Dog breeding not for amateurs

[ladawn]

This guy answered like he could be a member of rottweiler.net

FOCUS: MY PET WORLD
Dog breeding not for amateurs
By STEVE DALE
Tribune Media Services
Q: I'm looking to sell my Doberman puppies to neighbors, or other people in town, not to a pet store. I'm just trying to figure out how to get the dogs registered to be sold with papers. Any advice?

-- C.P., Bennettsville, S.C.


A: If you don't know about registering your dogs with the American Kennel Club or the United Kennel Club, it's unlikely you genetically screened them for von Willebrand's Disease or cardiomyopathy (a kind of heart problem), which are among the problems prevalent in Dobermans. Responsible breeding is more than hooking up a male and a female dog.

Wayne Cavanaugh, owner/president of the United Kennel Club, the second largest registry of purebred dogs, based in Kalamazoo, Mich., says, "You need to have papers on the dam and sire (the parents of the litter) in order to have papers for puppies in the litter. Apparently, you don't have that. Without papers, these dogs aren't going to be (financially) worth what you might have thought. By the time you vaccinate, pay for vet care and food, your profit will be negligible. You may even lose money. My guess is that this might have been an accidental breeding, which wouldn't have happened if your dog was altered in the first place."

I do commend you for not wanting to sell these pups to a pet store; at least you can screen for responsible owners. However, since you can do nothing to guarantee the health and temperament of the pups and probably don't even know about breeder contracts, I'm not sure it's fair to sell these dogs to your friends, neighbors or anyone else. It might be more fair to give them away. Of course, if you do, they might be less valued by their new owners. Some studies indicate that when people pay a higher price for pets, the value of the animals is somehow enhanced.

Your story saddens me. For one thing, so many breeds are in a genetic mess in part because of indiscriminate and ignorant breeding. And for another thing, in the time you've read this answer, an unwanted puppy somewhere in America was euthanized at a shelter.

[Carina43]

Originally posted by ladawn
This guy answered like he could be a member of rottweiler.net

Except we're not usually so polite!
Good answer though; sure wish more people would pay attention....