My preference in the past has always been to buy from a 'Hobby Breeder' (providing their pup was what I was looking for) if I was to ever buy a puppy today I would still prefer to buy from a 'Hobby Breeder'.

Just thought I would ask members on here, have you ever bought a puppy from a licenced breeder in the past and/or would you ever consider doing so again ....?

It all depends, in the old 1973 Act days many good breeders who kept more than three bitches had to be licensed no matter if they bred one litter a year or maybe only rarely.

The license was often a minimal fee with no inspection/interference, bit like the Dog Licence.

You now even have some councils who expect a breeder to be licensed as they consider even one litter to be commercial.

So its their breeding activities, their involvement in their breed and their breeding ethics, not the license that is important.

You now even have some councils who expect a breeder to be licensed as they consider even one litter to be commercial.

So its their breeding activities, their involvement in their breed and their breeding ethics, not the license that is important.

I agree, however, I do think it would be better if all councils allowed 'Hobby Breeders' to have up to 4 litters maximum without the need for a licence.

I believe we will always need plenty of good hobby breeders.

A 'hobby breeder' MAY need to be Licensed.   But having said that, apart from our first two hounds, the first from one of the leading breeders in the UK (so she was probably 'licensed') and the second from a friend I met and made after we joined the Breed Club and started joining in all things in my chosen breed, all our hounds were home-bred, apart from our foundation bitch who again came from a leading kennel (and was probably licensed) but she was by then, 'a friend', and another we bought in to enhance our bloodlines when living abroad, again from a friend.

My most recent buy in was from somebody I'd consider a hobby breeder - again a breeder who I don't think has a Licence.

If by a Licensed breeder you mean one who breeds to sell rather than for the 'next generation', then it would have to be a hobby breeder every time

So much depends on the terms and conditions of the licence, and how they are enforced.  Is one happy with them?  Does the breeder fulfil them (on top of everything else one would expect)? Can one get access to inspection reports from the licensing body?

My feeling would be that a Hobby breeder will be more likely to be breeding "from the heart", whereas a licensed breeder - with potentially several litters a year - may have other considerations.

Yes if someone was a licenced breeder and breeding litter after litter without the 'Intention' of keeping a pup for themselves (saying beforehand their not keeping a pup), then that would put me off buying a pup from them. I appreciate however that plenty of people have the 'Intention' to keep a pup (licenced or hobby) but may not because they didn't get what they hoped for and that's fair enough. I do tend to favour the 'Hobby Breeder' that has the intention to keep a pup for themselves, it gives me more confidence.

Hope my post are making sense I confuse myself sometimes.

> Hope my post are making sense I confuse myself sometimes.

Perfect sense - I have the same 'affliction'

And I agree - It's usually fairly obvious when a breeder, regardless of the Licence thing, is breeding for 'profit' (not a hobby breeder) and when 'for the next generation'.   That being the case, the person buying those puppies who perhaps don't make the grade, surplus to requirements, should have the benefit of all the research and care the hobby breeder has put into that litter.  And that should mean a win-win situation.

100% agree Mamabas (good post).