Interesting question. In order to know what is not desireable in a "breeder" I think you have to know what a good breeder is. In my opinion a strong breeder of GSD's should be doing all of the following...

1. Breeding to better the breed.
2. Testing their breeding stock THEMSELVES (CGC or a CH are not effective temperament tests. SchH, Herding, PSD, PPD, Ring Sport, etc. are tests.
3. Conducting extensive health testing (OFA at the very least).
4. Have a clear cut objective on why they are pairing two dogs. What traits are they looking to build upon and bring out of the dogs pedigrees, and what weaknesses will be improved with this match?
5. Asking more questions and drilling down on potential puppy customers harder than the buyers are asking of the breeder.

People that breed one dog to another just cause they're purty and a "good dog" are back yard breeders.

I would define a backyard breeder as someone who owns a female dog that has not been shown in any sort of performance or bench show career but happens to be a purebred dog registered with the AKC or possibly with the CKC or UKC. The owner of this dog then decides to have a litter or two with this unproven female dog and breeds this dog usually to someone who also has an unproven male dog with papers. The backyard breeders generally do not have their breeding dogs screened for hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, eye certifications for breeds who tend to have eye issues, etc. Usually the backyard breeder advertises the registered pups for sale in local newspapers because they are not known in the performance or dog show world and have no-one actively searching to buy their pups. The backyard breeder normally does not ofer any health warranty. These dogs may make wonderful pets. However, if they come from stock with hereditary health problems or temperment problems the pups may inherit those issues and the buyer will have no recourse against the breeder.

A good breeder is someone that I would define as someone who is actively engaged in some area of dog sports or performance dog work who actively campaigns dogs in their specialty areas and breeds dogs that are successful in the specialty area. Good breeders ensure that their stock is clear of hereditary diseases before they breed their dogs. All LBDs have OFA or Penn certified hips (or other recognized hip registries) and breeds with eye issues have CERF certification. The parents (usually both of them) have acquired titles from their area of specialty, whether show/performance dog SCH, IPO, etc., tracking, utility, or even AKC bench show championships. Good breeders screen potential puppy purchasers to try to fit the proper person to the dog that will fit their lifestyle and fit the pup to a home suited to the pup's aptitude. They aren't looking to quickly sell a pup and don't care where it goes. They usually have owners sign an agreement which clarifies the terms and conditions of the sale. They provide health warranties for the pups and they normally will take the pup back if the owner's personal life changes to allow them to re-home the dog. A good breeder should be an expert about the breed, should be actively involved in their area of specialty in dog sports/performance and should be a source of advice for their clients and for people interested in learning about the breed.

Cutting to the simplest level, a BYB breeds dogs to make money, to show the kids the "miracle of birth" or because "everyone wants one of FiFi's/Fido's pups". Taking no consideration of the heritage, possible faults, or other failings in the dogs being bred, nor of the heritage, possible faults, or other failings of the people buying their dogs. It makes me

Edited by Janice Jarman (04/21/2008 02:59 PM)
Edit reason: added

Interesting post Mike. I like airing this mud a bit. Keep in mind my vision is from that of someone who raises a widely milled toy breed.

At what point do you consider a breeder to be considered a "breeder" and not a "backyard breeder"?

A breeder breeds with an end goal in mind and selects their breeding stock in pursuit of that goal. A backyard breeder has no goals other than personal to themselves, either cash, a ribbon, or prestige and breeds with the pursuit of satisfying others for this gain.

So I am curious, when YOU look at a breeder, what factors do you take into consideration when determining if someone is a breeder or not?

I look at a variety of things. First off that the breeder is sane and well grounded in reality... this is a difficult one and often a deal breaker for me. I don't mind someone being protective of their dogs but I do mind when someone spends all of their time talking about their dogs’ ribbons, spending their life's savings in the confirmation ring, and not obedience training their dogs. I find it disturbing that so many breeders don't address behavioral issues and breed dogs that are beautiful but mentally deficient. If the only pictures they have are stack photos at a show it's a huge red flag for me. I find it also a deal breaker to be when a breeder cannot acknowledge a pup they sell may not pan out to be breeding potential if sold on a full registration.

