From browsing through the local newspapers to checking out various internet sites, I am beginning to wonder is there any end to all these puppies being bred? Check it out for yourselves. I dread to think how many there are being bred each week.
At the same time we see thousands and thousands of dogs in rescue centres looking for new homes (and remember not even all the reputable centres follow a non-destruction policy)
There surely cannot be enough homes for all these puppies. If breeders stopped breeding dogs tomorrow and didn't breed for a number of years, (and the rescue centres didn't destroy) there would still be a backlog of dogs needing homes.
This really does worry me
I understand that people want specific breeds so they know what 'package' they are getting and that people want a life-long companion that they have from the start in the shape of a pup, but surely we can't keep justifying this breeding.

Hi Lisa
Responsible breeders make sure they can home their puppies before they have a litter. We dont have puppies very often but always make sure they have good loving homes to go to. If for some reason the new owner does not want the dog anymore (which has never happened yet as we have always tried to make sure the new owners are well suited to the dog and will love and care for it) we would take the puppy back and re-home it ourselves.
It is the irresponsible dog owners who let their dogs 'escape' whilst in season that causes a lot of these unwanted puppies. Those who think owning a dog has no reponsibilities! and buy one without giving it serious thought about how big it will grow and how much its up keep will be.
When the novelty of the dog has worn off it up to the authorities to pick up the pieces!
I would never let any of my puppies go to homes where I suspected it was just a spur of the moment thing.

Rescue dogs can make wonderful pets. My nan rescued a dog from being shot because the owner said it was embarasing him by wandering the streets scrounging for food. When we went to fetch the dog the man had gone to the pub to get drunk so he could shoot it when he got back. The dog was tied up in a barn so tight it could not even sit down.
When we got him home we bathed his cut feet and fed him and he never made a murmer. That dog turned out to be my nans gaurdian angel. It worshiped the ground she walked on! He was a lovely dog.

So you see it is not responsible breeders it is irresponsible owners who fill the rescue centres

Longdog

Responsible breeders do try their best for their puppies. However sometimes even the best laid plans go awry. A friend of mine found what she thought was the perfect home for one of her puppies. Without telling her the owner found she could not cope with her dog, so at two years old the dog was put into a rescue kennels. the kennels in question have the same policy as the RSPCA, they refuse to co-operate with breed rescues who very often have waiting lists of people who want to offer a loving home to one such dog. Luckily a friend of mine worked in the aforesaid kennel and telephoned me to say the dog had been handed in. We did not know who had bred it, but were lucky enough to have handed in with it a vaccination certificate, from which I was able to identify the dog and inform the breeder who was understanderably very upset.
The rescue kennel turned away the breeder saying she was not going to get the dog, they would not let it go to anyone from the breed rescue or anyone who said they knew the breed, "just incase it was a breeder trying to get the dog off them"! Eventually I managed to get the dog a really good home, Rory had just lost his little crossbreed, so I told him to go to the kennels and pretend that he did not know the breed in question, also he should say he was a police officer, and that the kennel would then release the dog to him. This he did and the dog did go to live with him, it did go "on the beat" when he patrolled at night around Windsor. The point is that we had a waiting list of potential homes but the Rescue Kennel would not co-operate with us in any way, so we had to use this ruse to get the dog into a good home!
As Long Dog says it is not the responsible breeder who fills rescue kennels, it is sometimes the fault of the rescue kennels policy as well as irresponsible breeders. Whil a t a rescue kennel, having gone there to give a donation and food to them for contacting the breed rescue, I was unfortunate enough to meet an irresponsible breeder. She had brought in a litter of rottweiler - lab crossbred pups. She happily told us she had mated her rottweiler bitch to her friends lab in order to show her children how bitches had puppies!!! Now she did not want the puppies, and as her bitch "had had a litter which bitches need, to have to make them settled" she needed "to get rid of the pups"! She went on to inform us she "did not want strangers traipsing through her house at all hours just to get a puppy"! Six little puppies more to go to the rescue!

