It’s a little harder to walk away from a cute puppy when the answers aren’t right, but just as with buying a car, the time to fall in love is after you take it home.

We are not talking about rocket science; we are talking about understanding the risks involved in buying a live animal, and doing a modicum of research and taking a modicum of care—just like with any other major purchase.

And yes, the AKC could be doing more, but unfortunately it gets registration fees from puppy millers and backyard breeders in far larger numbers than it does from responsible breeders (funny thing about that.) Some breed clubs do do a lot more; others don’t. BUT, if you take the time to go to shows, talk to breeders and exhibitors, and get to know people by the sneaky underhanded trick of asking them to tell you about their breed, you can learn an awful lot—about the breed, and about who in the breed is respected and who is not, and why.

You can even learn enough to make a half-way knowledgable assessment of the risks and benefits of dealing with that byb who does do health tests but doesn’t show, do earth trials, or belong to the local Westie club.

But back to my original point, for the millions of Americans who just want a pet, and not a champion show dog, there is really no way for them to assess breeders like this woman. There is no way for the average person to know if a breeder is responsible on the truely important stuff: health, well-being, sanitary conditions, and avoiding genetic diseases.

This is where the AKC needs to step up and take a leadership role. (And I point to the AKC because they have been part of the problem by creating demand for pure-bred dogs and creating breed standard, and I point to them because they are really the only ones in a position to take a leadership role.)

But I understand that taking a leadership role in breeding of pets will not sit well with a lot of AKC members who are more interested in the sport and less interested in animal welfare.

(Lis, regarding your breeder: You say they are a reputable breeder, but you also said that paid for shipping the dog back to the breeder. I was under the impression that reputable breeders only dealt with owners who were local enough so the breeder could meet the owners and check on the care of the dog if necessary. Paying for shipping sounds like your breeder sold dogs non-locally. Isn’t that a red flag?)

Responsible breeders want to be able to check up on the care of the dog. But people active in the show world all go to the same shows over a wide swath of the country, and they all know each other. The original buyer is active in showing and also active in dog agility; the breeder and the buyer know a lot of the same people, some much closer to the buyer geographically. And in a breed that’s not tremendously common (most popular of the hairless breeds!:)), there’d be unhealthy inbreeding if there weren’t some exchange of dogs over some distance. So, yes, she did have ways of checking up on the well-being of the dog, depsite the distance being great enough to justify a (fairly short) plane ride for her return.

But when she was looking to place the same animal as a pet, it was a lot more important to her to place her within comfortable driving distance, because a pet owner wouldn’t be competing in shows and getting the dog seen by mutual acquaintances on a regular basis.

And even so, she perked up a lot and got more receptive when I asked whether Addy might be interested in doing agility.:)

Does that clarify things a bit?

My wife and I eventually decided to adopt a westie from a local rescue shelter, and we are very happy we did. We’ve given a nice home to a great dog who needed a home.

When we are out with our dog, we occassionally run into other westies with their ears too far apart. In talking to their owners, we discover that they got their dogs from the breeder that the local westie club told us to stay away from. The owners always tell us that the dogs are healthy, friendly, and great members of their families. But they do look a little funny with their ears too far apart.

When my wife and I were looking for a westie several years ago, we contacted a breeder in NJ who was referred by a friend of a friend. This breeder seemed to do everything right. She had test certificates from her vet (for all I know, the vet could have been her brother-in-law); she showed me x-rays (I didn’t ask if I could take the x-rays to my vet); she showed me the mother of the puppies and where they lived; she said she couldn’t show the father since she didn’t own him, but she gave me the name of the father’s owner.

The only red flag is she didn’t belong to the local AKC westie club, and she didn’t show her dogs. Her explanation was that the AKC was more interested in physical characteristics rather than temperment. Her dogs didn’t meet the breed standard for ear placement, and therefore were not championship quality. But they were excellent temperment for pets.

When we later went to an event run by our local westie club, we asked about this breeder. A club officer told us to stay away from this breeder since she was a backyard breeder who did not properly care for her dogs. We were told that the only reputable breeders in NJ were the five breeders who were members of the Westie Club.

Now I have no way of knowing if that is true. The non-club breeder seemed to be caring, but I have no way of really knowing. Maybe the Westie Club officers called her a backyard breeder only because her dog had it’s ears too far apart.

