RED FLAGS vs RESPONSIBLE PRACTICES

Please take note of the fact that ALL of these points are equally important.

A Responsible Breeder will check ALL of the boxes - not just one here and there.

​

 

REGISTRATION​

​

The Parent Dogs and/or Puppies ARE NOT Registered​

Many BYB will try making up the excuse of Registration/Pedigree being  a "sales gimic", and try spinning it to seem like they are cutting the buyer a deal by giving them a quality dog at a cheaper price because the parents just don't have a piece of paper behind them. In reality that is the furthest thing from the truth. 

A dog or puppy CANNOT legally be advertised in Canada as a  "purebred" unless it is registered with registration papers - this is a law punishable up to $50,000 for those claiming they have purebred dogs without papers as per the Animal Pedigree Act.

 

The Parent Dogs & Puppies ARE Registered​

Responsible Breeders spend a lot of time examining and researching the pedigrees of their dogs - since health, structure and temperament has a huge genetic component, it is a very important aspect of breeding responsibly. Without knowing where their dogs came from, a breeder has no idea what they are working with. In addition, responsible breeders care about documenting their lineage of their dogs by keeping dogs registered, as well as should be involved club members with their Registry of choice.​

​

​

PARENT DOGS​

​

The Parent Dogs are under 24 months old​

Canine joints don't finish maturing until 24 months of age. Breeding a dog before 2 years of age is generally considered unethical, unless it was done a couple weeks before 24 months of age and all health testing already completed.

WHY? When growing and whelping puppies, the mother carries a lot of additional weight with the addition of increased laxity within the hips. This is why it is incredibly important to know that your female has good hips by health testing, and waiting until 24+ months of age so that you don't disrupt the  formation of her joints as excess weight & laxity negatively impacts joints - especially in undeveloped joints.

​

The Parent Dogs are 24 months or older

​

The parent dogs are not health tested

Health testing does not mean a vet said that they look healthy at a regular vet check up. Health testing is done through a board, like OFA or Pennhip. These tests are labelled as Hips, Elbows, Shoulders, Eyes, Ears (BAER exam), Cardiac, Patellas, Thyroid, Kidney, and Dentition. If the breeder has health tested their dogs and are located in North America, their tests should be done through OFA, with Hips potentially being through Pennhip as well. Genetic testing for genetic diseases can be done through many avenues, but the two most popular ones are PawPrint and Embark. ALL of these test results except for Pennhip are available in a public database online! Ask your future breeder for their OFA, Embark and/or PawPrint links to verify. For Pennhip, ask to see the document and verify that their answers are correct and true. Responsible breeders will have no issue providing these things, and most offer it without being asked because they are proud of it! You can view what the links look like by viewing any of our adult dog pages (Woodsie, Kali or Willow) and scrolling to the health testing section of their profiles.

​

​

• Do your research and make sure that your breeder is health testing for everything that your specific breed is at risk for - this can easily be figured out by searching the diseases statistics for breeds on ofa.org, as well as just simply asking in breed specific groups or "Resonsible Owner/Breeder" groups on Facebook. (For a list of what to test for in American Bullies, click here)

• If your breeder claims to health test - ask for the certificates! Do not just take their word for it. A responsible, ethical breeder will gladly provide this information to anyone asking. Many irresponsible breeders will say that their dogs have been "hip checked by their vet" - unless they have submitted x-rays of hips & elbows for scoring to OFA, they HAVE NOT "checked" anything. They are lying, and trying to pull the wool over people's eyes that don't know any better.

• ​

​

• They do not show or compete with the parent dogs in any way

  • Rasa

 

Carefully plans out thoughtful breedings with a purpose/goal in mind

​Ethical breeders do not see value in wasting their females litters on the same stud ov

​

​

BREEDING PRACTICES​

​

They breed the same parent dogs together over and over for no particular reason​

Irresponsible breeders often breed pairs of dogs simply because they own both of them, or their friend has a dog with complimentary reproductive organs to theirs, and they repeatedly breed their female to the same male, usually 3-6 times, to get as much profit as they can with the least amount of effort. 

 

Carefully plans out thoughtful breedings with a purpose/goal in mind

​Ethical breeders do not see value in wasting their females litters on the same stud over and over again - they will instead take her to a couple different studs to ensure genetic diversity as well as evaluating her previous breeding(s) by utilizing the conformation, health & temperament of her previous litters to make more refined choices in the future.

