Dog breeding can be a good fit for you if you love dogs and are looking for a rewarding opportunity to make a healthy hobby income from your own beloved pets. And if you follow the guidelines I will give you, you will be embarking on a path that not only brings extra prosperity to your life, but also contributes to the joy of others, feels great and is fun.
Ethical
We are committed to encouraging strongly ethical dog breeding ventures. Breeding dogs without generous injections of love will only reap disaster in the longer term. If you are blessed with a love of dogs, this will shine through in the care you take of your breeders, the quality of your puppies, and the gratitude and joy they bring into the lives of your customers. Your happy customers will spread the word and bring more people hungry to buy puppies from you and only you!
I have found that it is not difficult to be an exceptional breeder. The little extra things you do out of your love will easily exceed your client’s expectations, and have them raving about you to others. The pride you show in the way you breed your dogs will be reflected in the pride your customers feel to own one of your wonderful pups. I am honored to take you by the hand and walk you through what it means to be an ethical dog breeder, and hope you also reap the joy and prosperity I have on this road.
What do I mean by ethical dog breeding? Ethical dog breeding is a natural outcome of both a love of dogs and of the people who buy from you, and encompasses:
- Raising your dogs in a happy environment – I object to keeping dogs like production animals in concrete and wire runs. My dogs are part of my family, and are raised in a family environment.
- Producing puppies that are sound and healthy – This starts with the dogs you select to breed from, and how you select them, and continues through the way you feed and care for them and their puppies.
- Producing a puppy that will be an excellent pet – A puppy raised in a ‘puppy mill’ environment does not get anywhere near sufficient handling by people to be a properly socialized little puppy by the time it goes to its new home. This is another benefit I proudly provide for my clients – because my dogs are raised as part of my family, my pups get to participate in family life. They are therefore properly socialized and perfectly prepared to be members of the new families they are sold to.
- Doing your best to optimize your client’s ownership experience – Just because you know how to raise a dog properly, doesn’t mean all your clients will know. If you have been lucky enough to grow up with dogs, then knowing what to do just comes naturally. But many people never had that advantage. If left to their own devices without any help from you, such clients may make a lot of mistakes in the raising of their puppy resulting in an unhappy puppy and an unhappy owner.
- As an ethical dog breeder you, like me, will provide your clients with guidance designed to optimize their dog owning experience. I produce a “How to Raise a Puppy” Guide Book on Dog Ownership specially for my clients and give it to them as soon as they have put a deposit on a puppy.
Rewarding
We know from experience: you can enjoy your dogs and make a great hobby income too! The dog breeding information here will help you avoid expensive and heartbreaking pitfalls that trap the less informed.
Good puppy production is only possible in the long term by fantastic care of your animals, pride in your puppy product, and providing genuine value to your clients. However, even the most doting and responsible would-be breeders can end up out-of-pocket if they don’t have the right know-how.
Most breeders jealously guard the secrets they use to ensure their dogs produce saleable puppies reliably, year in and year out. Without knowledge of these secrets you can easily make mistakes that can cost you in veterinary bills, missed matings, dead puppies or even dead breeding dogs. Don’t worry though! I am happy to share with you all I know about running a dog breeding enterprise that is an asset rather than a liability in your life.
Fun
Like dog ownership, dog breeding should be fun! It only loses its sparkle when things go wrong, and things go wrong when mistakes are made. I hope the information I share with you will enable you to avoid all the dreaded and costly (and sometimes downright devastating) mistakes that I know, from my own experience, can happen to the unaware.
