Originally Posted by Yorkiemom1 (Post 4207724)

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Excellent points made, Nancy. I will just share another comment that will possibly offend a quality breeder. I can see the reasoning of the person that is looking for a pet, so try to see this from the "other side of the fence". When you call a breeder, if you use the statement, "I am not wanting a show dog, just a pet", to get the point across that you may be working with a lower budget, please remember, a quality breeder does not look at those babies and say, "Well, lets see...out of these 5, these two look promising for a show home, so I will just move these other 3 over to the corner and not waste so much time with them and what they need. I can feed them the cheap food, and only fool with them an hour or so a day, I wont vaccinate or worm them, and I will get them out of here at 6-8 weeks so the new owner can deal with all that expense and time..... I dont want to invest MY time, energy and money in them, as they are going to be sold as "just" pets and will go cheaper......". Please understand a quality breeder will devote as much labor, as much energy, as much money, and as much heart and soul into every single baby she has, regardless of where that baby is going to go. Those itty bitty tiny ones that we tend to 24/7, feeding every 1-2 hours around the clock, the ones we sneek into work as we can continue to care for that baby, the one we carry around in our bra so it is warm and feels life next to it rather than just laying in an incubator alone, so we can talk to it and sing quietly to it .....that baby is not likely going to be a show dog, but we are awake more hours and trying probably 10 times as hard with that one, as the little one that looks so perfect and is obviously our next Westminister Grand Champion!! It would be better to start the conversation with, "I am researching breeders and breeding programs and I like what I see with yours....I only am able to spend .xx - .xx on a puppy, do you have anything within my price range?" Just some food for thought from the "other side".....