A friend of mine purchased a puppy from what i assumed was an Amish BYB. I was pretty upset at him when he told me where he purchased her. He insisted that they were a legit breeder and that they were not a "Puppy Mill" breeder. I asked him about health checks, heart, hip etc. He stated that they showed him documentation of all of the health tests they performed on their breeding Boxers. My friend told me that he was going to pick up his pup yesterday and that I should make the hour long trip up to the breeders farm. I agreed and tagged along.
Let me tell you, I was completely Wrong in my assumptions. The Breeders where not Amish but Mennonite. They had immaculate temperature controlled Kennels that were spotless and very professional in appearance. We were greeted by the couple and their 5 children who were in the process of cleaning the kennels and one of the daughters was holding my friends little brindle pup. My friend introduced me to the Husband and told him that I wanted to know about their health testing and was interested in seeing their dogs. He then took me to see their Stud dogs and their bitches which were kept in separate kennels. At the entrance to each kennel in a clear plastic file holder was copies of every health test and vaccination record for the dog of that kennel. The papers where Cardiomyopathy results, hip and elbow Dysplasia, blood work that included Thyroid panels and a few tests I was not familiar with. Along with this was a complete vaccination record and a copy of the pedigree.
All of their dogs and bitches where extremely beautiful in a conformation and general sense. One of the sons at one point entered the building with a five gallon bucket and began entering the kennels and exiting. The female breeder told me that it was lunch time for the dogs, and to my surprise they were feeding them a RAW diet which I could not believe.
SO the point of this story is this. The feeling of this Breeder was that they approach this in a very business like manner but they appear to hit MOST, BUT NOT ALL the important aspects of responsible breeding. They import healthy dogs, they breed healthy dogs, they appear to socialize the puppies and in general they care about the well being of their animals. The parts they fall short are this; They use a third party to advertise their dogs and they do not interview potential buyers to make sure the buyer is a good fit. They do however only offer limited registration which I thought was great.
I felt comfortable enough with them that I decided to adopt a Brindle female to add to my family. This is Tia and the Sire, a Euro import. I pick her up next week, she was reserved but the buyer backed out and asked for their deposit back.
Let me tell you, I was completely Wrong in my assumptions. The Breeders where not Amish but Mennonite. They had immaculate temperature controlled Kennels that were spotless and very professional in appearance. We were greeted by the couple and their 5 children who were in the process of cleaning the kennels and one of the daughters was holding my friends little brindle pup. My friend introduced me to the Husband and told him that I wanted to know about their health testing and was interested in seeing their dogs. He then took me to see their Stud dogs and their bitches which were kept in separate kennels. At the entrance to each kennel in a clear plastic file holder was copies of every health test and vaccination record for the dog of that kennel. The papers where Cardiomyopathy results, hip and elbow Dysplasia, blood work that included Thyroid panels and a few tests I was not familiar with. Along with this was a complete vaccination record and a copy of the pedigree.
All of their dogs and bitches where extremely beautiful in a conformation and general sense. One of the sons at one point entered the building with a five gallon bucket and began entering the kennels and exiting. The female breeder told me that it was lunch time for the dogs, and to my surprise they were feeding them a RAW diet which I could not believe.
SO the point of this story is this. The feeling of this Breeder was that they approach this in a very business like manner but they appear to hit MOST, BUT NOT ALL the important aspects of responsible breeding. They import healthy dogs, they breed healthy dogs, they appear to socialize the puppies and in general they care about the well being of their animals. The parts they fall short are this; They use a third party to advertise their dogs and they do not interview potential buyers to make sure the buyer is a good fit. They do however only offer limited registration which I thought was great.
I felt comfortable enough with them that I decided to adopt a Brindle female to add to my family. This is Tia and the Sire, a Euro import. I pick her up next week, she was reserved but the buyer backed out and asked for their deposit back.