Finding a Respectable Breeder

Shih-poo puppies at the breeder we got our boys from.

Breeders – What’s the big deal?

What’s the big deal with breeders? Why are so many people convinced that’s the only type of dog they can get? Why are other people convinced that it’s the most terrible crime in the world to adopt a dog from a breeder?

Not all breeders are created equal.

That’s it in a nutshell. There are some great breeders out there who have been breeding for a long time, treat their animals like family, and take great pride in what they do. In my opinion, these breeders are in the minority. There are a couple different types of breeders:

A good breeder.

This breeder breeds dogs for temperament and health. They’re usually very involved in dog events and especially with breed specific organizations. So if they breed labs, then they’re usually a member of a national Labrador club or association.

A breeder with good intentions.

I think this is the type of breeder we got our boys from. They were a nice couple, and I think they really loved their dogs even if they don’t treat them quite like we do. They just loved having puppies and were hoping to make a little money selling them.

A greedy breeder.

Have you ever heard of a puppy mill? I’m going to post about them one day, but they make me sick. It’s a terrible terrible place, and it’s where all those little doggies in pet stores come from. A lot of dogs sold online come from puppy mills too.

In a nutshell, a greedy breeder has lots and lots of dogs. Way more dogs than they could ever take care of properly. The dogs are always in wire crates. They don’t get held, petted or walked. Many of them have automatic feeders and huge water bottles that don’t get cleaned. The only time a human touches them is to take them out of the cage to breed.

These breeding dogs don’t get shots, don’t see a vet and often have eye/ear/jaw infections. I could go on and on, and one day soon I will, but for now you can learn more about puppy mills here.

How do I find a good breeder?

This is the tough one, especially for people who really haven’t gotten into the dog world yet.

Beware the internet – We can say anything we want on the internet. If you find a breeder for yorkies, for instance, that only has pics of the puppies in a basket or something, beware! Never ever EVER buy a puppy sight unseen over the internet. NEVER. Please never do this.

Let me see! - You want to be sure to see and be able to meet both parents and see where the puppies are being raised. A good breeder will be very happy to welcome you into their home to see their awesome parents and pups. Don’t buy dogs off a lady in a parking lot, ok?

Inside, please – Please don’t buy from a breeder that has their dogs in a shed in the backyard. These puppies should be in the house, that way they’re learning socialization and training skills right from the beginning. Pregnant moms should be inside.

Quality over quantity - There should be one, maybe two litters at a time at the very most. Watch out for places that offer 10 different types of designer dogs. Overbreeding causes health problems in the puppies. And there’s no way a respectable breeder could properly take care of 4 litters of pups plus all the parents they would need to have on hand to have all those different mixes.

Learn about mom - Be sure to find out how often the mother breeds and how old she is. Most dog breeds shouldn’t have their first litter before 18 months, some people say two years. And she shouldn’t be bred every heat. (Dogs go into heat twice a year or so.)

Don’t ever buy a dog from a pet store. EVER. – A good breeder does not take their dogs to a pet store. A good breeder wants to carefully screen every person who adopts a dog. And I’m going to stop there before I get angry…

OMG I just want a dog…

There are great breeders out there, and the right people know them. Go to a local training club or an AKC dog show. These are the people who love their pure bred dogs and take great pride in pedigree. Yes, these dogs will be expensive. But, they’ll also be healthy and have a good temperament.

Why does this matter? Because if you get a dog from a bad breeder, it might be aggressive, have anxiety, or have health problems. I think it's especially important to be careful with the big dogs like labs and German Shepherd that get hip dysplasia.

Learn from your mistakes.

We got Mocha and Ninja from a breeder in Missouri. They’re Shih-Poos. I’d never owned a dog before and was afraid of getting a rescue dog. I only really knew of the dogs in the pound, who can come out a little… wild… Also, I have some serious pet allergies, so I needed a dog that didn’t shed. And I wanted a small dog because my husband was in medical school and I knew his hours would get crazy eventually, so I looked for breeds that would be small and good with kids if trained properly.

I found the breeder on Google, which was quite a feat since most nothing is on Google in north east Missouri. She had a litter and we went up to see them. Really nice old couple. I believe they love their dogs, I really do. But in hindsight, they weren’t the best example of a breeder.

The adult dogs were only in the house when pregnant, other than one little poodle who was their indoor dog. The other puppies and dogs were kept in an outside kennel, and the youngest puppies were kept in kennels in the garage. These dogs were in crates with no bottoms so they didn’t need cleaned as often… And I distinctly remember the lady complaining when we got our second dog from them that the state was requiring that they heat the outdoor kennels.

It hurts me inside today to think of the dogs at her home. They’re not socialized in any way before adoption. She also adopted to us even though we lived in a place that didn’t allow dogs. (I would not adopt my foster dogs to us as we were then.) Mocha has severe joint problems and arthritis in his back, and he’s four. Ninja has seizures and a collapsing trachea, which our vet says you don’t tend to see in a dog younger than six. He’s three.

One final note.

Last week I talked about animal rescue. This is a great option for finding a pure bred dog. You know, some dogs live a long time. Just because a dog is over 1 year old doesn't mean they're not worth having. And senior dogs have a lot of love to give.

Right now at this very moment, the Lake Erie Labrador Retriever rescue has 11 pure bred labs up for adoption. Want a poodle? Google poodle dog rescue, you'll find a rescue group near you.

