Identifying an Ethical Breeder

What makes a breeder ethical?

An ethical breeder is defined as somebody who produces dogs with four goals in mind: clean genetic health, sound temperament, physical conformation, and purpose/functionality. This is a pretty broad statement and plenty of people can throw around these claimed achievements – what proves difficult for many potential pet puppy buyers is identifying proof that substantiates those claims.

Let’s break these goals down and delve into them each individually so you understand exactly what goes into ethical breeding. Before we even get started, let’s assume the purpose of this material is to find a well-bred purebred dog. If you’re interested in a purpose-bred mix, many of the concepts in this article still apply.

"Purebred" is a term that describes a dog belonging to a breed whose pedigree consists of dogs who also belong to the same breed over many generations without mixture of any other breeds. That’s it. The word “purebred” simply means the dog belongs to an identifiable breed and is without any other breeds in its lineage - when DNA tested, should come back 100% of one breed. The word does not speak to health, quality, or functionality. Breed standard outlines what dogs of its breed should look and act like. Breeding practices (selective breeding) influence how closely (or not) the offspring produced will fit that standard.

Let’s get started.

The Four Goals of an Ethical Breeding

1. GENETIC HEALTH

All dogs, purebred or mixed, are a product of their parents’ breeding. That means they will inherit genetic traits that their parents and grandparents possessed. When we talk about genetic health traits, we reference things like bone structure, joint strength, muscle potential, skin health, dental traits, heart health, digestive health, thyroid health, eye health, and so much more.

Because we’ve uncovered over years of breed development that many breeds of purebred dogs are predisposed to a variety of predictable genetically inherited health issues, breeders must use selective breeding practices to choose a pair of dogs who are clear of those issues in order to produce offspring that are also clear of those issues. They ensure this by ordering veterinary tests designed to detect those health issues in their proposed breeding pair. If health issues are detected, they then determine if their proposed breeding pair simply carries the health issue or if they are afflicted by it. Dogs who are afflicted/symptomatic can produce both afflicted offspring and carriers (carrying the gene but not being symptomatic). Those chances are increased if a symptomatic dog is bred to another symptomatic dog or to a carrier dog. Is it starting to make sense why it’s important to know what genes dogs possess before breeding them? If a breeder doesn’t test, how do they know what they’re producing? More importantly, how do YOU know what you’re getting in a puppy?

Large dog breeds are at risk for hip and elbow dysplasia. Ethical breeders will get their dogs’ joints x-rayed and examined by a licensed veterinarian, then sent to a non-biased medical organization that objectively reviews, scores, and certifies the x-rays speaking to the quality of the examined body part(s). Dogs who receive favorable results in their x-ray certification are less likely to produce offspring with hip and elbow dysplasia, especially when bred to another dog that also received favorable test results.

While hip and elbow dysplasia is just a common example, there are a large number of various diseases that certain breeds should be tested for, depending on what is suggested by the parent kennel club organization and genetic testing organizations. This information can be found on the official websites of the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, VCA Animal Hospital, American Kennel Club, or United Kennel Club. After checking what diseases are common in the breed you’re considering, it’s time to look up which tests give results that reflect a dogs’ likeliness to pass those diseases to their offspring. After that, you can even go as far to consider identifying the database in which these results might be posted – so when you ask breeders for their health test results, you can check the respective databases for proof of the results they claim (and not just taking a breeder’s word for it, or getting scammed with false paperwork). While it is a lot of work on the front end, this will save you a lot of grief in the event someone is not forthcoming about their dogs’ genetic health. This can even help with checking the truthfulness of a breeder’s claims and can expose fraud.

2. TEMPERAMENT

To reiterate the same matter we covered with genetic health, all dogs, purebred or mixed, are a product of their parents’ breeding. Again, that means they will inherit genetic traits that their parents and grandparents possessed. In the case of genetically inherited temperament, we talk about sociability, nerves, drive, and sometimes even personality quirks.

