My neighbor friend has found a breeder!!!
She is talking to someone in the New England area who has an impressive list of accomplishments in the breed.
She's telling me she may have to wait a while (over a year maybe even 2 years), but she's willing to wait, and she's going up there to visit the breeder so they can take stock of each other.
I'm happy for her, happy for the breeder and happy for the dog that she eventually gets. like I said, she is one of the best pet owners I have ever seen, and I know she never spared any expense for her setter.
Over long post warning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gracielove  Personally, I think it would be a wonderful thing if there was a severe shortage of purebred animals available for the current market. So many people are buying for all the wrong reasons. Maybe more of the mixed breed and abandoned purebreds would be adopted if those not willing to get on a waiting list just decided to help some homeless dog or cat. Just cranking out poor quality "purebreds" into an already over populated animal enviornment is irresponsible to say the very least. Some people will never be convinced but to keep quiet and not try to inform people of the truth is also irresponsible. |
The problem with that is it's NEVER worked in the past, it's not going to work in the future.
I can't agree that people should be forced, if they want a dog, to buy their dog from a shelter or rescue, when those places might not even have what the person was looking for, and be made to basically clean up after other people.
I also know that I for one am quite happy with my small dogs and I would not be happy if the only thing I could do was buy an 80 lb pit bull cross, because that was all that was at the shelter.
Poor quality can be subjective.
I am not too fussed on looks. I am sure that none of the people here with over sized, drop eared, cotton coated yorkies are too fussed on looks either.
Like I said, I don't know what the answer is, but I know that one of the reasons that puppy mills are so prevalent, with NO SIGN of going out of business is BECAUSE there is "severe shortage of purebred animals available for the current market".
That is how they get away with mass producing the huge number of poor quality by ANY definition.
"A study jointly commissioned by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Maddie’s Fund and the Ad Council concluded that every year about 21 million families bring a new dog or cat into their homes. To put that number into perspective, the total number of dogs and cats that enter animal shelters is around 8 million.
Because not all animals that enter animal shelters need new homes - some need to be reunited with their families and a small percentage (around 7%) need to be humanely euthanized due to terminal illness or severe behavior problems - the actual number of animals entering shelters that need new homes each year is estimated to be between 4 million and 5 million.
In other words, there are about four times as many homes looking to acquire a new dog or cat than there are dogs and cats needing new homes."
EVEN IF everyone that was looking to buy a pet bought their pet from a shelter or rescue, there still leaves what... 17 million homes looking for a pet?
Where are they going to come from?
Right now they're coming mostly from millers and bybers... Now.. what if.. What IF those bybers did ALL of the same health tests that show breeders do?
What if they had the same contracts that show breeders do?
What if they had the same guarantees that show breeders do?
It just seems to me that the way to stop people like the ones on that site, is if people had better alternatives, and it just doesn't seem as though they do.
Like I said, I don't have the answers, but I can think for myself. I can connect dots, and I can read between the lines.
Gemy, I am not knocking anything you have done. Not many people have the moral fortitude to do the right thing. Too many people in the show world are there for their ego, it's not about the dogs it's about them.
And something that took 40 years to create isn't going to be fixed in 2 or three generations. ALL of the dogs at Westminster had roached backs.
I said it before, if I want an AMERICAN bred GSD it is NOT going to come from show lines, because straight backed dogs are NOT being bred in the conformation ring.
Therefor any AMERICAN bred GSD I would buy would by necessity come from what a number of people would considered bybers, because the people do not show, even if the people do everything else when it comes to health.
I specified American, because German bred GSDs are too sharp in temperament for me, and I won't want or need a working dog. Since I don't know of a single GSD in Germany that's allowed to breed without a working title, I wasn't even considering German bred dogs.
But again, even if it's an American line with German influence, roached back dogs STILL are what are going to win in the ring, so how does one get an American bred GSD from show lines and is straight backed?
Look at the legs of the dachshund if you want to see another breed that went from a dog to a walking skateboard. Look at the changes in the skull of the bull terrier. How many brachycephalic breeds went from having a short face to having NO face? Again these things were done by show breeders.
I'm sorry, I am just cynical when it comes to the show world, having been a part of it and saw with my own eyes the seedy underside. The good people get out-shined by those that are willing to do anything and everything to win.
The Yorkie is over all a healthy breed, with little falsification, but you have show breeders that tape ears
Sorry, but taping ears is allowing weak ear genes into the show gene pool.
And show people do it all the time! Funny how no one seems to have a problem with that...
When I see things like ear taping... Hey even drop ear breeds have their ears taped... Look up rottie ear taping, lol... When I know there are exhibitors that will DYE their dogs coats, and I have seen THAT with my own eyes. When I KNOW there are people that will TATTOO eyelids and noses... ALL for the sake of a ribbon.. I know it's not about the health, well being, and BETTERMENT of the breed.
And THAT is why I am cynical about conformation showing. One of them.. the other part is the torture breeding, but that's something else.
I don't care about conformation. I'm sorry gemy, and I don't mean to direct it at you, as if you caring is a bad thing. What you do is wonderful, but it's not for everyone, and not everyone cares.
Conformation breeding is an all consuming passion, where a half inch off ear set can be the make or break between a good dog and a GREAT dog. I have done conformation breeding, I have mentored, I have shown people why the good looking dog they have may have problems in the ring. I have schmoozed with judges, I have been to the nationals in my breed, I have done all of that, and one day I realized something...
None of it mattered to me.
Form follows function. Too many people force the function to try to follow the form in the conformation world.
That is one of the reasons conformation bred dogs can barely do a thing that they were supposed to be bred to do and why the UKC field version looks almost like a different breed, because they don't care too much what the dog LOOKS like as long as the dog can do what the breed is supposed to be able to do.
For the average person, as long as the dog looks close enough, they're happy, which is why you have those people being able to sell those dogs on that site.
I don't have the answers, and I'm not saying that MORE people need to be breeding their dogs. But the people that are.... more of THEM need to start doing the right health and genetic tests for their breeds.
I actually don't even have a problem with a conformation evaluation for breed type. The only way I can think of to combat the breeders of the dogs on that site, is if more people were breeding better dogs.