Experiences with dog breeders? - A good doggo is hard to find.

[Corydoras]

About a year ago, I started my search for a golden retriever puppy. (I respect the whole ‘adopt don’t shop’ movement but I wanted a dog with a really good temperament ‘out of the box’ and many shelter dogs I’ve met needed loads of rehab.) What I didn’t realize is how nuts the dog breeding community really is.

There’s loads of inter-breeder drama, breeder review site drama, histrionic discussions about how dogs should be kept.. I was surprised there wasn’t a community watch thread on these folks.

Has anyone else had a similar experience dealing with dog/cat/whatever breeders or do I just attract crazies?

 

[Governor Jeb Bush]

Maybe related to the topic, i saw some crap on Netflix about cat breeders and holy fuck they were deluded, acting like one cat was perfect and the other was deformed... but both cats literally looked the fucking same.

 

[User names must be unique]

Only knew one, she was a nutty bitch long before she tried to get pugs to fuck though.

 

[Daisymae]

When I was younger, I did some dog breeding. OP is 100% correct. It's drama and insane people. Mainly old nutcases. One woman is a personal lolcow of mine. She's totally into Q and Trump. I notice that's kinda common among these people from ther FB posts.

 

[Marissa Moira]

About a year ago, I started my search for a golden retriever puppy. (I respect the whole ‘adopt don’t shop’ movement but I wanted a dog with a really good temperament ‘out of the box’ and many shelter dogs I’ve met needed loads of rehab.) What I didn’t realize is how nuts the dog breeding community really is.

There’s loads of inter-breeder drama, breeder review site drama, histrionic discussions about how dogs should be kept.. I was surprised there wasn’t a community watch thread on these folks.

Has anyone else had a similar experience dealing with dog/cat/whatever breeders or do I just attract crazies?

It's going to be entirely dependent on where you're from.

Many places rely on the Amish to breed the majority of their dogs. There won't be a lot of independent breeders if there's Amish around. They have the land and resources for animals already so their dogs will tend to run cheaper than breeders who are just starting from scratch or breeders who live in suburbia and have a higher amount of cost to upkeep their business.

No matter what there's always a chance for problems. I know people who've adopted from pounds and the dogs had severe problems later on or people who bought from breeders and the same happened to the purebreed dogs. Likewise I know people who adopted and bought from breeders and their dogs lived full healthy lives.

The one thing about breeders is that you can kinda sort out medical histories and see if the lineage you want to buy from is healthy, for pound adoptions there really is no such thing unless the family who gave up the dog also included the medical history at the time of the surrender(but that rarely happens).

 

[NerdShamer]

When I was younger, I did some dog breeding. OP is 100% correct. It's drama and insane people. Mainly old nutcases. One woman is a personal lolcow of mine. She's totally into Q and Trump. I notice that's kinda common among these people from ther FB posts.

Is it @Miss Tommie Jayne Wasserberg ?

 

[Corydoras]

It's going to be entirely dependent on where you're from.

Many places rely on the Amish to breed the majority of their dogs. There won't be a lot of independent breeders if there's Amish around. They have the land and resources for animals already so their dogs will tend to run cheaper than breeders who are just starting from scratch or breeders who live in suburbia and have a higher amount of cost to upkeep their business.

No matter what there's always a chance for problems. I know people who've adopted from pounds and the dogs had severe problems later on or people who bought from breeders and the same happened to the purebreed dogs. Likewise I know people who adopted and bought from breeders and their dogs lived full healthy lives.

The one thing about breeders is that you can kinda sort out medical histories and see if the lineage you want to buy from is healthy, for pound adoptions there really is no such thing unless the family who gave up the dog also included the medical history at the time of the surrender(but that rarely happens).

For sure. I had people tell me to avoid PA dogs entirely because most of the breeders their are Amish and they don’t give two shits about husbandry. There are also loads of beeders who technically breed purebreds but don’t do any selective breeding or health testing. The breeder I went with has awesome, titles dogs but is a totally bizarre human.

When I was younger, I did some dog breeding. OP is 100% correct. It's drama and insane people. Mainly old nutcases. One woman is a personal lolcow of mine. She's totally into Q and Trump. I notice that's kinda common among these people from ther FB posts.

Got any good stories about breeders, from a breeder’s perspective? How did you stay sane dealing with these folks on a professional level?

