Quote:
Originally Posted by YorkieMan10  I have a lot of comments/questions, so bear with me 
People in general are leery of the general public coming into their homes. Just as YorkieTalk does in its "for sale" forums, breeders should be doing their homework before they let just anyone come into their homes.
I don't think most people want to buy a breeder. Most people are most interested in finding a healthy "pet" of a specific breed, sex, size, etc. Most people are very busy too. Why not use the power of the Internet to save everyone some time? It's certainly working out extremely well for puppy mills.
Making it impossible to easily get in touch with people who believe in the breed is only helping to promote puppy mills. I don't understand how so many people are against puppy mills, but nobody is interested in working on a reasonable resolution. Telling people to go to dog shows, research breeders, meet breeders, etc. is just not reasonable. Asking people to come to a site like YorkieTalk and offer a "for sale" thread with sellers that can be trusted seems like a much better idea. Unfortunately, that idea does not scale well enough.
Like most other average people, I don't know the standard for Yorkies. I'd like to think that is the breeder's job to understand and sell me on when I choose to buy from them.
That is important to me. I also feel that it's very important to buy a healthy puppy from a reputable breeder/seller.
That happened to me 3 weeks ago. My 3-month-old Yorkie had a liver shunt, went into a coma, and I had to put him to sleep.
I think this is very important to everyone -- even if it's more indirectly for some. The problem is that there isn't a place where you can go and be guaranteed to only find sellers who are doing these things.
I can appreciate that. However, you are not going to buy the ugliest dog on the block just because it came from the best breeder.
And with the power of the Internet, that statement blows my mind. Puppy mills have no trouble helping people find them, so it's not impossible for reputable breeders/sellers to do the same.
I'm not sure what this means. Yorkies are not "pets"? So, do you recommend that I go buy a "pet" from a puppy mill instead? |
You make a lot of good points, and all I can say is that I feel very strongly about these things, but it took me a long time to get here. I can't bear the thought of dogs living in puppy mills. Here's a thread and U-tube I wrote about buying from puppy mills.
http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/mis...g-graphic.html I also have written and posted on many threads that would help educate someone on how to find a good breeder.
http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/pup...kie-puppy.html and I like to think I helped with this thread:
http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/bre...e-breeder.html.
The thing of it is, there are no easy answers. I'm sorry you went through such a tragedy, and while this can happen to any breeder because there is no test for a marker for Liver Shunt, it does of course help if she knows the lines. How did your breeder handle this? I believe a great breeder would have given you a full money refund. Regarding buying a dog from a Yorkietalker, anyone can join Yorkietalk, and a good salesman knows how to win friends and influence people, this isn't what I want in a breeder, but there are breeders on YT who I think are really trying to do the best by the breed and do stand behind their dogs.
Also, I think people tell people to go to dog shows, if they are looking for a mentor, or want a breeding dog, not so much if they just want a pet.
Have you ever heard of the term patron of the arts? It's where someone supports an artist's work, they may not think each individual work is brilliant, but they believe in the artist overall and what they are trying to acomplish. That's the way I wish people felt about their breeders. After all, the best of the best dogs, should become breeding dogs, not pets, so I'm willing to have an imperfect dog as my pet, but if you go to a really good breeder that imperfect dog will still be a beautiful example of the breed.