Interview Questions & Answers
1. How did you know you wanted to breed dogs for a living? I bought a dog, a cocker spaniel, took him to training classes and then learned about conformation and breeding. I did not breed that dog because he had a bad bite, but later purchased a dog who was good enough quality to breed. I wanted to see if I could breed puppies as good as the parents or maybe even better.
2. How old were you when you started your business? First, I never started a “business”. I bred my first litter at 33. 3. Do you need a college degree? Does it help? Technically, you would not need a college degree, but you would want to learn everything you can about the health and genetics of the breed you choose. 4. How did you decide what kind of dog you wanted to breed? I had a cocker when I was a little kid and always loved the breed. Later, I fell in love with the English Toy Spaniel and we have bred them since about 1990. 5. Is it hard to find families to take the dogs? Yes, you have to be very careful. You need to make sure they understand how to take care of the dog, have a fenced in yard and are willing to take care of the dog throughout it’s life. We always tell people if they can no longer keep the dog for any reason, they can bring it back—we don’t want to see them go to the pound. (That obviously does not happen with commercial breeders, as there is no relationship with the puppy purchaser.) 6. Do you have a dog? Yes, we have several English Toy Spaniels 7. What does a typical day as a dog breeder look like? A commercial breeder would spend the mornings cleaning cages or runs and feeding and watering the dogs. They would need to do that again toward the end of the day. They should also take the time to routinely bathe and groom and socialize each dog, but that does not happen in a commercial setting. 8. What is the most challenging thing as a dog breeder? The most heartbreaking thing about being a breeder is doing all your home work about health, genetics and the pedigrees of the dogs to make every effort to breed healthy dogs only to have the puppy or young dog break with a cataract or have a heart condition. 9. What is the most rewarding things as a dog breeder? We breed and show our dogs. The most rewarding thing is seeing a dog you have put hours into get its championship and then go on to compete in performance events such as agility, obedience, rally, scent work and/or barn hunt. 10. Do you need to run a business or can you do it a home? How do you start up a business for dog breeding? To actually make a living breeding dogs, you would need to set up a commercial kennel. You would need to purchase several healthy females and have contacts for stud dogs to breed them to. You would need to monitor when they come in season, make sure they get bred, then monitor their pregnancy. To ensure the mother and as many puppies as possible survive, you would need to sit up during the whelping and for a few days afterward. That adds up to several sleepless nights—and that is with just one female having puppies. Multiply that by several and you can imagine the time and effort. I will tell you honestly that I have been training and breeding dogs for 40 years and have never made a profit. I went to college, got a degree and a decent job and that is how I have been able to afford being a breeder. There are new laws applying to commercial breeders being passed every day which make it very difficult for them to stay in business. There are “lemon” laws that can apply—if you sell a puppy and he has health problems, you can be on the hook for the value of the puppy and the cost of the health care, and that can run into the $1,000’s. Most commercial breeders sell to puppy stores. California has just passed a law that puppy stores can now only sell rescue dogs—not dogs from commercial breeders. Don’t know how that is going to affect commercial breeders in California. You asked some good questions. If I were you, I would research breeds, pick one you fall in love with and go to a responsible breeder, by searching for breeders on www.akc.org. You should ask them what genetic problems the breed has and what breed testing they do. If they don’t know, walk away from that breeder. A good breeder does the testing and turns it in to OFA (Orthopedic Foundation of America). You can go to that website and research the various breeds and see what breeders are doing the testing. Once you have purchased a puppy, you should take a puppy class, then an obedience class at a local club such as Scott County Kennel Club or the Quad City Dog Obedience Club. Learn the joy of training your puppy and watching it grow in confidence and skills. Being a breeder is a huge commitment and there is a lot to learn before you go down that road. I would also recommend you go to a couple of dog shows and see what they are all about. Scott County Kennel Club is having a 2-day conformation show on Mother’s Day weekend. They will also have 2 obedience and 2 rally shows each day. There will also be barn hunt competitions Friday-Sunday. You can learn a lot and meet other dog lovers. Good luck to you!! Karen |