Not all breeders are bad, and not all rescues are good. (Don’t even get me started on shock collars…) Do your research and listen to your instincts. Talk to people, don’t be afraid to ask questions, and do what is best for you and your family. 

I'm back!

Ok so here's what happened, and it's totally my bad. I was working one full time job and two part time jobs, plus fostering dogs, taking Mocha to nursing homes (he's a therapy dog now) and volunteering with dog training classes. I was too busy, and forgot all about the blog.

But, now I've made a career change! I quit my day job (which was really stressing me out) to be a piano teacher from home. It's awesome, the best job ever. I love all my students, I love teaching them and I love playing the piano. Here's my website for that: Barford Piano Studio

So, now I have the time to invest into Inspired By Mocha a bit more. I've added some new stuff, like bandanas that slip over the collar. And I made my first knitting pattern to sell. I think the biggest move I've made was opening my own shop independent of Etsy--> Inspired By Mocha

I'm still going to donate 10% of the sales from both the Etsy shop and my independent shop to animal rescue. In honor of Teddy (see the last post), these donations will go to the National Mill Dog Rescue--> milldogrescue.org Last year I donated $46. I'd like to more than triple that this year. This is my goal for my shop and this blog, to help those puppy mill rescues.

Training:
I've done a lot of dog training with Mocha and Ninja over the past year. They both have their CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and Mocha is a certified therapy dog through Therapy Dogs International (TDI). I also helped with puppy and obedience classes at my local dog club, and I got a lot of training experience with our foster dogs last year.

I'd like to share some basic training advice on my blog each week. Simple stuff that you can do at home with your dog. I made a big list of topics this week and had a hard time choosing, but I think the easiest to start with is a recall game you can play at home any time.

"Cookie"
Here's how this game works. And it's going to work this way every day for you and your dog from now until forever.

We have a recall word for our dogs. It's a word that they know gets them a treat, no matter when, where, what, how, why, whatever, if I say "Cookie!" they come running for that treat.

You can make this word whatever you want. We thought about making it something silly like "broccoli" or "sassafras," but "cookie" just seemed to fit for our boys.

Step 1: Create the response. Spend a couple days with a few treats in your pockets. When your dog is paying attention to you, hand him/her a treat and say the magic word. (I'm going to use "cookie.") If you do this 5 times in a row 2-3 times a day for a couple days, your dog will start associating "cookie" with getting a treat. Do this for at least three days before moving to step 2.

Step 2: Add a little distance. Have your dog sit and back a few steps away. If your dog doesn't know how to sit and wait for you, then do this when s/he's at the other end of the couch, or when s/he just walks in a room. Say "cookie" and reach out with a treat in your hand. You'll be amazed, your dog will jump right to you. If you dog doesn't respond, go back to step 1 for another day or two.

Do step 2 for a couple days, maybe a week.

Step 3: Hide in the house. Start small here. Go into the kitchen and yell out "cookie." Your dog should come running, and if s/he doesn't, go back to step 2. Make sure you give them the cookie when they come!

Make a game out of this, dogs love games. A couple times a day, when you're in a room and they're not, yell out "cookie."

Step 4: Moving it outside: Doing this in the comfort of your own home is all well and good, but anyone who's done any dog training knows that once you get outside, most of that training goes right out the window. Here's how my husband and I did this (you're gonna need a friend for this part):

Keep your dog on the leash. Go stand in your backyard to start, then move to a park or the front yard once your dog has the hang of this. One person has the dog on the leash, the other takes 10 steps away and faces the dog. Yell out "cookie" as excited as you can. Your dog should come running. Give him/her the treat. Then switch positions. You hold the leash and your friend/husband/partner/whoever takes a few steps away and yells out "cookie."

Just keep increasing the distance. Eventually, you'll be able to have your dog off leash just about anywhere and yell out your recall word and they'll come running.

Here's the catch: Every time you say your recall word, you need to give them a treat. If your recall word is cookie, then every time you say cookie, whether you're saying it to them or in conversation, you'd better give them one. In our house, we say "C-word" for cookie when we're talking about the cookies we eat. Otherwise our dogs are in our face so fast and we have to get off our butts to get them a treat!

Here's Ninja all of 2 seconds after I say cookie.

Try it! Let me know how it goes! And if you have questions or problems, I'll try to help. inspiredbymocha@gmail.com

Hello 2014

Hello everyone! Hope we're having a great 2014 :)

This month, we've had a lovely foster dog, Teddy the Pomeranian. He was a rescue from a puppy mill. He stayed at our house for a whole month, but found his forever home yesterday. We miss him, but we're really happy for him too.

So now what? Both our boys are kinda happy that Teddy's gone, he was too big of a drain on the attention they normally get from us. We're going to do a little more agility soon. Mocha's knees have been hurting him since it's been cold, so we're sticking to Teacup agility until it warms up. I'm also going to put Mocha in a CGC class the next time our All Breed offers one. I think he'd make a great therapy dog :)

Oooohh the other new thing I've been into is Blogilates! It's pilates, but the videos are on youtube and they're free. Oh, and they'll kick your ass real hard lol. But the instructor, Cassey Ho, is super positive and kinda silly, and that really helps me push through the pain. (And oh there's so much pain!) Man if I could look like her.... well I guess I'd have to eat like a rabbit and I like cake so, some things just weren't meant to be.

Here's her beginner's video. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCg_gh_fppI