Okay this may not be Yorkies in general but it does hold true for each and every breed.
Why There Will Always Be Back Yard Breeders- “I have seen the enemy, and he is us”
Posted: June 12, 2013 in "Best Practices", "Don't give up on that dog", At Home with dogs., Canine Well-Being, Choosing a German Shepherd., Dog training Research & Development, German Shepherd
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Recently, a certain Facebook page has been a battle zone because an individual posted questions about breeding her German Shepherd. The poster was obviously new to the idea, uneducated, and woefully unready for the task ahead. I’m not saying she was “unworthy”, but that’s the way the boards took it. As can be expected, she got flamed by several hundred people from every strata of the dog community. Many of the comments were heated, many were unprofessional, many were quite correct. What was accomplished? Absolutely nothing of value. I’m positive that it will be her last post on what is the largest and most popular German Shepherd page on Facebook, but I think we’ve once again shot ourselves in the proverbial foot. Here’s why:
Every professional breeder of dogs stands by their dogs as “The Finest”, “Exclusive”, “Best Temperament”, ” German Lines”, “We sell to the US Military” or some such other claim, whether true or not so…And we ask some fairly high prices for our product. Which is fine. If an individual will pay $15000.00 US Dollars for one of your dogs, more power to you. That’s wonderful. And I’m not going to ask anyone to stop pushing that envelope…If you can get a Million Bucks for a dog, Yippeee!!! I’d take it in an instant. By my crude calculation, we will have cornered 0.00002% of the Canine buying market that can afford those prices. I know as well as you that breeding and caring for a new batch of puppies from a fine pedigree is NOT a huge money-making scheme with the overhead involved. Veterinary bills, food, kenneling, and other sundry expenses eat profits like potato chips. If we sold our dogs for too little, we’d be paying people to take puppies. Too much, and we’d have no room to properly keep them. You’d end up on an episode of “Hoarders” or the local 6 ‘o clock news. Therein begins the problem…
We all get on Facebook, or our websites and extol the virtues of our German Shepherds. We do all the right things for them, and many produce beautiful, well performing, temperate dogs. Then we charge $2000.00 for a pup. Untrained. For many prospective buyers, that’s pretty steep. Especially if the buyer is NOT interested in PSA, or Schutzhund, or any other discipline. They just want a family dog. But, ”$2000.00??!” they’ll moan. “Well I can find a German Shepherd in the newspaper for $100.00!” And they’re right. Because there’s a market for them. Yes, those dogs aren’t fit for breeding, working, or many times, trusting, but outside of our collective of Well-Bred Dog enthusiasts, there’s a lot of customers waiting. And there are, and always will be, less than concerned people who are willing to do volume business over anything resembling improvement of the breed. These people skip the overhead, feeding the cheapest “food” they can find, skipping veterinary care, proper whelping facilities, and socialization. Proper care? Fat chance when they have 10 litters on the ground…Some of these even have the temerity to register their litters with AKC. To a large part of the population, “AKC Registered” means much more than it deserves. It’s nothing to BYB or Puppy mills but a “Selling Feature”…
There will always be people to whom a “German Shepherd”, (or any other breed) is a status symbol, or a weapon in untrained hands. They give no regard to the fact that some of us value the quality of our dogs. They don’t care if we ridicule them on Facebook either. What can we do about it? Not much. Trying to stop them with legislation doesn’t work. Ever seen those signs around schools that declare a “Drug-free, Gun-free Zone”? Yeah, I’ll bet those signs made every parent of a child in that Connecticut Grade school feel safe too…It’s the same effect.
We, as protectors of the breed, could also use some lessons in diplomacy. When people ask uninformed or outright ignorant questions, it does NO GOOD to flame them out, and tell them that we think they’re idiots. They WILL find a dog somewhere, and the cycle begins again. Frankly, I don’t know how to stop substandard breeders and their ragged product. Give Well-Bred dogs away? Not Likely. Lower our prices? Not practical or advisable. Hunt down and eliminate back yard breeders? Torch the puppy mills? Enjoy prison. Some of them have great dog training programs for inmates. Legislate spaying and neutering for every dog that doesn’t meet a “Standard”? Just whose standard shall we use???
I’m convinced that the only thing we can do, is educate, educate, educate. Calmly. Professionally. Thoroughly. Train our dogs well, and use every opportunity to show the interested the how and why of our well-bred dogs. For those who have the means, find a young person that would love a dog, but may not have the means, and make an apprentice out of them for a couple of hours a week. Everybody wins in that situation. There has to be more ways to encourage preservation of the great dogs, than just the petty warfare so often found on the internet. The real effort may be in the losing of EGO among some of us…Every Facebook page, and every forum has several “EXPERTS” only too happy to spew vitriol at anyone they deem unworthy. Who died and made them God? I don’t know, but I do know that we, and the breed, will lose this war if we don’t find a more effective way of causing change.
Why There Will Always Be Back Yard Breeders- “I have seen the enemy, and he is us” | German Shepherd Adventures!