Your Definition of Ethics

[groominggal]

Someone that is mating dogs to better their breed as a whole. Dogs that are by far not standard, breeding a "cutesy" name dog (i.e. doodles and poos), or breeding for money should NOT be breeding.

[MomOf7]

Originally Posted by LabBreeder

Actually they require tatooing or permanent ID if you want a preliminary result posted.

You are wrong. They do not require a tatto or perminate id to get a ofa certificate. You need to read up some more.
Pay close attention to the wording
Call your vet and ask.

OFA: What do I have to do to have an animal evaluated by the OFA for hip/elbow dysplasia?
Radiographs need to be taken by the veterinarian of your choice. These are submitted to the OFA along with the completed application form and service fee.
What type of identification is required in the film emulsion of the radiograph?
Each radiograph submitted must have positive permanent identification within the film emulsion that ties the radiograph to the application. This should include at a minimum the animal's name and/or number, the name of the veterinarian or clinic, and the date of the radiograph. If this information is missing or is illegible, the radiograph and application will be returned to the vet without being processed.

[Roxy's CD]

Redyre You chip all your pups with your own info?! Wow.. that is pretty respsonible...

I have no clue for technical what a responsible breeder is. A lot of the stuff on her sounds right.

Seeing as I got both my dogs for free in messed up situations I haven't had to go through the long arduous journey of finding a "good breeder" yet.

I imagine first and foremost what I'll look at, is not the dogs but the person in general. Their attitude.

Do they seem to generally care for their dogs?
Do they seem educated about dogs and their own breed in particular?
How many litters are "planned"?
Health guarentees (even though I don't think I would ever give a dog back) testing etc.

Even though it's a bit "debatey" (had to make up a word. LOL) This thread has been very informative for me. I plan on purchasing a confirmation dog in a few years and it's given me a lot of points to look for.

Thanks

[ihartgonzo]

No dogs should be bred unless they are conformationally correct (preferably Champions, but this depends on whether it's a working breed); excel in the work that they were bred to do; are OFA, CERF cleared, and any other ailments common in the breed; and most of all have a sound temperament. This is BECAUSE dogs dying in shelters mean something to me, if you are not breeding the best dogs possible and improving the breed, you might as well be sentencing dogs to death, because the last thing the country and world needs is to be flooded with more and more litters.

I agree with Summit about the breeder. To me, if the breeder does not give each of their dogs attention, exercise & love, they are irresponsible owners period. If their dogs sit in kennels and puppies are not given individual attention, no way. If they aren't involved in rescue, no way!!! If they have more than a few litters per year (especially if they have more than one litter at once), no way. If they do not make the effort to work their working dogs, no way. If they don't dedicate their lives to their breed, no way. If they don't require spay/neuter and return contracts, NOOO way. It's also extremely important to me that the breeder is educated about vaccinations & feeding. I wouldn't think twice about bypassing a breeder who feeds Iams, because that's extremely important to me.

Yes, RCD, I do.

I did this 10 years ago with the first one, and will continue with the upcoming one.

My contract also specifies that any puppy I place may NEVER be sold, placed, or rehomed in ANY WAY without my express written permission. I retain the right of first refusal on all dogs I place, and this is a separate page of my sales contract.

There are significant monetary penalties for breach of any part of my contract regarding breeding or rehoming of a dog.

I get enough personal information from buyers that if I need to I can track them down. (SSN, DL#, DOB, etc)

I also require that I be kept updated on all phone number and address changes.

I don't plan to pry into any puppy owners lives, but I do firmly intend to see to it that ANY puppy I ever produce lives its life out in a loving responsible home. I will ALWAYS take ANY puppy back that I produce at any time in its life for any reason. Pretty much no questions asked.

For me, causing new life to occur is such a serious responsibility that I literally lose sleep over it. I will worry worry worry and plan plan plan until puppies are safely born, raised, and placed.

And then I will worry worry worry over health testing, titling, showing, breeding, etc etc etc.

HA. Having dogs is having a great chance to obsess over such things.

[ChiBree]

What is wrong with Iams food?

It is a very commercial food. Commercial foods = crap. Don't buy any food that you can buy at a grocery or department store. The companies tend to spend more money on how the bag look than the contents. I know people are led to believe that is good, high quality food but it is not. Its full of fillers and you have to feed your dog more to fill it up.

If you put your dogs on higher quality foods they will need to consume less and therefore poop less. There coat will be healthier and shinier, your dogs will be in better health period. Lets put it this way there are just too many pros of feeding high quality food to list.

