Raising a Puppy from Conception to Weaning

I recently heard that puppy raisers may participate in puppy raising clubs, which is a great idea. There is also a whole army of people who raise and train Guide Dog puppies, who must be highly dedicated and very selfless on the day that their prodigy leaves for life with his or her disabled owner.

Puppy raising starting with the mating and up to the sale to the owner needs to be done with dedication and commitment. This cannot happen if the breeder takes a farming approach, and treats the bitch and the litter as if they were farm animal stock. In such cases decisions about welfare are made purely upon the economic benefit and this may cause suffering by the puppies.

Puppy farms when the description is correctly applied, will always tend to maximize their profits by not spending money on proper food, housing, exercise, or veterinary care. Dogs bred in puppy mills have on some occasions for example, we are told, been de-barked by ramming a steel rod down their throats to rupture their vocal cords. This seems unlikely to be a common action, but the worry is there that such things could happen when profit is paramount and the owner depends upon the income from the sales of their puppies to support their families.

These types of breeders can fail to heed good practice guidelines. Puppies may be taken from their mother when they are 5 to 8 weeks old and sold to brokers who pack them in crates for transport and resale all over the country. It is claimed that there are cases when many of the puppies do not survive the trip. The appalling fact is though tha puppy farm produced dogs have often never lived in a home, and will be terrified of everyday objects and experiences. Puppy farms (PFs) can even possibly on occasions offer Kennel Club registered puppies as it is very hard for these authorities to police who breeds every litter, but the puppy buying public can eradicate the poblem by just not buying these pups. Research your breeder before you buy, make sure they have the support of their local kennel club, and if in doubt do not buy the puppy.

Breeding bitches at Pfs are frequently bred from every season and often live in solitary confinement. This amounts to forcing them each season to produce excessive quantities of puppies for the pet trade, and is inhumane.

Breeding is not a cheap exercise and many breeders will tell you how much hard work and dedication goes into it. There is no easy money to be made in breeding and those that do it must be able to accept that from time to time they will find that they have not only have a sick dog on their hands, but also be out of pocket for thousands of dollars in vet bills.

The novice breeder need to understand the breeding requirements for a healthy dog. Breeding a good father with a bad quality mother does not normally produce good dogs. Some of the Labradors and beagles that I have seen from PFs look like a parody of what they really should look like.