The Sacrifice of Breeding Healthy Puppies
Luca is one of the most beautiful Berners we’ve had.
Unfortunately, she did not pass her hips at the one year mark.
And we were forced to retire her before ever breeding.
As the breeding market expands, especially in the Doodle world, we’ve noticed the term “ethical breeding” show up more and more despite the substance of that term becoming less and less prevalent. The reality is that ethically breeding dogs is inherently hard (read our other articles, Breeding Philosophy, and Health Standards to see why), and a big part of that is being willing to make tough decisions about breeding the right dogs. Let me explain.
Every potential new parent we bring into our program joins us as a puppy. Puppies can be Embark and Pawprint tested, but the more important PennHip testing can not be performed until they are almost a year old. That means we have to make a large investment in a puppy even before we know if it’s suited to our program. Now, what does that investment entail? Well, obviously there’s the monetary side of things, which is significant. Obtaining a high quality dog with breeding rights costs thousands of dollars and that’s not even including living expenses through that first year. Additionally, our program utilizes Guardian Homes to ensure our dogs have a fulfilling life outside of breeding. As we are particular about who we have our dogs with, qualified Guardian Homes are sometimes hard to find. As such, finding the wonderful families that we work with is harder than you’d think, and when we do find them it’s an exciting opportunity for our program.
All of this is to say, before we even know if a puppy is viable for our program, we have have to make an enormous investment in them. So then what happens when a pup doesn’t pass their health testing? Well… That’s where the sacrifice of ethical breeding comes in. Those cases are a go/no-go criteria, and if they don’t pass their testing we’re forced to retire that dog immediately. That means all of our money, time and effort goes out the window, and we get to start over from square one. It’s one of the most frustrating parts of our job, but it’s a sacrifice that we know has to be made because it’s the right thing to do.
As a breeder, holding yourself to a standard can be hard. If a dog doesn’t pass its testing, it’s easy to not post those results and say to families that “this dog is health tested” without mentioning they didn’t pass. It’s simple to look at your investment in a certain parent and tell yourself that one litter would be worth recouping your loss. The hard decision is setting a standard and holding the line when things don’t go as planned. As discouraging as that might be, it’s what allow us to call ourselves Ethical Breeders and a sacrifice that we’ve repeatedly been proud to make.