[poohbearsmom]

When you say "commercial", I read: Primary source of income.

Taking care of one litter at a time is a full time job in and of itself. When a breeder has 2, 3, 4 or more litters on the ground at the same time, it's much more difficult to do things correctly. It is enough work to care for and socialize one litter properly, along with taking care of the dam's needs during this time. It's gets respectively more difficult to nearly impossible to do things properly when that number goes up.

When one is depending upon breeding as a primary source of income, then ethics and doing right by the dogs tends to fly right out the window for a lot of people. The bottom line is the bottom line when the electric bill and the mortgage depend upon puppy sales.

Some commercial breeders do use very nice lines and very nice dogs, and that's all fine and good, but in the end, it's the care taken with the litter and the dam (she is a vessel we are using, afterall) that is the most important aspect of this, IMHO. In addition, will that commercial breeder really be there for you after they've collected that money for you?

And then there's the placement of the puppies to think about. If one is spitting out 20+ pups a month, how does one screen homes properly.... or does it even matter at that point?