 

[Marissa Moira]

For sure. I had people tell me to avoid PA dogs entirely because most of the breeders their are Amish and they don’t give two shits about husbandry. There are also loads of beeders who technically breed purebreds but don’t do any selective breeding or health testing. The breeder I went with has awesome, titles dogs but is a totally bizarre human.

It's not that Amish don't care about animal husbandry, it's just in general they treat all animals like they do regular farm animals. Like dogs can't be treated like a horse, sheep, or a cow, most breeds need different forms of activity. If you're getting a working breed it makes sense that they'll be a bit aloof and not act like a lap dog so they're fine sharing spaces with livestock.

There are however good amish breeders in PA because most dogs in NYC come from there.

 

[Honored guest]

It's going to be entirely dependent on where you're from.

Many places rely on the Amish to breed the majority of their dogs. There won't be a lot of independent breeders if there's Amish around. They have the land and resources for animals already so their dogs will tend to run cheaper than breeders who are just starting from scratch or breeders who live in suburbia and have a higher amount of cost to upkeep their business.

No matter what there's always a chance for problems. I know people who've adopted from pounds and the dogs had severe problems later on or people who bought from breeders and the same happened to the purebreed dogs. Likewise I know people who adopted and bought from breeders and their dogs lived full healthy lives.

The one thing about breeders is that you can kinda sort out medical histories and see if the lineage you want to buy from is healthy, for pound adoptions there really is no such thing unless the family who gave up the dog also included the medical history at the time of the surrender(but that rarely happens).

Be careful with the Amish those fuckers have a tendency to run puppy mills that are so bad that I've seen kind and loving people want to start pogroms against them.

 

[Marissa Moira]

Be careful with the Amish those fuckers have a tendency to run puppy mills that are so bad that I've seen kind and loving people want to start pogroms against them.

Personally I've always checked out shit in depth and have looked up any type of police records and similar things on the breeders before hand.

I've walked away from purchasing dogs a few times before because I had my suspicions and I couldn't meet any of the parents to the litter. At the very least most breeders should have the mother(impregnating is sometimes done by artificial insemination). I usually then look at the teeth to the mother and check her skin and coat to make sure she was well taken care of. They should also be willing to let you see where the puppies stay.

 

[TFT-A9]

Given what I've seen I think it's almost a general rule that most "professional breeders" (be they kennels, catteries or whatever) are at least a little off, and the BYBs/puppymills are just fucking horrible people. Livestock breeders are variable but tend to be less outright fucking unhinged and less scummy than either of the above.

For dogs/cats, it's usually a good idea to adopt from a decent shelter. Sometimes shelters end up taking in rabbits (usually because retards keep getting their kids "Easter bunnies") or other small exotics, and with those it can be a bit trickier because even a good shelter can end up having no idea what they're really doing with anything that's not a cat or dog.

Unless you're damned serious about improving a breed (temperament, health are primary concerns fuck those lunatics obsessed with "breed conformation") I strongly advise against getting into the breeder game and would caution you about obtaining expensive, papered purebreds. A number of BYBs/mills manage to get papered animals and kennel certificates and so on and they then proceed to irresponsibly breed animals that end up being physical and/or mental wrecks. A number of breeds of dog have already been ruined by dumbasses - rough collies, Dalmatians, golden retrievers, Irish setters and huskies/malamutes were the hardest hit I think, they're starting to kind of claw their way back to a better state (it helps if they're nominally a working breed) but there are still plenty of morons/assholes who cash in hard on whatever the latest Disney animal movie craze is/was.

 

[Sped Xing]

One of my dogs came from the pound, one my wife took from some inbred scum who said he was a bad dog (he is the best dog,) and the others just showed up on their own. Unless you're trying to keep a breed going, dogs are free and plentiful.

Not that I'm against buying dogs in concept. I just dislike the people who judge a dog's worth by his pedigree, and I detest people who treat dogs like livestock. I have a hard enough time treating livestock like livestock.

I had a purebred beagle and purebred dachshunds when I was a youngling, and I loved them very much. They came from people who just had a few dogs themselves, not big business breeders.

 

[Dr Pepper]

I was looking for a dog a few years back before moving out of L.A. All the city breeders were fucking nuts. Crazy prices, bizarre questionnaires. A lot of them looked unstable. Ditched the idea before moving to a smaller, much more peaceful town. After a year a new buddy of mine had a pair of Saint Bernards that had a litter and we worked out a deal for a puppy. Fucker is expensive to feed but I'm glad I didn't get a dog from the L.A. breeders I looked at.

 

[dunbrine47]

I was surprised there wasn’t a community watch thread on these folks.

