Hi PeggySue, this was a reply to my statement that I couldn't be a breeder due to all the cruelty I have witnessed as board member of the local pet shelter.

I believed what you said was what you clarified for me. I just wanted to make sure I did not read this as a double negative. Knowing that you have been involved with rescue, I thought that is what you meant. And I agree with you!

Having been involved with a shelter and purebred dogs, I am disappointed how polarized some of the people have become. Some rescue people believe that we should not breed anymore dogs since there are so many to rescue. And of course we know there are some miserable breeders that we would like to put out of business. Many breeds need some serious revamping in order to correct major health issues. Working on both sides of the fence one can clearly see both sides of the issues.

Your statement of "Personally, I don't think anybody who breeds cannot be involved in Rescue." sounded that if you breed you cannot be involved with Rescue, but I wanted you to make sure your point was made in the way that I felt you believe. Thanks

Congrats on the lovely new litter.

Don, I understand how you have come to your conclusion. Indeed the reason why I have not gone that route. I did breed for foals that I wanted, but when you have only one at a time, that is really an easy decision to who gets the baby!
Still too much heatbreak for me when things go wrong!

Peggy Sue,
if responsible pure-bred breeders do not breed, all we'll have are the puppymill and back-yard breeders contributing dogs to the available pool. I don't believe breeding and rescue are mutually exclusive, obviously. But, more importantly, I believe that careful, ethical, responsible breeders are the only ones that can improve the health -- physical and mental -- of the breeds that do exist. I've owned Golden Retrievers and frankly marveled at the temperament issues I encountered within that breed. A direct product of a popular breed that became overbred and under-managed. It's much better now but finding really good breeders back when we had our Goldens was not easy.

The same thing happened with Rottweilers in the late 1990's when the breed was the 3rd or 4th most popular in the US. Most of the good Rottie breeders were aghast that the dogs were that popular because we knew that not every home should have a Rottie. But a lot of them found that out the hard way and far too many of those dogs found their way into shelters. Today, the breed's popularity has fallen to #11 and has been as low (or high) as #16. That's great! Despite the argument that having a larger gene pool is better for the breed, in my opinion having fewer but better dogs is the only viable way to improve the breed.

And then there's the issue of what happens when a Rottweiler, for example, finds itself in Animal Control. Most ACs do only cursory evaluations of the adoptability of the animals that come in and even less of the families coming in to adopt so lots of dogs go out the door into homes just like the one they escaped from or were tossed out of and end up back in AC within the year. So we as breeders owe it to those dogs to give them the type of evaluation that will ensure they are "good dogs" and then place them in "great homes". Nobody else is better at doing that than breeders.

Again, JMHO but I feel I owe it to this breed that I love to make sure that we have more wonderful dogs living in more wonderful homes.

Jim

Cute!

Thanks Katie. Here are the latest photos of the Quintessential Quintet . First up, here's the lineup at 3 weeks old and each of them weighing in at around 3 lbs. (vs. 12 to 15 oz. at birth).



Next up is Mr. Red napping with Mr. Lion.



And keeping with a theme, Mr. Red dreaming about the rubber chicken circuit.



Ms Pink and Professor Plum doing something very unusual -- napping .



And Big Blue and Mr. Red discussing Middle Eastern politics.



Finally, Ms. Lt Blue and Plummy with their favorite whelping assistant, Melanie Leon, following full exams by Mel's mom, Dr. Jane Leon.



Puppies at 3 weeks of age are just cutting their baby teeth. Momma Juneau is not happy about that!! We're also starting the weaning process by substituting 3 meals a day with milk replacer. By the end of the week, the teeth will all be in and we'll start moving them to a weak gruel mixture of milk replacer and moist puppy food and then we'll start adding in dry food blended into an increasingly thick gruel mixture until they're ready to eat almost solid food. We use a large donut-shaped bowl for that and it's a scream to see. Yes, I'll send photos.

Enjoy. We are. Who needs sleep anyway?

Jim

Sleep? What is sleep? lol

Those are all so adorable! Makes me want a puppy lol

Lovely pics, Jim.
Thanks for sharing.

Great pics! I especially like the one of Big Blue giving Mr. Red mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Doug