Moonstruck Bernedoodles
Puppy Searching:
What you NEED to know when searching for a puppy.
Puppies are so very adorable. No matter what breed you are looking to buy, a baby dog can steal your heart and run away with it, leaving you blinded by all their adorable furriness wrapped in wet noses and soft puppy kisses.
But there is a well known fact in the dog world that the average pet buyer has not the first understanding about: Dog breeding is a free-for-all with next to no governance. Anyone can breed. Anyone can claim anything they want to and get away with it. Who is going to stop them? You, the consumer have to be savvy in your search for a puppy. This means a little research from you and a lot of question asking.
Here are some FAQs answers you may not have known:
But there is a well known fact in the dog world that the average pet buyer has not the first understanding about: Dog breeding is a free-for-all with next to no governance. Anyone can breed. Anyone can claim anything they want to and get away with it. Who is going to stop them? You, the consumer have to be savvy in your search for a puppy. This means a little research from you and a lot of question asking.
Here are some FAQs answers you may not have known:
Breeding dogs are chosen because they have great temperaments, right? Wrong. I will tell you a terrible truth right now. One that you probably don't want to hear. Many (not all, obviously) breeders either don't understand temperament at all, make excuses for or sugar-coat undesirable temperaments in their dogs or breed undesirable temperaments because they have money and time invested in the dog. Any which way you look at it, it's unacceptable breeding practice... period. How do you tell if the parent of your prospective puppy has a good temperament? Ask to see the dog in public. Meet your breeder in front of Starbucks and chill out with them and their dog and have a coffee. If the dog is socialized and has a stable temperament, he/she will be "normal" in a foreign environment. How does the dog react to passing strangers or when it is approached? Is the dog skittishy or startle at normal things like cars or doors opening fast? Dogs don't necessarily need to be polite and well mannered. If they are boisterous and kind of hard to control that is MUCH better than nervous and reserved. Look for loose body language and floppy waggy tails with smiley faces. Assessing the parent dogs in their own home environment will not give you the whole picture. If you want a stable sound temperament in your puppy it starts with sound temperaments in the parents. If you can't meet the parents in person, ask for video of the dog in public. This is not that hard to do.... but you'll be surprised just how many breeders will refuse this request. The question is, "Why?"
Breeding dogs are healthy, correct? They have to health test or the can't breed the dog. Haha! Who told you that!? No, no one HAS to health test their dogs to breed them. The facts are this: in the purebred world, in order to breed purebred puppies all you need is two registered dogs and *poof* - registered puppies. It doesn't matter if the dogs are blind and have 2 tails, if they are registered you can produce a registered litter. It's a joke, really, and literally means nothing, zilch, nada. So, I am not sure why purebred breeders are all up-in-arms about crossbreeding when a decent percentage of them do not follow an ethical breeding practice themselves. A cross-bred litter with generations of health tested parents is a higher quality dog, genetically, than a purebred that has patchy health testing behind it, if any. YOU the consumer need to do your research and figure out what diseases your chosen breed suffers from and then find a puppy that comes from stock that has tested clear of these diseases. Don't reward breeders that don't test their dogs. If puppy buyers did a better job of holding breeders accountable, dogs would be tested. Oh, and beware the statement, "We have never had any problems with that, so we don't test for it." That one boils my blood and it should boil yours too!
People shouldn't breed to make money. That's just terrible. For some reason it has become an unsaid sentiment that people who breed dogs for profit are terrible, repugnant characters bent on the profit from adorable, tiny lives. There is a colossal difference between a puppy mill and a breeder - both are for profit. Let me tell you something: raising puppies and keeping dogs takes a special type of person. It is not easy. Not at all. It's loud, hairy, smelly, really loud, messy, dirty, at moments very frustrating (like when you think to yourself, "Why!?! Why do I do this to myself?"), stressful, worrisome, sleepless, heartbreaking... and did I mention loud? Like, think flock of seagulls frantically demanding your love and affection!! Breeders offer a professional service. We don't balk at paying for professional services and products when it comes to doctors, lawyers, aestheticians, finishing carpenters, funeral homes... when you are buying a quality animal, from quality stock by a professional who has many, many years of experience in their field, you are going to pay for the knowledge, the quality and the service. You, through your own research, need to learn how to distinguish the difference between a breeder who has jumped on the wagon to make money on puppies by cutting corners, knowing next to nothing about health testing, temperament, training and those breeders who breed for the love of dogs, for the love of providing families with wonderful companions that create lifelong memories to cherish, and who only want the best for the dogs they produce and the families who adopt them. To do this, your breeder needs to be ethical AND educated. There are many wonderful breeders out there. Find them. Support them. They are not bad people because they make a living from what they do. The good ones do it for the right reasons, even if there is a profit involved.
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