(Lis, regarding your breeder: You say they are a reputable breeder, but you also said that paid for shipping the dog back to the breeder. I was under the impression that reputable breeders only dealt with owners who were local enough so the breeder could meet the owners and check on the care of the dog if necessary. Paying for shipping sounds like your breeder sold dogs non-locally. Isn’t that a red flag?)

Optigen and other testing/certification agencies will tell you if they issued that certificate to that breeder for that dog. You can take the x-rays to a vet to get them read.

Why, yes, this is a bit more work.

7) Belongs to breed club and shows dogs. The average buyer can verify if the breeder is a member of a breed club.

The average buyer can also verify if the breeder is not just showing, but winning. There should be championships in the first two generations (parents and grandparents.) This is fairly easy to check.

10) Will take puppy back and will help with training. Everyone will take a puppy back, but they won’t refund your money. It is actually a great profit opportunity for people in it for the money, since they get to sell the puppy again.

I adopted a returned dog. I paid the cost of shipping the dog from the original buyer back to the breeder. Tough to see the additional profit to the breeder in that transaction. Plus, the breeder now has to either provide the original buyer with a replacement puppy, or refund the money.

Why, yes, that is one of the differences between a responsible breeder and a backyard breeder.

Regarding help with training: does anyone do this. I have a tough time imagining that the “reputable breeders” who won’t even return phone calls will provide more help with training other than giving you a book or recommending a trainer.

If you mean, come down and actually help hands-on with training, no, not that I’m aware of, but Addy’s breeder and my Maine Coon’s breeder have been extremely helpful in answering questions and making suggestions when I’ve run into behavioral issues. My sister has found her dog’s breeder helpful as well.

Sure there are ways for the average person to differentiate responsible breeders from backyard breeders; it just takes doing a little homework.

1. Backyard breeders are orders of magnitude more likely to own both parents.

2. Backyard breeders won’t have paid for the genetic and health testing appropriate for the breed, or take any other steps to ensure that they’re not breeding two carriers of a known defect of the breed. (For instance, you probably don’t want to buy a poodle from someone who doesn’t Optigen test their dogs.)

3. Backyard breeders don’t show their dogs, or take part in other competitions appropriate to the breed (obedience, field trials, earth trials, etc.)

4. Backyard breeders won’t be able to answer the question, “Why did you choose to breed these two dogs?”—or rather, they’ll think “Because they’re both such sweet dogs!” is an adequate and intelligent answer.

5. Responsible breeders will have lots of questions for YOU.

6. Responsible breeders will have a contract that says, among other things, that if for ANY reason you cannot keep the dog, it MUST go back to them. The contract I signed a month and a half ago also says I have to send pictures—so that she can see how my dog is doing. (I suspect the ubiquity of digitial cameras is going to make that provision more common.)

These signs of a responsible breeder vs. a backyard breeder are not hard to find out, nor are the major health and genetic weaknesses of any give breed. You just need to approach the purchase of a dog or cat (a living being that you’ll have for 10 to 20 years) with the same seriousness you approach buying a car (an inanimate object that you’ll start thinking about replacing after five years or so.

But that is being done now. People are admonished to only get puppies from reputable breeders and avoid backyard breeders. So how do I know who is a reputable breeder and who is a backyard breeder? Perhaps I click on the “clueless backyard breeders” link in the article above.

That article already gives standards for breeders, but leaves it up to the buyer to determine if a breeder meets the standards. So let’s go through those standards one by one:

1) Motive. There is no way for the average purchaser to tell the breeder’s motive. Even clueless backyard breeders will have enough of a clue to tell you their motive is serious concern for the breed, and they will screen buyers (even if everyone manages to pass the screen).

2) Explanation of breeding plans. Again, there is no way for the average purchaser to evaluate. If the breeder throughs in a couple of buzzwords, pulls out a book and some magazine articles, they will exceed the knowledge of the average buyer. Anything an average buyer can learn in 5 months, a breeder can learn too.

3) Certification of tests for genetic problems. Anyone can produce certification of anything (including that their wheat gluten is free of melamine). The average buyer has no way of judging if the certification is from a real, junk, or forged (and there is no known agency like UL, BBB, or AKC to double check). Even if the breeder produces x-rays, the average buyer doesn’t know how to read an x-ray.

4) Contractual guarantee to deal with genetic problems. Again, everyone produces contractual guarantees. Even pet stores produce contractual guarantees. This does not differentiate responsible breeders from backyard breeders.

5) Loves the breed and can talk about it. Again, this does not differentiate responsible breeders from backyard breeders.