Is it the number of litters they have produced? What do you consider them if a breeder is just starting out on his first litter??

Numbers do not equal a balanced quality. Two of the most widely prolific breeders who get ribbons in the show ring of my breed are mills plain and simple. One of these breeders even acknowledged that she breeds her bitches on every consecutive heat until the bitch is no longer in condition to breed. This just about made my stomach churn.

Does buying a dog specifically for the intention to breed make the person a breeder, opposed to breeding their current dog?

No, just because a dog is purchased with the idea of breeding it, it doesn't mean that it will ever meet the quality that it should be bred. It's also possible you will never find a dog of the opposite sex of quality to breed as well. Once dogs have been bred that person is now the breeder.

If someone buys a pregnant bitch that whelps while in their possession, would you still consider that person the breeder? Or would you consider the previous owner of the bitch the breeder?
The previous person made the pairing so I would consider them the breeders.

At what point is a breeder no longer a breeder but a puppy mill?

I covered this a bit below the first question. In my mind this is when someone breeds to please someone other than themselves for a personal gain which is usually cash but could be power, influence over a breed standard, or prestige. While an Amish puppy mill video is an easy one to point to on what is a mill as it is pure greed, the point of breeder to mill is a lot more difficult to identify. I like to think of it this way breeding for profit and breeding for favors and influence are the same thing only with a different form of currency.

I am in the same agreement with John Miller. Only thing I have to add is they have to take their dogs back at any point in their life.

A true breeder knows the breed- knows the problems that are in the breed and works to avoid these problems, be it dysplasia, shy nature or weak conformation.

A true breeder cares for the whole "golden triangle"- health, temperament and appearance. Relevance in that order but none of them forgotten.

They plan the breedings taking in account not only the dogs that are about to be bred but not only their pedigrees either. If you take two dogs that seem to fit eachother perfectly but don´t research the pedigree, you can end up with a BIG dissapointment- a dog can inherit his fathers good head but still have a pedigree full of less than perfect ones and hoping this dog will pass on his head with another dog whos head is not perfect, is a long shot. It is also (in my mind) stupid to try to breed pedigrees- an impressive pedigree loses its shine when the dogs that it represents are full of faults. Two pups in the same litter will have the same pedigree but they don´t have the same value as breeding dogs and a breeder that forgets this, is not a good breeder.

A true breeder plans a breeding well and will travel if needed to get to the best male for this female. But I think it is often misunderstood that all the best males live far away from the females. They don´t. It will sure sound more impressive and greatbreederlike to travel to the end of the world to a male but this might not really be the best one. The best male CAN live in the next street AND belong to your friend. It can even belong to the breeder itself. If this male is quality and suits the female then this might be the way to go even if the people will whisper and call you a BYB. Traveling has never improved the quality of the pups. I know a breeder that traveled to the other side of the Europe to bring a female that she liked. She grew up to be a fabulous girl. And she was bred to a male that the breeder owned. As much as someone might like, this does not make this breeder a BYB because this female was searched, picked and raised to be bred with this male (that the breeder bred herself) and lady luck was kind this time because the female grew up just as hoped. And the pups are looking mighty fine

A true breeder stands behind his dogs- if anything should happen, they don´t just say "too bad, so sad, bye-bye now." They will help these dogs get re-homed and will take them in their home or find a substitute home if needed in a hurry. I think a breeder can´t be held fully responsible if a puppy out of their kennel develops hip dysplasia. A breeder can be held responsible for a breeding that is likely to give puppies that have HD but for a pup who has a pedigree of A-rated hips, I think it whould be too much to expect the breeder to be superhuman and able to predict these things.

