfriend. She has a lovely staffy, unspayed :( While we were out we saw a male staffy. She said that she was going to have to find him and his owner later as he'd be perfect for her dog!!!!!!!!!!!! Eh, just by virtue of being male? Great! She has no knowledge of breeding and with the enormous number of staffy and staffy x's in the pound and rescues there is simply no reason for further, uneducated breeding of them. It's so terrible.

And yet the SHOW PEOPLE are the ones responsible for all things wrong with pedigree dogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stupid , stupid people

Totally, and it goes on and on............. trouble is they really do not know they are being stupid, so much 'breeding' is done this way and the message does not get through. :-( :-(

Dog breeding is a free for all.......... there is nothing to safeguard just anyone doing it.

I was tempted to go in with guns blazing but decided that I would just take the back seat as the American woman came across as a person who would not take to being told she was wrong very easily and didn't want to ruin my OH birthday. Frustrating though having to listen to them.

You made the right choice. :-) I'm sure you would have been swiftly told to go elsewhere.

Unless you can casually inject yourself into a conversation (which I've tried many times) and they look interested and ask questions, it is a waste of time, if they don't ask questions they don't want to know, I now know within a couple of seconds if they want advice or not, otherwise you are made to feel like a busy body who will be ignored anyway.

Alas at the fate of the dog!

I'm always amazed at the stupidity of people who think that dog breeding is easy :(

I know of one woman who calls herself a 'Professional Breeder',  She hasn't a clue :(  has been breeding for as long as I've been alive and claims she was taught all she knew about breeding by MY Grandfather!    Which is interesting as what he knew about Dog Breeding would have fitted on a postage stamp with room to spare.  What amazes me is that in all that time she has learned very little about breeding and caring for pups  

It was my Father who knew about breeding, he was the type of person who would read up on things, research and had a mentor (more than one) , the one I knew was a local breeder and CH Show Judge who ran the local dog clubs/shows, ringcraft etc.   Dad would stand at the side of a show ring and tell me which dogs would be placed, and where (and most importantly why) and was rarely wrong.  He wouldn't have given this woman the time of day and was dead against breeding for the sake of it. 

I did try once to educate her (tactfully) and was mightily rebuffed, I prefer not to speak to her now, it saves me wanting to beat my own brains out with a large stick.

Well there are two good things about this proposed mating - they are both labs and they are not both brown. Can't think of anything else though. :-(

Maybe we should design and then carry a postcard politely suggesting they get their dogs health tested first and what the consequences are if they don't and a puppy buyer sues them because their pup is sickly or has an inherited problem?
All we'd need to do is say 'Oh I could not help over hearing, if you are breeding can I give your this?' hand them the card and then disappear quick!

What is needed is for somebody to go ahead and sue a back yard breeder when the dog they bought develops HD or whatever, and then make sure the papers know about it.

> What is needed is for somebody to go ahead and sue a back yard breeder when the dog they bought develops HD or whatever, and then make sure the papers know about it.

That, plus compulsory microchipping for ALL puppies before sale. And vets then able to trace breeders' details via scanning at vaccination time, or if presented with sick pups or those suffering from testable/preventable hereditary disease.

The amount of dogs I groom who's owners breed like that is uncanny. 'I just want the one litter from her. I feel we should let her have that, we don't want to deprive her.'

Let's just say I can't thank my fiance enough for 'depriving' me of pregnancy when I'm not ready for it and have no idea what I'm 'missing'.

I fail to see how compulsory microchipping can be properly enforced. 

What will happen is people who are responsible will get it done at great cost and those who are the target of this measure won't bother - it happens in other areas such as Vehicle Registration - since 1904, Vehicle License - required since 1889, Tax Disc 1920, Driving License - required since 1903, Driving Test - required since 1935, Vehicle Insurance - required since 1930.   All of these are required by law and yet still people are able to avoid them, despite police being able to see that, for example, registration plates are not legal.  It's always the irresponsible avoiding them too - the very people these measures were designed to control!   It isn't as if it's impossible to determine whether a car/driver s legal or not, but it just isn't enforced rigorously and lets face it the means have been available for a very long time.  How many cars with fancy number plates do you see in the course of a normal drive? - I see loads and yet they are rarely stopped by the police or prosecuted.

It's the unmicrochipped dogs/pups who can't be traced back to their breeders so win/win for them, and the new owners will claim they didn't know the pup/dog wasn't microchipped - because Joe Public doesn't normally own a chip reader and can't reasonably be expected to do so.

I have always said and stick by it that no one should be able to advertize a litter in any way unless they have some sort of licience/breeding qualification. Dogs for sale ads in papers and on line should be banned. It would not stop a lot of them but the amount of back yard bred litters in the local rags/trader papers/on line is staggering. I would like to see some form of legislation that made it a legal requirement only to sell pups through a breed/working club. I also think (Not that I like the idea but in view of the situation) every dog over the age of 18 months should be neutered, unless it has passed health/temperament/working tests. Draconian methods but unless we want to reach the point where hundreds of dogs in shelters are slaughtered or dogs are left suffering in unsuitable homes we need to change the mindset of the irrisponsible breeders. Nothing will stop the law breakers but then nothing so far has stopped those set on murder so there will always be those around who evede the laws.
The breed clubs and working clubs need to become much more pro-active in regulating breeding within thier field.
I would like to see the continental breederclub reports done on all dogs destined for breeding and if they fail then they should be neutered. For those who have working dogs like WSD or the like, agility dogs/obedience or hunting who are members of a club and conform to breeding only the best workers with documented talents should be suitable.
It will never happen but for the next 50 years such harsh methods may well see the reduction in poorly bred and badly sold puppies. Maybe then it would have changed the way people look at breeding pups. All commercial breeding in "Farms" where breeding is a buisness should be banned. Unless they to conform to getting all the stock health/temp/working tested.
Spend a little time getting involved in rescue, breed or just helping rescue centres and see why I feel so strongly about it.
Sorry rant over....I have helped out with GSD/BMD and general rescue and my heart bleeds for some of the cases.
Aileen

Agree that all commercial breeding of pets should be banned.  But I think it should be a complete ban.

IMHO it would be easier to place a complete ban on volume breeding/puppy farms, pups sold through pet shops and large scale pet suppliers.  If there was no 'official' approval of these places it would be easier to prosecute when they were found and any sanctions could be prohibitive.  There is no actual need to breed pups in such numbers and once JP got the message that they were officially bad places then perhaps they'd be more selective about where they bought a puppy. 

Back Yard Breeding would be much more difficult to eradicate but they can easily be found through adverts, which are a good way for the Taxman to find those supplementing their income but not declaring it.    Hit these people in the pocket and they might think twice before breeding untested litters of pups ;)

Regarding the Ad Trader ads etc, many of those advertising seem to be puppy farms.   I spent 6 months keeping a record of the telephone numbers and many would be used again and again for different breeds - often on a weekly basis.  Some of the numbers are consecutive too.   I rang a few and asked "about the pup"  only to be asked which breed I was after and to be offered several different breeds available immediately -  Hardly the average back yard breeder!

I also think that there should be a comprehensive advertising campaign by the big charities educating people on how to avoid buying a pup from a BYB or puppy farm.  If done in the right way it could be really effective - just look what happened to Pedigree dog breeding when 'that' programme aired!