Originally Posted by gee-em:
“*snip* there is no reason for a non breeder to have an 'entire' dog *snip*”
i know you're just making the point and not going too far into specifics, but there are reasons why some non breeders would have entire dogs
police dogs are pretty much always kept entire, as are guard dogs
the police dog handler i spoke to said this was to keep the "drive" there, i imagine the drive to take down the suspect, but don't quote me on that as i'm speaking from memory.
but i imagine anything brought in to this effect would have an exception for these applications.
I'd worry as well that if only KC reg. breeders were "allowed" to breed, looking into the future, it could lead to a much smaller gene pool than there is now if the scheme was poorly managed.
Something does need to be done about unscrupulous breeding though.there's someone local producing basset hounds - the mother has had 2 litters within 9 months.
I know for a fact she is doing it just for the money. the sire was only around 10 months old when the first litter was fathered (not that they know when that was as they just left the dogs together constantly) - the mother, thankfully, was between 2 and 3.
but if i don't hear that she has been spayed after this litter i'm going to have to say something to someone as it's just not right.
all the owner is seeing is pound signs.
i'm not sure what checks bassets should have, but i very much doubt that any were carried out on either dog. the owner was reluctant to take the Dam to the vet for a check - this was less than 2 weeks before she gave birth. owner was expecting to have another 4 weeks minimum, but you could tell from looking at the dog that she was further along than that.
None of these are KC reg (nor is the mother)
on the plus side, i guess, mother and father do have good temperaments. but the whole thing Stinks, to be honest.
especially when they're asking £500 a time per pup.
they've had a litter of 5, now 9... adds up to a lot, with very little outlay compared to a more reputable breeder.
To be honest with our dogs, we've not really done any checks like this (Border collies are usually pretty sound, though not perfect. eyes, hips, and elbows are the main ones i believe?) we've always seen parents and litter mates though.
our/my first dog was the last of the litter, a runt from an unexpected, home reared litter. she was £20 and it was honestly the best £20 ever spent.
she did have hip dysplasia, an operation to try and correct it could have been performed, but this involved metal pins, So due to her allergy of metal, this couldn't be performed without risk.
thankfully though, (even perhaps luckily) it wasn't a chronic condition, she just took it easy and rarely needed pain management. she would also get what we called hay fever and become itchy at certain times of the year, all manageable though.
she still had a full and happy life and lived to the ripe age of 14.
our boy now was from a litter produced on a farm so they could keep a pup to train as their next sheep dog.
we never saw his father, but we saw mum and grandma, and the full litter of 9 pups.
he was £100.
obviously not the ideal situation in either of these cases, but this is just my experience.
the boy is a nutcase, but healthy as a horse (though a slightly fat horse, since his neuter!)
he's a typical collie. like his mum and gran were, his gran was sound, his mum was sound, that was all we really needed to know (especially since when we were asking questions like this, the boy crawled up to me on his belly and that was the end of that - he'd have been coming home even if his mum turned out to have a false blooming leg and an extra face hidden under her ear!
)
KC registration has never been a plus, minus or indeed a deciding factor in any dog we've had, we've just never bothered with it, as at the end of the day it's just a piece of paper that wouldn't matter in the slightest to us.
