Unless the dog is to be competed and proven on bench or in field, then they are simply trying the newest scam in BYB land: Let everyone else do all the hard work and incur all of the expense and whenever we want we can have a litter of moneymakers!
Not a great practice IMO. Select a breeder that requires the dog to be altered, not bred.
Since when do BYBers care about the hard work of health testing and titles, even if they are able to "scam" someone into it?
There's nothing new about co ownership contracts requiring certain things. If you want one of my best dogs, I expect you to do certain things with it. I also expect to be able to have access to it to continue my line if it turns out the way I hope it will.
And litter of moneymakers!?! BUAHAHAHAHAHA.
I just spent $1200 trying to get my dog pregnant. She did not get pregnant. I'm out $1200.
The last litter she had, I spent $1200 getting her pregnant. Then $80 for an xray, and $1300 for a c section. The stud fee was $1000 or a puppy, they picked a puppy. I spent over $800 in food just for the puppies (1 40 lb of kibble every other day from 6 weeks to 12 weeks.
).
That is the absolute bare minimum to keep everybody alive long enough to sell. It doesn't even take into account the cost of 3 shots per puppy. Microchips for every puppy. Oh yeah, and antibiotics and checkups and all that stuff. Then the litter registration. We also ate the cost of registering them individually with the AKC. And the week I had to take off work to poop the puppies every couple of hours because mom was too high on stuff from the c-section surgery to do it herself so all those lost wages (another $400). Plus all of mom's health testing.
Luckily there was enough puppies to break even. If there was only one or two? We'd be screwed. There wouldn't be enough left over to even cover the cost of the surgical implant, much less the c-section and stud fee. There is
so much cost involved in breeding and raising a litter that even if you're only providing the bare minimum you're probably going to lose money.
I just ran into an English sheepdog breeder at the vet whose bitch had to go in for a c-section. They lost all the puppies but one, from frozen semen shipped in from Europe. The conception and birth of that one puppy put them out $10,000. He hasn't even incurred all the expenses of being raised yet.
There are lots of ways to get dogs. If you're expecting a breeder to let you have one of their top picks, expect them to want access to it to continue their line. If you want an altered companion, don't sign a contract agreeing to campaign your dog and give the breeder breeding rights. Get a dog somewhere else. A different breeder, a rescue, a shelter, etc.
There probably are folks out there who think they'll make lots of $$$ by farming out intact dogs and breeding them. They won't be at it for long, because it won't make them money.
EDIT: I should also say, never ever co own with somebody you don't trust. Talk to other people who have co owned a dog with that person and see what their experience was. Some people are control freaks. Personally, as long as the dog is being taken care of and the people aren't breeding it all over the place I'm happy. If I really want a say in what happens to a dog down the road I'm not going to place it with a stranger. It's going to a close friend, family member, or I'm keeping it.
For the most part I'd be happy to let the puppies I've placed get neutered now that they're done growing though. If the decision was made for a health or temperament reason, I would really like them to let me know one of my puppies was having issues, just for my own knowledge about the line.