Hi, i just read that a dog home in Bristol alone is already recieving at least 30 calls aday to take in puppies and kittens after the Christmas break and they have a waiting list to take in more.  Just a thought, do many Dog breeders have a compulsion to breed from their bitches? could anyone explain to me as to why they  do. Could it be their bitch has the perfect formation for the breed and feel they have to breed from her ? do they find 10 or more potential owners easily who share this enthusiasm for their breed? i can see why dogs would have been bred in such numbers years ago, when most dogs were bred for a working life and purpose but surely, in todays hectic world there is no need for such numbers could we not all take a YEAR OFf from breeding and save poss 100s of unwanted puppies being produced,if we all have the welfare of our breed at heart.

I agree totally but when you try to advise this to potential breeders they accuse you of being bitchy to them :rolleyes:

Wonder how may of those were bred by the sort of person we would think of as being a breeder. All the posters, bar one, who have had puppies around Christmas time were not from what I would call breeders as opposed to people being in the puppy production business, these people are not breeders they are factory owners. You are preaching to the converted no one on here that I can think of would have one of their pups going into rescue they would take them back nor would they have let a puppy go to a new home for Christmas.

It's supply and demand Willow :( As the responsible breeders won't allow their pups to go as Xmas presents, there will always be a greedy muppet to fill the gap. Sadly many puppy purchasers won't spot this until it's too late.

The answer is still to try and educate the dog-buying public.

liberty

It isn't as simple as you think.  Most reputable breeders I know now breed far less often than they did years ago, mainly for the reasons you state.  Our breeds registrations have fallen from their peak in 1969 of around 400 to between 100 and 150 per annum.

There is always a demand for puppies in some breeds, and wjere good breeders have no wihs to meet the demand of some people that are unsuitable there are those puppy farmers more than happy to take up the slack.

You will also find that the majority of puppies at the dogs home have not been bred by good breeders, as a good breeder would take the pup back themselves.  There are a hundred sub standard (from a breed standard, and perhaps from a health point of view) pups bred in some popular breeds to each carefully planned pup.

If I cannot home the pups I breed or cope with the ones that have to come back then of course I wo7uld not breed, but the puppy farmers have no interest beyond the saleability othe puppies.  They aren't interested in their future of the good of their breed.

Some breeds that are not commercially popular are in danger of dying out.

I agree entirely with your post Brainless, but don't you think the media have a lot to answer for?
101 Dalmations comes out.... everyone wants a Dal.
Greyfriars Bobby, is going to played by a Westie apparently, so demand for Westies will increase.
Bulldog advert such as Churchill.
When the Lassie films where popular, everyone wanted a <<Lassie Dog>>, most not realising it was called a Rough Collie

It's a puppy farmers dream-come-true :(

liberty

Of this 30 calls or so, I would be interested to know how many of these puppies are actually x-breeds or mongerels?    Probably quite a lot.   Yes, there will be people who breed pedigree puppies for money alone and demand but I bet a lot of the pups that Bristol dog's Home has received calls about are pups bought from "a friend's bitch that was caught by the dog along the road & the pups were so cute, the kids were dying to have one"!!!!

I totally agree with everything previously said. I would also love to know (but obviously never will) whether the calls would stop or even get any fewer if reputable breeders didnt have any more puppies. I doubt there would be fewer dogs in rescue homes.

GSD's puppies, for example, are a pedigree and there are loads in rescue all through the year.  Please don't think that only 'non-pedigree-breeds' end up in rescue.

Of course no-one believes only cross breeds end up in rescue homes. There are plenty of bad breeders breeding pedigree dogs. The point is that reputable breeders care what happens to the ones they have bred, and should always take back or rehome a dog which which they bred, whatever age.

i wonder how many of the gsd's come from breeders that have an affix and hip score?????   or maybe just the breed anything to anyone mentality.
i'll breed when i want to [which isnt often] but im there for anything i sell, and dont believe any have ended up in welfare  :(

I'd like to bet that the huge majority of pedigree dogs in rescue are bred by 'pet owners' who want a litter from their bitch cos shes 'got a nice temperament'!!
If you look at the rescue staffs or GSD's for example in rescue I bet you'd have to travel to many rescue centres to find a well bred ,good example of the breed..
Archer

Archer I would agree.  I have two resuced staffs.  I have a nice red male and the bitch is of the leaner type but the amount of staffs we actually saw that were anthing like the breed that we have come to know were very few.  We also noticed that the majority of them were aged between 2 and 10 years of age and that they came from homes where the owner's could not cope with the breed or that the dog had some sort of illness that the owner could not pay for so dumped them on the rescue centre to take care of.  One bitch wsa tied to the outside of one of centres gates whilst heavily pregnant, so I have heared.

The red we were fortunate with and only had to travel a few miles to the kennels whereas the brindle was a 100 mile round trip away.