A true breeder that has not been with the breed very long and is just starting breeding, should have a mentor. I don´t think that a person has to be involved with a breed 15 years to start breeding but there is alot of information that is sort of public knowledge but not actually spoken anywhere else than behind a wineglass between two people. Here it is good to have someone at your side that has seen and touched the dogs in the pedigrees, paired these same lines and seen these dogs grow up. Everybody has to breed their first litter at some point. The important thing is to make an informed decision from the first day.

A true breeder is not kennel-blind. This is a horrible disease that does no good to anyone, especially the breed itself. No dog is perfect and the breeder has to be able to admit this. Ofcourse it is more comfortable to talk about how strong is the bone and underjaw and what good angles and parallel lines a dog has but a breeder has to be willing to admit that the dog has a slightly weak back and should be shorter. If the breeder is not going to admit that their dogs have faults, they are not able to make breeding decisions that try to fix these problems. They also should be willing to admit the faults that the progeny of the dogs have had and not make claims like "this male is crap because this litter had such problems but my female is fabulous because the other litter turned out great." All bad isn´t from the male and all good from the female and at the end of the day it is always the breeders decision to pick the stud and the breeder should admit that they made a mistake with the choice, not that the dog is bad.

A true breeder is there for the owners of their pups. I don´t agree that a breeder should be a 24/7 hotline that you can call at any hour with any problem but when there is a problem, breeder should be willing to help and give advice until the end of the dogs life. This is why I can´t imagine having 50 dog kennel that produces hundreds of pups...

I also don´t think that a person, that has gotten with a great dog that is truly worthy of breeding and can add something valuable to the breeds current status, is a BYB just because they are not going to put up a kennel and start regularly producing pups. If it is a well planned breeding of two dogs that are likely of producing a litter that are expected to be great specimens of the breed, then I say it is a good thing. It whould be worse if a person that has a great dog, decided to start a kennel but doesn´t really have a descendant to continue the breeding work with so just gets a dog that is ok and breeds just for the sake of breeding dogs.

It doesn´t make a breeder a bad one if he decides to breed a dog that hasn´t had many titles. A title is something that you get when you do something with your dog, be it either work or show. A title is not something that makes the dog produce better. If a breeder KNOWS this dog, it´s working ability and sees its conformational pros and cons, and leaning on experience, is sure that this dog has breeding value, then titles don´t mean much. I know some dogs with show titles that have conformation faults that are not considered light. And there are dogs that professional trainers strain to get working titles on. But if a dog has aquired a IPO3 title with years of hard work by a professional trainer, should this dog be concidered to be able to produce pups with working ability? I am not saying that titles don´t mean anything, just that titles are not all. What I DO think are important, are health tests. A dog that looks healthy and has healty parents, might actually not be and this needs to be tested.

A true breeder takes the best care of the puppies. They are kept clean, fed quality food, socialized etc. If it is a working breed, temperament test should be done. If they are not sold by 8 weeks, they should still get the attention they need according to their age- socializing, even a little training on how to be a good mannered memeber of society, house training, crate training...

A true breeder doesn´t sell their dogs to anyone. They want to know how the dog will be kept, will the owners train or show the dog, what experience the new owners have etc. And the breeder is not afraid to say no, if something doesn´t feel quite right even though the evergrowing foodvaccuuming teethmonster is eating their nerves and home.

Someone who breeds because "we have such a lovely dog and I think eveyone whould like one just like her", "the kids need to see the miracle of life and adorable puppies" or something like that, is a BYB. If it is a quality dog then it is nothing wrong with the kids seeing the pups grow and that other people can have lovely companions like that but as a main reason, it is worth very little.

A breeder that breeds to get pet-quality pups, is a BYB. Pet-quality is an inevetable side-effect of breeding for quality dogs and shouldn´t be a goal in itself. This kind of breeding can after some generations produce pups that can even have the papers but not really the caracteristics of the breed anymore.

There are alot that make a breeder fall in the one or other category. Sometimes it is hard to tell what side a breeder is on. I am not very hard on stapling down clear lines but there are some things that to me make a clear difference on who I whould like to take a puppy from and who I whouldn´t buy from, no matter what.

BYB is someone you don't like................