Another little piece of advise is don't feed your dogs anything that says byproducts (ex. chicken byproducts, beef byproducts etc.) on the label. Thats a pretty good indication of a bad dog food although there is more to it than that.

Every purebred dog breed has four dimensions to it that make it the breed it is; look, health, temperament, and ability. A responsible breeder will take into account all four of these dimensions before they breed. They will have a clear understanding of what these qualities are and why they are so important.

When I say *look* I’m referring to the physical appearance of the dog. Every breed of dog has a certain way it is suppose to look that is unique to it’s breed. The ideal specimen should have as many of these qualities as possible. How they keep track of what qualities each breed is suppose to have is through the dog’s breed standard. The breed standard outlines the qualities of the physical appearance of the breed. It also outlines the ideal temperament.

In regards to health, every breed has certain health problems that are common to it. Some have more than others because of multiple factors. The idea of breeding purebreds is to have the least amount of health problem possible, preferably none. Health testing is done on both parents, before breeding the litter, to determine if both dogs are free of genetic defects that could be passed on to the offspring. The breeder should also be familiar with at least four generations of the dog’s history; both parents. This is important when determining if there are any carriers of a disease in either parent’s history. Some defects skip over a generation. Health defect testing will only tell you if the dog has a defect, it doesn’t tell you if the dog is a carrier for a defect. By knowing the dog’s history, you can see if any of it’s relatives had any defects. If they did, it can tell you that the defect has skipped over one or more generations.

Temperament is another thing is impacts the breed and makes it unique. Every breed of dog has a slightly different temperament. Again, the idea is to breed dogs that come as close as possible to the breeds standard. This way, the dog will act the way it is said it’s suppose to act.

Ability means the dog can perform the function(s) that the breed was originally bred to do. Like a beagle being a good hunting dog, a golden retriever being good at retrieving and hunting, a border collie being good at herding, the mastiff being a good guard dog. Every breed has a reason it was bred for. It has an ability it is good at that makes it unique to every other breed. Some abilities are close to other breeds but each one is slightly different.

All of these four dimensions, put together, make up the breed you know and love. The catch is, all of these qualities must be worked for, through selective breeding. The founders of the breed made these qualities into the breed they are today, but it is through selecting breeding (picking out specimens that match the look, health, temperament, and ability of the breed) that maintain the breed’s uniqueness.

There are many types of breeders out there. Some breed only for health and temperament. Some breed only for look. Some breed only for ability. Some breed for ability and health. The list of possible combinations goes on and on. But the one thing all of these breeders are missing (the ones I just listed) is that they are not breeding for every dimension that the breed should have. So they are creating dogs that are only “half-pure” or “partial purebreds”. With every generation that goes on, that the breeder(s) do not breed for all four dimensions, the resulting litters become less and less like that of a purebred. Yes it is true, they will still technically have papers and be register able by the AKC, if both parents are purebred, but in reality they will not really be what they are suppose to be.
The quality of purebreds is not determined by the paper work, it is in how closely to the four dimensions the breeders breed them.

Originally Posted by LabBreeder

...not everyone follows the contracts that they sign - savethebulliedbreeds

EXACTLY...no matter how hard you research a potential buyer, some of them will end up breaking the contract for one reason or another through no fault of the breeder. It doesn't make that breeder unethical, but one of their pups was still put in a shelter (most likely without their knowledge cause the buyer could have changed phone numbers/addresses)

Responsible breeders keep in contact with the owner for the dog's whole life. If they move out of state the breeder will know about it because they call and visit the owner periodically. If the breeder doesn't feel that the potential owners are willing to keep this close relationship with the breeder, when the breeder is screening potential buyers for the future pups, the owners will not get a dog for them. After you buy a pup from a responsible breeder you are looking at a very long relationship with them. They don't end up in shelters.

[ChiBree]

What would be your recomendation for food?

Originally Posted by savethebulliedbreeds

It is a very commercial food. Commercial foods = crap. Don't buy any food that you can buy at a grocery or department store. The companies tend to spend more money on how the bag look than the contents. I know people are led to believe that is good, high quality food but it is not. Its full of fillers and you have to feed your dog more to fill it up.

If you put your dogs on higher quality foods they will need to consume less and therefore poop less. There coat will be healthier and shinier, your dogs will be in better health period. Lets put it this way there are just too many pros of feeding high quality food to list.

Another little piece of advise is don't feed your dogs anything that says byproducts (ex. chicken byproducts, beef byproducts etc.) on the label. Thats a pretty good indication of a bad dog food although there is more to it than that.