67 doodles, no shit!

From the bed of Tarma Shena

The number of conversations circulating around the internet these days concerning breeding and the definition of good and bad breeders is absolutely mind boggling. I watched a reel wherein a person in Canada breeds approximately nine different kinds of doodles and had something like sixty seven puppies in May.

You did not read that wrong.

SIXTY SEVEN PUPPIES.

In MAY.

This is not hearsay or gossip, it is proudly listed on her website, including the fact that she imported “Australian Labradoodles” because there were no specimens in the US she wanted to add to her program. I even know the “breeder” in Australia she is talking about, because the book of faces insists on showing me pages I might be interested in, and let me tell you, the algorithm thinks the CMD of Doodles down under, is at the top of my list for some reason.

Unfortunately this was not the worst part of my morning experience. How could it get worse you say? The first comment stating; “I don’t even want a dog anymore because what if I bought one from this breeder and saw this reel after the fact?”

If you need a reel to tell you that paying five thousand dollars for a mutt (you did not read that wrong) because you liked the pretty pictures and the “amazing facility” that was on their website; is a bad idea then I can’t help you. I’ll never understand why humans think concrete and wire kennels are “great” for dogs.

Oh, he has access to a run any time he wants? How nice of you to give him that. And a lick mat when you leave for work, how generous. I often wonder why some individuals own dogs in the first place.

I listened to a trainer state that “asking dogs to work puts them in danger and is therefore inherently neglectful and abusive”. We are not even talking life threatening here, potential injury is all it takes to categorize an activity as neglectful. This is the same person who stated my “Trail Practice” video was pathetic and needed a lot of work before showing it on the internet.

I’m still waiting for her video showing a pack of trained LGDs who also work full time. Oh wait, asking them to work is abusive, and she won’t do that so it isn’t a breed she works with, I’m sure she’ll find a pet one somewhere right?

I digress. I’ve gotten off track.

So on the one hand all you need to be a great breeder is a flashy website, pretty pictures, and charge thousands of dollars so you can build a state of the art facility. Whenever someone calls their place a facility my mind goes sideways and I see humans as batteries. I think the comparison is relevant here.

Oh you didn’t do the math back there? Go ahead, I’ll wait.

On the other side of things are the people who think your dog has to be shown nationally and titled up the wazoo before it is bred. We’ll skip confirmation for a moment because that’s an entirely different conversation and this is already long enough. I’ve probably lost half of you still trying to do the math on how much the woman made off her puppies last month.

If you think that Lure Coursing and Trick Dog titles have any bearing on the dogs I am making you probably shouldn’t be here. In fact, there are a whole lot of dogs out there who work, actually work, and there aren’t a lot of titles for dogs like that. One of the things I’ve learned in the last year is the stark difference between some of the trialing dogs and actual working herding dogs. It’s a lot like the whole “show line” conversation.

Let me say that this should never be a thing, I don’t care what kind of animal it is. That is a hill I will die on. When you say “show line” I hear “pretty dogs who can’t work” which tells me that you’ve foregone the difficult part of breeding to focus on the glitzy part. It’s just more pretty pictures and a lot of verbal fluff.

If that’s what sells it for you, maybe you should consider shying away from owning live animals, or potentially making any major financial decisions, you’ve probably already bought a cyber truck.

And before I leave, the answer is $335,000.00

You’re welcome.