We have HUNDREDS of identifiable dog breeds available to us because of selective breeding. When these breeds were formed (before they reached a consistency and reliability to be considered purebred), their founding fathers chose dogs in their breeding program that exhibited behaviors necessary for whatever purpose the dogs were to fulfil. Inherently, in order for the owners to make the most of those behaviors, the dogs would also need to have personality traits, work ethics, and instinct-driven behaviors to support utilizing the dog for its intended purpose. Let’s take herding dogs for example. The purpose humans required the dog to fulfil is to guide livestock from one place to another and/or to protect them from wild dogs that would do the flock harm. Purpose Behaviors may look like running circles or arcs around animals and moving towards or beside them to influence livestock to move in the intended direction. They may also look like a dog barking at, charging, or even attacking other dogs that are a perceived threat to their flock. Personality, nerve, mental agility, and instinct required to effectively accomplish Purpose Behaviors make up a dog’s temperament. This looks like the difference between:

+ an Australian Cattle Dog, who is independent (requiring little instruction from its handler to do its job), bold, not easily shaken, and having the proactivity to charge forward and deliver a bite to an agitated bull in order to make him move

+vs a Border Collie, who is cool and collected, calculates their moves, relies more on intense eye contact and less on bullying their sheep, and listens carefully to his handler’s instruction before executing with precision.

When we talk about keeping these breeds as house pets, far removed from their jobs on the farm, a cattle dog’s temperament may be reported as stubborn, pushy, confrontational, and mischievous while a border collie’s might be reported as busy, attentive, obsessive, or pliable. Poor temperament in both breeds may look like fearfulness or being easily startled.

Ethical breeders ensure their pups have the temperament they want by deliberately selecting parent dogs already possessing that temperament, which is tested through work/training/shows/official temperament tests. They also provide a positive and relatively stress-free environment during the mother dog’s pregnancy (as stress hormones can negatively impact an in-utero puppy’s predisposition for coping skills). Lastly, they apply stimulation to the puppies that prepare them for exposure to new situations. Throughout the puppies’ early development before they go to their new homes, ethical breeders will expose puppies to a number of sights, sounds, smells, and textures in neutral and positive ways to increase the pups’ stability around those things. When you’re looking for this in breeders, you want to look for temperament test certificates on parent dogs, working dog titles, show dog titles, Canine Good Citizen, sometimes therapy dog experience, and implementation of early neurological stimulation programs (like Puppy Culture and Avidog). When we talk about titles, we mean quantifiable accomplishments awarded by canine club competitions. Dogs who do not reflect appropriate temperament desired in their breed are not likely to achieve these title accomplishments. So the titles are generally a reflection of the dog having displayed the correct temperament to win in competition or pass a test as determined by a professional evaluator.

3. PHYSICAL CONFORMATION

This is where I might lose some of you – just hear me out and take everything you’ve read beforehand into consideration as you proceed. Valuing physical conformation to breed standard is what often sets breed fanciers and enthusiasts apart from the average pet dog lover. It is arguably the most controversial consideration of a desirable breeding for the simple fact that many pet owners enjoy customization, something different, something exciting, something unique, or something that sets them apart as a pet owner.

A breed’s standard, as mentioned before, is an outline of everything a dog of its breed should be. As we’ve covered in previous sections, this includes what breeds should look like (physical conformation) and act like (behavior and temperament). Breed standard guides breeders to produce dogs of its breed to a particular height and weight range, a particular gait while in motion, the shape of the dog’s head, how the dog carries his tail, the dog’s dental structure, how their legs and paws posture when they stand at rest, the dog’s proportionality (Tall and leggy? Short and stout? Broad or narrow chest? Angulation of the topline?). All of these things are outlined in the breed standard and a great deal of dog breeds, especially those with working purpose look a particular way because it best supports how they perform their jobs.

Did you know that the Pembroke Welsh Corgi standard dictates its height because too much height inhibits their ability to dodge the kick of the livestock animals they’re to herd?

Did you know that Dachshunds are also short and long because their purpose was to weasel through holes in the ground to hunt for and dispatch badgers? Did you know that each breed carries a certain bank of dominant and recessive coat colors and patterns that occur naturally – meaning that in order to produce a color outside of that bank, a breeder would need to introduce a different breed of dog carrying that color to produce said color?

