I had a couple of topics that I wanted to discuss this month, but in recent weeks I have been watching a lot of chatter on social media which may not affect us individually but could have an overall effect on the dog show world. I have seen so many posts that have been about the market for puppies, with people saying they cannot sell the ones that they have and saying they have put their future breeding plans on hold. The problem with this is that the people who have been complaining the most are those who are accustomed to having the whole litter walk out the door at 15-minute intervals when they are eight weeks old. These are not people who created a purpose-bred litter for either the show ring or working homes, but who bred for the popular pet market. Our puppies leave home one at a time over the next several weeks or even months, but what has concerned me is that seeing all these messages of doom and gloom will push the wrong people into putting their breeding program on hold. I saw a comment from one person who stated that she would not be breeding from her health-tested and titled bitch.
It is very likely there is an over-abundance of puppies bred for the pet market; comments being made about COVID puppies which are now old enough to be bred from. Those puppies probably didn’t come from the right place to begin with or from a knowledgeable breeder to advise them. Over the years, I have noticed that no matter what breed you have, the market is cyclical and will depend on where you live and on the climate. Where I’ve lived in different locations, with hot but not excessive summers and cold winters with snow, I found it was the same every single year. In the US, people would want their puppies in the spring so that they could have the spring and summer to raise and train them. When Memorial Day came around, the demand dropped off progressively over the next couple of months until July.
Through July and August, few people were looking for a puppy. People were going on vacation, visiting family or friends, and receiving visitors themselves. Labor Day arrives, the boat comes out of the water, they lock up the summer cottage, and the kids go back to school. In September, people will start to contact breeders as they would like to find a puppy before winter begins. These are not “impulse buyers,” and they do follow a pattern. As soon as the snow falls, most of them choose to wait until spring.
After Christmas they start looking through the notes they’ve made over the preceding year and will contact breeders they might have talked to a few months earlier. They will look online every day to see if there are any new litters being planned, and with the first snow melt they will start calling breeders, as they want their puppies around Easter. Some people have been planning this for six months, but often, breeders don’t realize this and think of them as impulse buyers and are less than welcoming. Before you know it, Memorial Day comes and the cycle starts again.
The moral of this is that those who breed for a purpose should not put their plans on hold… the selective buyers who know what they want in both puppy and breeder will find you.
The other hot topic is the high cost of veterinary services, and the growing difficulty of even being able to see a vet. The overwhelming opinion is that so many practices are being taken over by for-profit corporations and that they have raised prices way beyond the rate of inflation. This leaves breeders with little choice. A friend of mine here in France says that the same is happening in Europe. Along with this, we have the insurance companies that sell the idea that the dog owner will save money in the case of catastrophic illness or injury. That works for the owner of a single dog, if they can afford it, but for breeders and exhibitors—and anyone who owns several dogs—WHICH ONE do you insure?
This takes us to another topic. One of the reasons we have so few new breeders is that, on any of the advice groups on social media, newcomers are immediately presented with worst-case scenarios as to the costs of breeding and raising litters. There was a time when, in most breeds, C-sections were rare. Now it is presented to new intending breeders that they need to have $5,000 set aside for a C-section before even thinking of breeding. They are told they must use progesterone testing, AI, TCI, etc., and not just for imported or frozen semen. Few breeders know how to evaluate when a bitch is really ready, or know how to handle a natural breeding. Should some older, retired, and experienced breeders set up a service teaching people how to do it for themselves?
Now to my final topic for the month – the planned AKC semen bank. It came up for discussion on a Facebook group and I was surprised at how many people in the US did not know about it, but sadly, not so surprised at some of the responses. The concept is to be able to preserve semen for use in the years to come in breeds where decreasing numbers could put the breed’s future at risk.
I think it is a great idea, but the same attitudes that have already led to the loss of bloodlines (in at least some breeds) are alive and well. In the same way that 21st century breeders have made it difficult for newcomers to obtain a quality foundation, current breeders want to know how to control how the semen is used, 20, 30, 40 years from now. Preserving part of the gene pool for use in the future is less important to many, I am sad to say.