A Responsible Breeder may do a re-breed if the first litter is unsuccessful (under 3 puppies) or quite small (under 6 puppies) and they wanted to choose another pup off of those parents for a keeper in the future. If the first litter gave the breeder everything they were hoping for, it is reasonable for them to decide to do a re-breed but this is often not something that is done until the first litter can be evaluated thoroughly.

​

​

​

​

​

​

• They are not willing to let you meet the parents of the puppy & are resistant to release information

  • Responsible Breeders will want you to know as much information about each parent as possible - after all, the puppies take qualities from each parent. This will help determine if you are a good fit for the puppy, or if maybe a different litter or breeder would be better suited for your family. They will gladly offer up health test results on parents, pedigree information, etc. and will encourage you to meet the parents before deciding on them as your Breeder.

​

• The parent dogs are not at least 24+ months of age

  • Canine joints don't finish maturing until 24 months of age. Breeding a dog before 2 years of age is generally considered unethical, unless it was done a couple weeks before 24 months of age and all health testing already completed.

  • When growing and whelping puppies, the mother carries a lot of additional weight with the addition of increased laxity within the hips. This is why it is incredibly important to know that your female has good hips by health testing, and waiting until 24+ months of age so that you don't disrupt the  formation of her joints as excess weight & laxity negatively impacts joints - especially in undeveloped joints.

​

• The parent dogs are not health tested

  • Health testing does not mean a vet said that they look healthy at a regular vet check up. Health testing is done through a board, like OFA or Pennhip. These tests are labelled as Hips, Elbows, Shoulders, Eyes, Ears (BAER exam), Cardiac, Patellas, Thyroid, Kidney, and Dentition. If the breeder has health tested their dogs and are located in North America, their tests should be done through OFA, with Hips potentially being through Pennhip as well. Genetic testing for genetic diseases can be done through many avenues, but the two most popular ones are PawPrint and Embark. ALL of these test results except for Pennhip are available in a public database online! Ask your future breeder for their OFA, Embark and/or PawPrint links to verify. For Pennhip, ask to see the document and verify that their answers are correct and true. Responsible breeders will have no issue providing these things, and most offer it without being asked because they are proud of it! You can view what the links look like by viewing any of our adult dog pages (Woodsie, Kali or Willow) and scrolling to the health testing section of their profiles.

  • Do your research and make sure that your breeder is health testing for everything that your specific breed is at risk for - this can easily be figured out by searching the diseases statistics for breeds on ofa.org, as well as just simply asking in breed specific groups or "Resonsible Owner/Breeder" groups on Facebook. (For a list of what to test for in American Bullies, click here)

  • If your breeder claims to health test - ask for the certificates! Do not just take their word for it. A responsible, ethical breeder will gladly provide this information to anyone asking. Many irresponsible breeders will say that their dogs have been "hip checked by their vet" - unless they have submitted x-rays of hips & elbows for scoring to OFA, they HAVE NOT "checked" anything. They are lying, and trying to pull the wool over people's eyes that don't know any better.

​

• They do not show or compete with the parent dogs in any way

  • Rasa

​

• They do not have a puppy application - as long as you have cash on hand, you can leave with a puppy

  • Responsible breeders will have a thorough puppy application and and process to determine whether you would be a suitable fit for the dogs they are creating or not. They will also let you know the personalities of each puppy and will assist you in choosing the best possible candidate temperament wise for you and your lifestyle.  Most responsible breeders will choose who goes where for pet home puppies based on their temperament evaluations and what each specific family needs in terms of energy, temperament and personality.

​

• They do not sell the puppies with contracts, and therefore no future support for the buyer or puppy

  • Responsible breeders will sell ALL puppies on thorough contracts (spay/neuter contract, co-own contract, or breeding rights contract), and will provide LIFETIME breeder support. They want to know that their puppy is protected for it's lifetime so they carefully tailor a contract to ensure that the puppy is protected for life. 

​

• They sell all pups with breeding rights (ability to breed the puppy)

  • Responsible breeders will only sell puppies with breeding rights to very select homes, and only the puppies that possess the best qualities will be offered to have breeding rights (usually 10-20% of the litter). The idea behind breeding is to better the breed - if a breeder is doing that and they believe in their program, they will want to keep the overall 1st pick of the litter for themselves to further their program. If a breeder is selling all puppies with full rights including their first pick with no co-own contract, that is a major red flag and indicates that money is their primary incentive for breeding.