Genetics sometimes throw us a product that does not fit the standard. Maybe the dog is a little too tall or too small. Maybe the dog produced a rare color that also comes with health issues. Maybe the dog’s temperament is the complete opposite of what it required of that breed. Breeders may label off-standard products of an otherwise standard breeding, pet quality. This means that these dogs are best suited for pet owners who simply want a nice purebred dog, but don’t intend to breed or show. If ethical breeders determine those traits will negatively alter the course of what any ethical breeder’s program, they will ensure the pet is spayed/neutered and placed in a really nice loving pet home. This ensures that dogs with the most desirable traits in meeting the breed standard continue to produce puppies.

4. PURPOSE AND FUNCTIONALITY

To wrap up the four achievements, we will touch on the previous three and how they all contribute to purpose and functionality. A dog’s purpose is his breed’s intended job, duty, tasks. His functionality speaks to both physical and mental aptitude in serving that purpose. The big question each of the previous three achievements should answer is: how well does it support the dog’s function?

For genetic health, how well can a German Shepherd Dog herd sheep or take down bad guys if his hips and elbows are crippled by genetically inherited dysplasia? Ethical breeders invest everything they can from medical support to researching other breeders’ pedigrees to ensure they aren’t producing dogs that are both unhealthy and incapable of doing the job they were bred to do. Breeders must set their breeding program up for success so they produce healthy dogs that can function to serve their purpose.

For temperament, how well can a Labrador Retriever fare in the field with his hunting handler, if he is easily startled by gunshots? Ethical breeders invest in adding only the most stable, sure, and confident dogs to their programs so they aren’t producing fearful, flighty, or unpredictable hunting partners. The way they determine which dogs are fit for their programs is through proof of actually working their dogs and through the working/sporting titles awarded in judged competitions. Breeders must set their breeding program up for success so they produce temperamentally stable dogs that can function to serve their purpose.

For conformation, how well can a Saint Bernard fare in frigid weather if his coat is thin and feathery as opposed to thick and hardy? Ethical breeders invest in producing dogs that look as close to the standard as possible to preserve physical type so they produce structurally sound dogs that can function to serve their purpose.

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Where Backyard Breeding Thrives

Some of you may be asking, “But what if I want a unique dog that doesn’t fit the standard?” This is a slippery slope because generally, breeders who focus solely on producing off-standard physical features (such as teacups, king size, rare coat colors and patterns, long coats on strictly short coated breeds, hairless dogs on coated breeds etc) don’t have an ethical pool to choose from that will increase their chances of producing both unique traits and otherwise desirable proper traits. These breeders must seek out other off-standard dogs or mix in other breeds to accomplish their goal. Because the ethical breeder community is generally a proud by-the-book community, the chances of off-standard breeders getting their dogs from good stock (or at least getting intact dogs or breeding rights from ethical breeders) are slim, so they are limited to purchasing dogs from breeders that are willing to produce whatever and sell whatever to whomever.

This is where backyard breeding comes in. The overall lack of determination to produce dogs with the best genetic health, the best temperament, the best functionality, and the closest conformation to physical standard inevitably produces dogs with not so great genetic health, not so great temperament, non-functional dogs that don’t look like what the breed standard outlines. Backyard breeders thrive in this realm as these breedings are highly unregulated, can produce higher quantities of off standard puppies, and produce significantly cheaper puppies than their ethically bred counterparts (because little to no testing, working, or show titling is done).

There is an abundance of other bargain-minded and profit-minded individuals focused solely on producing what is unique and off-standard, often to the detriment of the other aspects we’ve covered already. Typically, it is less likely that breeders who focus solely on off-standard physical traits will genetic health test their dogs [those that do are the VERY RARE exception, not the rule]. This means those who aren't testing also don’t know what potential genetic diseases their dogs will pass along. They typically do not work their dogs for a purpose and market to their audience as unique pets. They can’t compete with their dogs in shows because kennel clubs will not qualify wildly off-standard dogs. Because they don’t invest much if anything into health testing, titling, or preparatory veterinary care AND their target audience is hungry for highly accessible unique pets at an affordable price, backyard breeders can regularly produce dogs at low prices to the consumer for big profit to the seller. What does this mean for pet owners? Their super cute teeny tiny teacup Yorkie with the merle coat that you got for a sweet deal may show up with terrible anxiety, an aggression streak to rival the gnarliest fighting dogs, and have severe heart problems that send her over the rainbow bridge at the ripe old age of 6 years.

