[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by rjwalt

Actually, I have spent countless hours volunteering at animal shelters because I love animals, period. I have seen plenty of yorkies, yorkie mixes, and every other breed/ breed combo come through the doors with all kinds of issues, and some with none at all. Genetics is still a very young science, there is so much that we still have to learn. While it is more likely that dogs who have been tested for the handful of genetic diseases that we have discovered, when the gene pools are mixing, ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. Dogs get sick and it is the responsibility of the owner to do what they can to make them better. It’s gonna be a long time before we can truly genetically engineer animals with perfect health and that will probably be done in a lab by scientists and not breeders.


I am someone who just lost a dog that was my best friend for the last 13 years. He came from a reputable breeder who did all the testing and shenanigans that go into your definition of a “reputable breeder” But he still got cancer and died in my arms. It hurt but that’s what I signed up for when I bought him, and even if he had some other genetic illness I still would have chosen him just like he chose me.


I think you might be putting too much weight on the bells and whistles in breeding, even with all the testing that is available and holding a puppy for 12 weeks, there is no complete guarantee and it’s still a chance you could have ended up looking into the eyes of a sick and dying friend like I did. Bottom line, Breeding is still a crap shoot. Period. Anyone who goes to a breeder and connects with a dog then walks away because it’s a chance he might get sick one day should not be getting a dog in the first place.





All dogs deserve homes, love and care, no matter where they come from. All this banter about categories of breeders only keeps good people from good dogs. I’m not for supporting puppy mills or immoral breeders but once the dogs are here, they are here. What shall we do with them?

If you support the bad breeder they stay in business plan and simple to continue ruining the breed. Puppies will always find homes you want the breeder to have to massively drop the price to sell the puppy before buying. You buy the breeder not the puppy. You find the breeder and then look at the puppies. It is a fact that puppies from reputable breeders are less likely to have genetic issues then those from bad breeders. Cancer mostly is not a genetic illness.