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Originally Posted by WalnutHill  This is all just my opinion. I am not an authority.
should the dogs each be in their own ex-pen or should they be placed together in a larger expen? or does it just depend on the breeders dogs and situation/preference?
*I would say that depends on the situation - do the dogs get along with each other? Etc... Certainly males seperated from females unless intending to breed with each other. I would think it would be better for the dogs to be in groups, or at least pairs - it would be awful to be alone all the time. But, even if they live in a kennel, they should be socialized with people dogs, etc. They shouldn't be left in the kennel and never get out.
should the dogs be mostly males or females or is that irrelevant and is not an indication of a good or bad kennel/breeder?
*Generally, I'd think more females than males, but it depends... If you are talking about a serious show breeder, then it would depend on which pups 'turn out' as to which pups are kept into adulthood. But if the purpose is breeding, then more females would make sense. Is there a good balance? 20 females and one male doesn't make a lot of sense. But maybe 4 females and one male or 8 females and 2 males... Also, what is their relationship to one another...
Being able to see the kennel is the most important. You can tell a LOT by how the dogs look and what the kennel looks like. Is it clean and obvious that someone is dedicated to the care of the dogs? Or, does it look like the dogs are getting the minimum care (if any).
We were actually talking about this last month at our local AKC club meeting (well, sort of). Some of the 'old timers' were talking about how there used to be a lot of large, quality kennels with 150 dogs or so - many employees, permanent hired handlers, etc. But, those large kennels don't really exist anymore. It's just too expensive. The only people with that many dogs these days are USDA commercial breeders...
I hope some of my babbling makes sense. |
True and being a USDA commercial breeder does not mean a thing as far as good or bad. The requirements for being a USDA breeder are minimal.
But you have to look at more than just the facility, as I said they can have a handful of dogs to show you, they can show you one male and one female and claim to each buyer that those are the parents.
Researching the breeder is more important than researching for the perfect puppy. Because if you get a good breeder they will see that you get a good puppy.
Too many people have this perfect puppy in their mind, looks, size, coloring, personality, and they don't care who they buy it from. So look for the breeder first.