says HAS THE RECENT “ADOPT DON’T SHOP” CAMPAIGN BY THE AR ORGANIZATIONS AFFECTED YOUR BREEDING PROGRAM? IF SO, HOW?
No it just makes me angry—more should be done to appre- ciate responsible breeders, especially those who health test and to promote and appreciate the integrity of a purebred pedigree in my honest opinion. —Anonymous
“THE EFFECT HAS BEEN THAT PEOPLE MISTAKENLY BELIEVE THEY CAN FIND A TYPEY LOOKING
I am totally surrounded by people with a new breed of dog: The Shelter Dog. —Anonymous
The effect has been that people mistakenly believe they can find a typey looking purebred anywhere to adopt at low cost. In my breed, Finnish Lapphunds, this is simply untrue. Further, I am seeing other purebred dogs that turn up in res- cue or shelters under ‘questionable circumstances’ that are quite expensive especially for a dog with no health history and probably a ton of baggage. My puppy owners are many times being ‘shamed’ for taking the time to find a quality breeder and wait for the right puppy while building a life- long relationship with their breeder. Our owners have also run into some shaming and poor treatment from veterinar- ians that have been schooled during this era of Animal Rights misinformation. —Anonymous No, people who want my breed (Shibas) are people buying a special gift for themselves. Most have had dog experience and owned a “rescue” or two before and want to know what they are getting this time so are educating themselves and contacting experienced and responsible breeders they found through parent club referral. I take the time to educate everyone I encounter about AR and their misguided propaganda. The 80s even saw breed- ers cutting back on litters because of AR marketing. We all decided not to have litters unless we were keeping a puppy to show and carry on with. So their propaganda even influenced purebred breeders. Shibas are becoming very popular now and there is no way to keep up with the demand for puppies when you have litters of three. Our problem is people can’t be patient and let us provide a healthy Shiba with good temperament so they get BYB or mill puppies. After that experience they seek a responsible AKC or CKC breeder for their next Shiba. —Cheri Fellinger Adopt don’t shop, has not affected my breeding program, but many of my clients are harassed after shopping for a nice puppy with no issues. We always educate them and say, if you promote rescue, then you are not promoting good breeders. So many puppy mills in North America are shut down and we have few res- cues available. That would be awesome, but many rescue organizations have made a business of this and are importing crates full of foreign-born dogs into North America. We teach shop—shop well, do lots of homework, visit the breeder, call her vet, etc. Public education is needed much more than ever. —Anonymous Yes! With laws on number of dogs and cats plus Franklin County, Ohio (Columbus) has eliminated many properties from getting a kennel license. My county has raised the price on intact animals to $24/yearly. That quickly adds up! Increasing stories of people being raided and dogs confis- cated is quite scary. Finding a lawyer that can do animal court
PUREBRED ANYWHERE TO ADOPT AT LOW COST.”
cases is difficult. We had the show person having a friend watch their Sheltie that was taken by a Sheltie rescue after getting away. Rescued lied, refused to give information on the dog, etc—this was scary! It was over two years to battle, court, etc for her to get dog back. Cost of dog shows. More handlers coming into my breed and knowing the judges made it difficult to get majors. Scared to advertise plus the Dispatch (newspaper) tripled the cost of animal ads, was sickening. Where can one adver- tise and not make AR people aware one is a breeder? Or even the County aware of how many dogs one has? I quit breeding and retired! I still have two dogs from my last litter from three years ago. My 11 lb female gave me nine puppies and it was by word of mouth to place. Just too much hassle! After 35+ champions, how many more champions do I need was my husbands question to me. My daughter went to dog grooming. It’s just not as much fun dog showing! —Dee Burdick I think it has impacted sales of puppies. People feel like they have to defend themselves when they purchase a pure- bred dog from a breeder. —Anonymous Not that I am aware of. But I breed infrequently so don’t have that many pups to sell and my breed have small litters. —Anonymous No, there’s not enough of our breed, Beauceron, in the United States so they are still in demand. —Susan Bass No, I do very limited breeding for a less popular breed. People who want Bullmastiffs and are willing to pay the high prices for them do not want mixed breed shelter dogs. My problem is people getting rescue Bullies from well
148 • S how S ight M agazine , M arch 2018
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