6) Investment in dog equipment and sanitary environment. Short of squalor and rats running around, the average person doesn’t have the experience to determine if an environment is sanitary. Regarding ownership of equipment, the typical owner is able to see if the breeder has equipment like a kennel run or a grooming table.

7) Belongs to breed club and shows dogs. The average buyer can verify if the breeder is a member of a breed club.

8) Shows litter in sanitary environment and can explain difference between show dogs and pets. See comments on standards 2 and 6.

9) Expensive and doesn’t advertise. The “no advertise” rule is sort of duplicitous, since the breeders approved by the local breed club do in fact advertise by being placed on the list of club recommended breeders. And the AKC has recommendations for local clubs on how to advertise their breeder referral program.

10) Will take puppy back and will help with training. Everyone will take a puppy back, but they won’t refund your money. It is actually a great profit opportunity for people in it for the money, since they get to sell the puppy again. Regarding help with training: does anyone do this. I have a tough time imagining that the “reputable breeders” who won’t even return phone calls will provide more help with training other than giving you a book or recommending a trainer.

So with this entire list of standards, really only two (a) potentially differentiate between reputable breeders and backyard breeders, and (b) are verifiable by the average person. Those two standards are owning equipment and belonging to a local breed club.

So back to your question of who sets standards and who decides, the local breed clubs already do that by granting or denying membership. What I am suggesting is that the AKC create real standards (even if they are around basic veterinary and sanitary care), and use its expertise to verify and certify.

Then a buyer can contact the AKC and find out if a breeder meets the standards (even if the breeder isn’t interested in joining the local breed club).

Let’s say you’re going to begin issuing BSOAs to approved breeders. Okay. WHO gets to do the issuing, WHAT CRITERIA do they base those decisions on, and who gets to DECIDE which criteria are the ones to be used?

It’s not always that easy to get conscientious animal folks to agree on what’s “right” and what’s “wrong” when it comes to the proper care and keeping of our furkids. Take - for example - ear cropping or tail docking. Or maybe debarking or declawing. All four of these subjects are sure-fire guaranteed ways to start World War III on any discussion list you bring them up on, and you will find caring, conscientious, RESPONSIBLE animal folks standing up and offering very good arguments on BOTH sides of each issue. So how do you find the “right” answer?

Okay. Let’s take something obvious and easy. Spay and neuter of pet-quality animals. EVERYONE agrees with that, right?

Not necessarily. In many European countries, the culture is against ANY kind of artificial surgical alteration of an animal, and that includes spay and neuter. I was told at one time (by a resident of Sweden) that spay and neuter was even ILLEGAL in Sweden, but I was unable to find any online cites confirming that right now, so perhaps that has changed. Still, in some areas of the world, the culture is very much NOT in favor of spay/neuter (nor of excessive breeding) so once again, there really is no clearcut “right” or “wrong” answer. (And my intention here is not to get into a discussion over whether or not there should be mandatory s/n of pet quality animals, but just to present the fact that there are responsible individuals who come down on both sides of the question.)

If deciding WHAT the “right” answers is so hard, how about deciding WHO gets to decide. The AKC, right?

Not so fast. Although the best known registry in the United States, the AKC is not the only one out there. There are quite a few registries out there. Some - like the UKC - are even OLDER than the AKC even though not as well known. And some have less than stellar reputations - having been set up for the sole purpose of issuing “registrations” to pet-store puppies bought by hapless owners. And there are single-breed registries - every bit as careful about the integrity of their stud book as the most well-known registry you can imagine, but who have - for one reason or another - made the choice not to ally themselves with any of the all-breed registries but rather, continue to stand alone in protecting the integrity of their breed.

So - which one of these gets to be assigned to “officially” tell all the others what is “right” and what is “wrong” and have the honor of issuing (or NOT issuing) the “official” Breeders Seal of Approval”?

Things are rarely all that clearcut when it comes to the “right” way to breed animals, just as things are rarely all that clearcut when it comes to the “right” way to raise children or pretty much anything else that impinges on the endless variability inherent in living things.

But if you’re gonna make someone “The Decider Guy” and require everyone else to be subject to the rulings that follow, then these are all the kinds of questions that need to be asked and thought through - ALL the way through - first.

The AKC report you listed actually seemed like steps in the right direction (though not going far enough, especially since there was no focus on small volume breeders). It was refreshing to see the AKC recognize that their actions created the market for puppy mills, and that the AKC needs to take a leadership position. What ever happened to the recommendations, and why did it get you upset with the AKC?