I'm surprised also, it would make a good companion thread to the PETA community watch thread (that is not used because I'm sure all of their antics are talked over in A&H nowadays): https://kiwifarms.net/threads/peta-and-other-animal-rights-groups.2697/page-9

 

[Hecate]

this will vary heavily on location but from my experience most dog breeders are at best a little off their rocker, and at worst will sue you because you didn't read the fine print of the purchasing agreement that states you will only feed the puppy X type of food, and walk them X amount of hours a week. don't even get me started on the breeders that think they can enforce a purchase agreement that says you can't breed your own puppies from the animals you bought from them.

it's getting harder nowadays because of the absolutely batshit insane "animal rights activists", but most breeders (or people that just happen to have a litter on the way) will allow you to inspect the parents and housing conditions before purchase so you can get a feel for overall health and temperament.

personally I breed rabbits for meat and showing. I have yet to see any extreme cases of loonies in the field, but that's probably because I'm in the "livestock" sphere and not the pet one. pet breeders by far are pretty insane, and they seem to put aninals on this weird ideological pedestal above humans. I can understand wanting good welfare and treatment of animals, but these idiots take way too far sometimes.

the work that goes into rehabbing a pound animal most of the time is harder then the work that goes into finding a reasonable breeder, but sometimes that's not always the case.

 

[Discourteous Discourse]

What I didn’t realize is how nuts the dog breeding community really is.

This isn't helpful, but every breeding community is full of nuts. I've kept a variety of birds and reptiles and sweet baby Jesus, the drama that some people start up is so amazingly unnecessary and stupid you'd swear it was an out of season April Fool's joke. FFS there's a hivemind of screeching banshees on Instagram who will obliterate your DMs if you dare post a photo of a gecko on loose substrate. No questions, just fuck you, because even pet communities have their share of aggressive lunatics.

 

[Corydoras]

One of my dogs came from the pound, one my wife took from some inbred scum who said he was a bad dog (he is the best dog,) and the others just showed up on their own. Unless you're trying to keep a breed going, dogs are free and plentiful.

Not that I'm against buying dogs in concept. I just dislike the people who judge a dog's worth by his pedigree, and I detest people who treat dogs like livestock. I have a hard enough time treating livestock like livestock.

I had a purebred beagle and purebred dachshunds when I was a youngling, and I loved them very much. They came from people who just had a few dogs themselves, not big business breeders.

I definitely agree that non-pedigreed dogs can be amazing and pedigreed dogs can be little shits. I specifically wanted to go with a breeder because I was looking for a working dog, so I had a pretty high bar for temperament requirements. Given the expense of training, I was trying to set as much up in my favor as possible.

The adopt versus shop debate is interesting, but it isn't as funny as the breeders themselves. I guess I'll get a little more specific: One breeder I was talking to told me that another local breeder called her when he was drunk and crying, trying to convince her to let him borrow one of her stud dogs. He also falsified clearances and jussst avoids being labelled a puppy mill. I was also researching a specific breed of cat, and one major breeder was shut down by animal welfare a week earlier. Someone who worked with the same breed told me over email, "Yeah, we all saw that coming in the community, that lady is nuts I'd never buy a cat from her."

It's kind of sad in a way, because it seems like there are a lot of pedigree breeders who are older (and sometimes mentally unstable) women. There's not a lot of incentive for younger people to get into breeding, so it's possible certain breeds will either start going 'extinct' or degrade as the only people maintaining them aren't really concerned with good genetics.

Given what I've seen I think it's almost a general rule that most "professional breeders" (be they kennels, catteries or whatever) are at least a little off, and the BYBs/puppymills are just fucking horrible people. Livestock breeders are variable but tend to be less outright fucking unhinged and less scummy than either of the above.

All animal people are varying degrees of weird, but I was taken aback by the level of crazy among dog/cat breeders. I spend a lot of time with freshwater aquarists and most of them are basically just autistic. They aren't exactly warm, but there isn't as much gossip or drama.

 

[Massa's Little Buckie]

After reading this, I'd rather get a dog from the street or a shelter and hope I'm lucky.

 

[Sped Xing]

I definitely agree that non-pedigreed dogs can be amazing and pedigreed dogs can be little shits.

I didn't say that.

 

[Corydoras]

I didn't say that.

Sorry, it sounded like you had good experiences with both pedigreed and non-pedigreed dogs. I’m not saying one or the other is inherently better. Though we were on the same page but I guess not.