# need resources to pass on to my sister



## PlayfulPup (Aug 8, 2012)

My youngest sister and I have always been dog people. We spent hours talking about breeds and what we wanted when we grew up. I had an outside dog when I was younger, and we always swore we would have inside dogs when we had the choice, and talked about breeding them (kids love puppies!) Once older we talked about training dogs and such... but never about showing. Until recently, I was under the impression dog shows where basically just the ones we saw on TV!

Fast forward to current times. My sister is married and her ILs breed labs and retrievers on the farm. They are defiantly a kennel and leaning towards BYB/mill style. The do health testing, but all dogs are outside dogs. They are all trained but get limited people time... the favorites come along with them doing farm chores, but I am under the impression it is not many of them. They have a great and well taken care of facility. It includes puppy rooms, as they can often have 3 litters at once. The puppies get LOTS of attention and get brought inside sometimes to play with visitors (not sure on the frequency.) They have the majority of the puppies sold before they are born and has never had to keep a puppy longer because they were not able to place him. They have a lot of repeat costumers. They sell their puppies with NO CONTRACT! (maybe that’s why they sell lots of puppies... to BYBs?) They also sell the pups REALLY cheap.

Sometime in the next 5 years (or so) my sister and BIL plan on taking over the breeding program. She wants to add another breed, the german shepard. She has always enjoyed this breed, so I am happy that even though she is giving up her life long dream of a great dane (BIL said no inside dogs, and danes would not do well outside) she at least has something. She has a few things she wants to change. She is awesome with dogs and wants to spend time with them everyday working on obedience and teaching them tricks. She also thinks the dogs need more exercise. She would be full time running the kennel (not the farm.) She also wants to be a SAHM... I told her newborns can be hard and that it is a full time job, let alone running a kennel. (she is keeping it ‘in mind’... my boys are 14 months apart, so I think she views all the hard issues are because of the small age gap)

She said at the peak of their program they would have 24 dogs!!!!! TWENTY FOUR! So I mentioned that I had been reading about people that do foster programs and explained the basics. Her response was well, wouldn’t that be hard leaving their family 2x a year? I told her she should research breeding ever heat vs. every other.... I have heard there is science behind both, but that she needed to be sure she was doing the best thing for the dog. :ahhhhh:

I think she is torn between doing what she thinks is right and what her husband wants to do (since he has grown up that way, I do not know if thinks there is another way.) I don t think she want to put down her ILs either by suddenly saying she is doing it another way because theirs was wrong. I know she has no passion for the lab/retrievers and think they are breeding because they love having dogs around and these breeds are easy to sell. I think that if she was breeding “her breed” of danes, she would be very into improving the breed. Arg, so frustrating. :afraid:

Thanks for reading my book  I know, labs and retrievers are not poodles, but I figure you guys would have some great information that I could pass on to her and she would not care about the breed.

Any links or articles with information on... 
*frequency of breeding and health and how many max breedings (a topic I did not even want to touch yet!) 
*Why you should ‘prove’ your dog and what ways you can prove.
*The importance of puppies being raised in the house.
*What should be in a contract, including that if they can not take care of the dog, it would be returned to them... another issue I have not approached with her.
*difference between breeding and improving the breed.
*Anything else you can think of that might help me, help her!

Thanks for you help because my telling her will not have too much effect, but something she could show her husband would be great.


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## BorderKelpie (Dec 3, 2011)

Here's something to get you started. 
Leerburg Dog Training | Articles

SOmething else to consider is the proposed lisencing and regulation, etc of dog and cat breeders.


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## stealthq (Aug 4, 2011)

Have your sister go to German Shepherds : German Shepherd Dog Forums. They have a number of well-respected breeders of both AKC and working shepherds that frequent that site, though it definitely favors the working dogs. 

Tell her to lurk and read all the info from the breeding forums *before* she posts any questions. She needs to make it clear that she's not breeding now, she wants to learn how to do it the right way before she gets started. There are people there who will give her great advice, but like here, if you sound like you are headed down the BYB (or similar) route things can get pretty ugly.


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## PlayfulPup (Aug 8, 2012)

thanks! I passed on the links! I will find out later how she receives it!


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