Hello
I am planning to get an 8th month old puppy dachshund this summer. I
have been looking for a breeder in my area that has what i am looking
for, when i am looking for it. I finally found one, but i cant tel if
she is a reputable breeder or not. I know that most breeders are oly
supposed to carry 5-6 litters a year. This breeder has 9 right now.
However, she is registered with AKC. I talked with her on the phone and
she offers pedigrees and knows each parent and puppy pretty well. Each
litter has a different mother and the same father. Please tel me what
you think, thank yoU!

In article .com,
wrote:
I talked with her on the phone and
she offers pedigrees and knows each parent and puppy pretty well. Each
litter has a different mother and the same father. Please tel me what
you think, thank yoU!

Without knowing anything beyond what you've described here,
she sounds kind of awful. I have sleddogs and because
seriously competitive mushers need to have a lot of dogs
they'll breed what's considered a lot. In the very
largest kennels that's maybe 5 litters/year, and they try to
keep the gene pool sufficiently diversified that they're not
asking for trouble a few generations down the line. I can't
imagine what someone who breeds 9 litters a year out of the
same stud is thinking - my guess is that she's thinking she
can push out a lot of puppies and make herself some money
selling to people who aren't very discriminating about where
their dogs come from.

Whether or not a litter is responsibly bred isn't determined
by what someone says, but by what she does. That means that
she's only breeding the best to the best, and even then
she's making careful decisions to produce better puppies
with every generation. She's getting objective verification
that she's making good breeding decisions by screening for
genetic health (eyes, hips, etc - a checkup from her regular
practice vet isn't enough) and then using competition
(conformation showing, obedience, agility, racing - whatever
it is she's aiming for with her breedings) to verify that
her dogs can stand with the best of 'em.

Ask her what she does about health testing - a clean bill of
health from the vet isn't enough. Ask her how she makes
breeding decisions - "She's such a sweet dog" isn't enough.
Ask her how her dogs are evaluated - "So-and-so says my dogs
are the nicest anywhere!" isn't enough.

It's absolutely heartbreaking to get a dog you're expecting
to spend the next 15 years with only to have him develop
serious health problems while he's still young because the
breeder was a slob.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

On 3 Jun 2006 16:04:29 -0700 whittled these words:
I am planning to get an 8th month old puppy dachshund this summer. I
have been looking for a breeder in my area that has what i am looking
for, when i am looking for it. I finally found one, but i cant tel if
she is a reputable breeder or not. I know that most breeders are oly
supposed to carry 5-6 litters a year. This breeder has 9 right now.
However, she is registered with AKC. I talked with her on the phone and
she offers pedigrees and knows each parent and puppy pretty well. Each
litter has a different mother and the same father. Please tel me what
you think, thank yoU!

Are the breeder's interests in the dogs similar to your own? For example,
I assume is you are looking for a nice pet that you are more concerned
about excellent health than perfect color? So when you talk to the
breeder does the breeder explain to you what IVDD is, and what the breeder
has done to reduce the risks of it in her lines? Did the breeder discuss
detecting and avoiding PRA, does she DNA screen for the problem? If not,
why not? Or does the breeder fail to discuss any kind of genetic health
screening and instead tell you all about the colors or sizes of the dogs
she is breeding? If you think that having a long and healthy life is more
important to you than the color/coat/size of the dogs - then look for a
breeder who also cares about the things YOU care about.

Unfortunately dachshunds are not a breed that has strong leadership in
health issues. Fortunately the breed is better than for many small dogs.
So if you decide that supporting breeders who care is more important than
finding the right dog easily and quickly it can be done. If finding a dog
quickly and easily is more important than good health - you can do that
too.

http://www.dachsie.org/health.html

In a breed with such a big imbalance between dogs produced and breeder who
test for good genetic health the place I recommend starting is the OFA
database. Find the breeders who are testing their dogs. There is still
homework to do - but it is a reasonable starting place.
http://www.offa.org

--
Diane Blackman
There is no moral victory in proclaiming to abhor violence
while preaching with violent words.
http://dog-play.com/ http://dogplayshops.com/