What is the answer? It lies in the individual dog owner, the dog buyer and the dog breeder.
I’ll start with the breeder. There used to be wolves that people cross bred into what are commonly called curs or just dogs – wild dogs. People loved everything (almost) about the wolf. It was intelligent, had the ability to reason, seemed attracted to humans to the point where they developed a symbiotic relationship over time.
At some point way back then, people were looking at the dogs and thinking “what can this dog do for me?” Farmers were plagued with gophers – wouldn’t it be nice to have a small, hard-muscled dog that will dig into the ground and kill them to stop them from eating the crops? And the Daschund (“doxie”) was born.
Shepherds in Europe started using dogs to guard their sheep but the wolves proved to be an enemy to sheepherders. They decided they needed a dog, smart like the wolf, with the loyalty, bravery and instinct for protection to take care of the sheep. The German Shepherd was born.
In North America, during the unforgiving winters, a dog was needed that would not only pull sleighs in unimaginable cold temperatures through storms, over ice and rough terrains, they also needed to be fierce, smart, loyal and able to reason. The Husky was born.
If we lived in the ideal world, there would be no free puppies. There would be no dobechibass’
So, while the RSPCA might like to put everything on the big bad breeder, the truth of the matter is that in the ideal world, there would exist only pure blood dogs. “Bad”
How many of you are familiar with an absolutely amazing breed of dog known as the Black Russian Terrier? These dogs come from a “scary” place, first bred by the Russians to guard the gulags. Talk about a mixture! They have German Shepherd, Doberman, Bouvier des Flandres – and many more breeds. These dogs are amazing; I know because I was fortunate enough to have one.
He had more joints than normal dogs; he could flatten and squeeze through places that looked impossible; his feet (larger than most human’s hands) were webbed for swimming and when he got protective, he’d squat like a bear with his front feet ready to do damage, growling and bearing his teeth. These dogs had no problem dealing with enemies on horseback, wolves or bears. They sound like they’d be a problem to own but they don’t shed; their fur feels like human hair and their eyes look human. They are loyal to a fault and if you ever attend a Black Russian Terrier dog show, it is a common site to see them all off leash as they are not a dog aggressive breed. Here is a dog perfect for someone with allergies who needs a protection dog. Did I mention their mouth and their bite? You know what a pit bulls’ mouth and bite look and act like – the Black Russian Terrier’s mouth is even larger.
You see, in an ideal world, not only would there not be any unwanted dogs and irresponsible breeders. There would be no “pups free to good home” advertisements and no need for the RSPCA.
The sad truth, though, is people are people. They abuse breeds like the Staffordshire Terrier (pit bull) to the point of making them just scary mean and teach them to tear apart anything they see. That’s the people. It’s not the breed.
There are breeders who breed German Shepherds to be huge because buyers like big dogs so they get a lot of hip dysplasia. Again – that’s the breeder, not the breed – especially since they’ve found the reasons for hip dysplasia are NOT all genetic. Just like people, joint and bone problems can be caused by poor diet and lack of calcium and vitamins.
Irresponsible breeders and buyers together make a bad combination. They actually create a market for bad breeding. A good example of this is the Dalmatian. This can be a fantastic breed, but those breeders who responsibly breed are aware of the problems the breed has and will consciously breed to weed them out (like the back dew claws in the German Shepherd).
The reason I chose Dalmatians is because every time Disney releases and re-releases anything to do with “101 Dalmatians,”
Badly bred Dalmatians will carry these problems: 8 percent of them will be born deaf while yet another 22 percent will be deaf in one ear. They have a tendency to form bladder stones. While the responsible breeders will only breed dogs from lines with good hearing in both ears, most of your “new” situation-born breeders are probably not even going to know if the two dogs they breed can hear or not.
I agree with the RSPCA that if you are going to buy a puppy, check out the breeder. The breeder will, if they are responsible, be able to tell you everything about the breed, about their sire and dam and the litter itself. What the RSPCA does NOT say is as long as there are people who don’t educate themselves as to the type of breed that is right for them and their situation; bad breeders will always find buyers. People will buy the car because it’s pretty and the puppy because it’s so darned cute.
Some people have asked me how much my puppies are – first question they ask. They don’t seem to realize that they are there on an interview too. If their first question is about the price, I am immediately on guard. Their first questions should be breed specific to my breed. That’s a good sign to me that they might be the right parents for one of my pups.
The buyer should want to know if I did puppy tests and if so, they should be interested in how the puppies scored. If they don’t ask and I begin to tell them and see glazed looks come over their eyes, I get a bad feeling.
If the buyer brings children and they run at the puppies and start poking or pinching them, it should not be me – or the mother dog who puts a stop to it. I don’t want my puppies going to a home where a child hasn’t been taught to respect other living things.
When I present the buyer with the contract and they sign it, they need to understand what I mean when I say I have first rights to buy the dog back if they decide it doesn’t work out. I don’t want my puppy going to a bad home that I haven’t checked myself and I certainly don’t want my dog put down by an over-zealous member of the RSPCA because of its breed and the fact the handler didn’t know what he was doing. They killed one of my dogs for this very reason. It broke my heart and now I screen my buyers even more.
