Puppy farms

A number of large scale puppy farms exist in Australia, which produce many puppies for both domestic and international markets. These puppies are usually found in pet shops or advertised on the web or in newspapers. Many of them make great pets but if all you have to go on is the cute puppy sitting in a pet shop window, it can be difficult if not impossible to predict what you will end up with. We know plenty of people who've taken home a 'labrador' puppy but ended up with a mastiff, or who bought what they thought was a cavoodle, only to end up with a giant crossbred animal. We also know people who have experienced distressing and expensive health and behavioural problems with puppies who come from unknown origins. There is no incentive for large scale, anonymous breeders to produce dogs that will live long and healthy lives - their commitment to the dog is over as soon as they get paid for the puppy. It is also really difficult for large scale producers to adequately socialise their pups. Although modern dogs are pretty much designed to live in human communities, they need to learn what is expected of them very early in life. Pups who are not socialised to humans in their first 8-12 weeks of life never catch up with pups who are adequately socialised. By the time you buy that cute, timid pup from a pet shop or newspaper advert, it may be too late.

Showies

Many pups are also produced by 'showies', people who own purebred dogs for the purpose of competing in dog shows and other competitive sports. These breeders can be large or small in terms of the number of litters they have per year and they can also vary greatly in their breeding goals and achievements. Most purebred breeders do a terrific job of selecting good breeding dogs and producing great pups, but some are only interested in the next show ribbon and may produce dozens of pups in order to obtain a 'perfect' specimen of their chosen breed. Whether the 'reject' pups are good pets or not will depend on the temperaments of their parents and on the amount of socialisation they receive prior to sale.  Not all purebred dogs make good companions. The traits that are rewarded in the show ring are not necessarily those that make a dog good to live with. After all, we all love looking at Supermodels and Ferrari's, but most of us choose to marry a homebody and drive a family sedan.  

Backyarders

The remaining pups come from what are called 'backyard' breeders. These are often people who own a dog or two and who breed just for the fun of it, or maybe for profit or by accident because their pets are not desexed. In years gone by, most of us owned 'mongrel' dogs produced by backyard breeders and these were generally pretty good companion dogs. Dogs that didn't make good companions rarely lived to adulthood, so those producing puppies were generally sound in mind and body. In addition, because the pups were raised in busy homes or backyards, they were generally pretty well socialised by the time they left home. Now though, things have changed. Our laws require that companion dogs be restrained and confined at all times and most responsible pet dog owners make sure that their animals are desexed. This means that the dogs produced by backyard breeders are often less than ideal. They may be produced by disreputable persons seeking a quick 'cash crop', who pay no attention to the characteristics of the parents or to socialisation of the pups. You only have to visit an animal shelter or two to see what happens when people breed dogs indiscriminately. Thousands of dogs are

Hevnsent Breeding Goals