[Craigslist Ad: Selling puppies under 8 weeks, marketing as Christmas presents - red flags]

The worst part? Backyard breeders don’t look like those sad, disgusting puppy mills you’ve seen on the news anymore. Pet owners have since started to catch on to the detrimental effects backyard breeders impose on their puppies so backyard breeders have gotten smarter about marketing to the average pet owner. Their marketing strategy is to appeal to the average dog lover in regards to what pet owners think they value.

By this I mean that backyard breeders may brag that their puppies: +are registered/have papers

+are a special mix or are "fullblooded" +health checked by a vet +up to date on vaccines +live in the house and are very well loved +and are reasonably priced so your family doesn’t have to spend an arm and a leg to own one.

Sounds good right? What part of anything from that list speaks to genetic health? Temperament? Functionality? Conformation to whole breed standard? You guessed it. None of it speaks to what we’ve covered. What they don’t say is just as important as what they do say. These sales can be found in classified ads (like Craigslist, Hoobly, and PuppyFind), puppy sale sites with cute pictures of little puppy potatoes and their price tag underneath, pet store ads, and even pet sale Facebook posts. Scrutinize every online ad you take interest in to be sure it will be a safe purchase.

[Courtesy of Fantasy Vizslas: Profile of parent dog with titles and links to genetic test results]

What you want to hear is that the breeder is willing to provide you with:

+proof of genetic testing on the parents to show the puppies are clear of any genetic illnesses that may cause huge vet bills or shorter life span +proof of titles on at least one of the parent dogs and multiple dogs on both sides of the pup’s pedigree which speaks to conformation and temperament +perhaps working titles on the parents which speaks to trainability, stability, physical fitness, and sociability +early development stimulation which further influences stability and sociability

To compare the qualities from the backyard breeder’s ad to an ethical breeder’s ad:

+you know the dog is registered with AKC or UKC because kennel clubs only title registered dogs

+you can confirm with the breeder’s vet that they were health checked and vaccinated. The breeder wants you to have this information to set you up for success. They want their puppies to have the healthiest start in life

+they want to show you the parent’s genetic test results. They want you to know what you’re paying for and feel good about it.

+of course their dogs are well loved – why would anyone spend thousands of dollars ensuring their dogs were the best if they didn’t love them?

+you will NOT see ethical breeders bragging about a low price. The ethical breeder invested hundreds to thousands of dollars into producing this litter. If they’re going to make back even a fraction of that money in preparation for the next dogs and litters, they have to charge their worth. Additionally, cheap people with minimal intention to properly care for a dog (to include backyard breeders) are less likely to spend a few thousand dollars on a dog. That’s not to say people willing to spend the money are always better caregivers, so for this reason, ethical breeders carefully screen their buyers. They won’t sell a puppy to someone if they don’t think they are a good fit – because they truly care about the dogs they produce and want them to have the best life possible. They won’t sell a puppy to someone if they know they’re going to perpetuate backyard breeding practices with it. They won’t sell a puppy to someone if they foresee the dog ending up in the shelter; they’ll require the dog to be returned to them before that is ever a possibility.

With all that said, GET PROOF OF EVERYTHING. If an ad says, “Champion Bloodlines”, make them show you their pedigree so you see with your own eyes “CH” or “GCH” before the dog’s name. If an ad says, “healthy puppies”, ask to see the test results. Ethical breeders will not sell puppies under 8 weeks and some even keep their puppies longer to lay a better foundation for training and social skills (in nearly all states, the it is illegal for a business or individual to sell puppies less than 8 weeks of age). Ethical breeders put a great deal of money and time into producing quality dogs and pairing them with quality homes.

Consider the merit of an ethical breeder when buying your next dog. If finding an ethical breeder is a struggle, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us for assistance. If an ethical breeding is not in your budget, please consider a breed rescue as they often have dogs needing loving homes that fit your good-enough and your budget. Your local shelters also hold gems if you search diligently enough. I hope this article helped to inform and guide you in avoiding scams and the heartache that comes with falling into a non-ethical breeder’s trap. Good luck in your search!