At the risk of making myself extremely unpopular and opening a can of worms, how can anyone, and I mean anyone be sure when they mate their bitch that they can rehome all of the puppies? How? It's the old story, "Ooh puppies, oh yes I'll have one" - until the puppies actually arrive and then the excuses start. Or meantime they have gone elsewhere and "got sorted" I am sorry but I firmly believe there are simply too many people breeding too many dogs! There is a chap in my area on benefits who has about seven kids. He has acquired two mastiffs, of doubtful origin in that they have defects and he is planning to breed from them "to make some money". (He's obviously heavily into breeding!) Where is the law that says "NO, Sorry you are not allowed to breed!" Something has got to be done. Dogs pregnancies are so short and pups can be gone in a few weeks - so what do people see? £££££££££ I rest my case.

I am of the firm opinion that if you are not prepared to care for your pups for as long as is necessary to find them good homes then you shouldn't breed at all. Not so difficult for those of us with little breeds but for those with big breeds which produce large litters this may be a problem. But thats the breeders problem. If you couldn't cope then don't do it.

Hear hear ! well said. A responsible breeder will hold on to the pups, no matter how long until they are satisfied that a good home is found - a responsible breeder will also tell you that there is no £££££££££ in breeding - it is done for the love of the dog

Don't get me wrong Lisa, I'm not hitting at the responsible breeder in the post below. There are hundreds of breeders out there who take the greatest care to give their puppies the best possible start in life. And lets face it, without breeders we would have no dogs! Some areas of the country do not have many rescue dogs at all! In that I'm not talking breed society rescues, I'm talking the general dog rescue. It's a fact that the Hearing Dogs which is in my area could not fine suitable dogs in this area and had to "Import" dogs from other parts of the country.
Trouble is, we all have our own agenda. I work my dogs so I want a "Clean Piece of Paper" to start work on when I start training. Show people have their own ideas of what they think is going to be the best puppy to bring on for show and so the list goes on. The other thing is, and I'm saying it a bit tongue in cheek but the more dogs which come out of the rescue, the more room for the bad breeders to stick their dogs on the grounds that they are "Satisfying a need"

Regards, John

I have a numerically samll breed, which had only 102 puppies registered last year. there is a small supply and demand, and we breed knowing we will have to keep the pups until the right homes are found, which could be up to 12 or 16 weeks if there is more than one litter ready at the same time, or a predominance of one sex. I had an enquiry from someone who had previously aquired one of our breed from a commercial kennels that is a pet superstore and Kennels based in the North. He wondered why proper breeders didn't breed more, then he wouldn't have had to resort to this place to find a puppy! sadly his dog died due to an allergic reaction to medication at only 6 years old. Even if we all stopped breeding now, the dogs available in rescue are not necessarily what someone wants. The vast majority are out and out mongrels or poor quality irresponsibly bred pseudo pedigrees, people are drawn to specific breeds, because of their particular physical and mental characteristics, which are more uniform in purebreds. There is sadly a culture that allows people to offload their responsibilities for the results of their carelessness on someone else. Someone will find those pups a home. What they should have done is have their bitch spayed in early pregnancy, or the pups culled at birth! the spaying argument is also useless here, the irresponsible can't be bothered to spay, the responsible who do are unlikely to have let their bitch or dog have unplanned pups anyway!

Thanks everyone for the replies. Most interesting.
It's the numbers that bother me. Even with the responsible breeders, if they breed one or two litters per year (or whatever, since this will obviously vary) then even if those pups go to good life-long homes, and say on average depending on breed, the pups go on to live for 10 years or so, well that is another good home gone. I'm just extremely worried about the excess of it all.
I suppose as a Greyhound fan (having a rescued one myself) I feel so sad that for every pup that is born and sold, that's another chance for a rescued dog to get another start in life. I'm not saying that everyone should have a rescued. I understand that that is not always practical, but I do question the amount of pups being bred even from responsible breeders. There are simply not enough homes for dogs, especially now since many people's lives are very busy, working long hours, etc.
It would be interesting to know how many pups were actually bred last year alone by responsible breeders (all breeds)

From the 1st January 2000 to 31st December 2000:

Hounds.. 11,560
Gundogs 86,226
Terriers.. 40,085

137,871

Utility... 24,350
Working 29,541
Pastoral 28,503
Toys .... 27,585

109,979

Total Registered 347,850.

Cross Breeds (whether accidental or deliberate) think of a number and add as many noughts as you like :rolleyes:

Leigh

Source: KC BRS AA4/2