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Originally Posted by TammyJM  I do not have a kennel (and never will)....but I also only own one breeding female. We have 4 Yorkies, two of those are Huckleberry and Livi....the only ones that breed. All of my fur kids have free roam of our home. In fact, it's more like it's theirs and they just allow us to stay with them.  I am sure there are good breeders out there that have kennels, but I would never want so many that they couldn't live in the house with us.  |
And I have 6 dogs who allow us to live with them (and share their bed). I have 2 females that I am planning to breed and my studly boy (who will be retiring soon). The other 3, two are retired breeding females and one old boy is a rescue.
I think that the difference between a good breeder and a bad one, is in how they sell their puppies and why they are producing them. If a sale is first and foremost on their minds, then you should probably run fast. If they are breeding puppies for no other reason but to sell them, that makes them a puppy mill in my mind, whether they have one breeding dog or 50. I only breed with the next show dog in mind. There are enough homeless dogs in this world without me producing dogs for no reason other than to sell them. I have had people content to wait two years for a puppy from me and I have had others come into my home with money in hand, like it was a store and it was their right to just hand over the money and go home with a pup (they don't get one).
I also don't know how anyone can properly socialize a pup that is living in a kennel. Puppies should be exposed to the sounds and sights of living in a house, they should be comfortable riding in a car and used to the sounds and sights of the outside world. When my puppies leave my home, they are prepared for life in a home, they know how to treat people and they are aware of their place in a pack of dogs, so they know how to act with dogs of all ages.