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To breed correctly, you
will not make any money; you will loose money.
Puppies must be wormed and must have booster
shots. Pregnant and lactating mothers need
extra food and extra vet care. In addition,
there are all the "up front" costs, such
as making sure the dogs are free of brucellosis
(a dog venereal disease) and making sure
the dogs are OFA certified (see below).
To breed correctly, you
must be certain of the "line" both the mother
and father come from. Are there any genetic
problems in that "line"? Do you know all
the genetic disorders which you may be inadvertently
passing along to your puppies? Passing along
these diseases is hurtful to the puppies,
as they suffer, and to the people who have
your puppies, as they may loose a dog at
a very young age.
To breed correctly, you
must be aware of the colors which can
be breed. Look at the number of deaf and
blind Danes produced each year! The number
is huge. Many of these puppies are put down
because the breeder cannot sell them. Some
of the lucky ones end up in homes or in rescue
where they go to good homes. Every rescue
group has had some of these dogs come in.
Are you willing to take responsibility for
these dogs? For more information on correct
color pairings, please see the Great Dane
Club of America's requirements at http://www.gdca.org/colorcode.htm.
This brings us to the next
point. You are creating these lives. You
must be willing to be responsible for
them. What will you do if you cannot find
homes for all the puppies? Take them to
the shelter? Call rescue? Keep them yourself?
If you take your puppies to the shelter,
the shelter will take them but they may
be euthanized before you get back home--is
that what you really want for your puppies?
If you call rescue, there is absolutely no
guarantee that we will be able to help. We,
like most rescue groups, run at full capacity
most of the time and have few resources
(both in terms of foster homes and in terms
of money). If you want us to take a puppy
or two, we MIGHT be able to help. If you
want us to take an entire litter (particularly
one that has some sort of "problem"), the
answer will most likely be 'I'm sorry, we
can't help". What will you do if, say, three
years from now, someone who bought a puppy
from you calls and says "I'm getting a divorce" (or "I
lost my job", or "I'm moving", or "I don't
want the dog any more", or "He got too big")
and can't keep the dog any more. Are you
willing to take your "puppy" back then? If
you're not, think about where that dog
will end up--either being put down at a shelter
or in rescue (if the dog is lucky). Regardless
of whether the dog ends up in the shelter
or in rescue, someone else is being asked
to take responsibility for YOUR actions.
Be willing to take responsibility for
your own actions.
This brings us to finding
homes for your puppies. You must be extremely
careful when choosing a home for your puppy.
Just read some of the stories of dogs that
have come into our rescue (or any rescue
for that matter) and be aware that this could
happen to YOUR puppy! YOUR puppy could end
up tied out to a tree with no food or water,
YOUR puppy could end up being starved to
death or shot; YOUR puppy could end up being
abused. YOUR puppy could end up being kept
in a crate most of his or her time. You should
make ALL prospective homes fill out an adoption
application and you should interview them
and visit their home. If you don't like what
you see, don't adopt your puppy to this person.
It is time consuming and expensive to find
a home for your puppy--and you will be doing
it for 10 to 12 puppies!
In addition, you should
make sure all your puppies go out with a
spay or neuter contract so that the population
of Great Danes will not keep growing exponentially.
There are already too many unwanted Great
Danes out there--that's why rescue exists.
What if there is an "accident" and you wind
up with a littler of Great Dane/"you name
it" mixed puppies? What are you going to
do with these dogs? Take them to the shelter?
Call rescue? Try to find homes for them?
Be aware, large mixed breed dogs can be difficult
to place and it may take longer to find mixes
homes than pure-breds.
Are you willing to follow
the Great Dane Club of America's Breeder's
Code of Ethics? See this at (http://www.gdca.org/codeofethics.htm).
You should read and study this document carefully
and be willing to abide by its stipulations.
Are you willing and financially
able to have both dogs OFA certified? OFA
is the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals
(visit them at http://www.offa.org/). You
should be able to prove that both the mother
and father are "OFA Certified" free of hip
displaysia and other genetic orthopedic diseases.
This requires that you have both dogs x-rayed.
You must pay for the x-rays as well as the
charge for the OFA to certify the dogs. Are
you willing and able to do this?
Finally, before you breed,
please consider working with the local rescue
group. That way, you will get a pretty good
idea of how many dogs need help in your area
(if it's like most places, there is never
a shortage). You will see the horrors some
of the dogs go through (that surely you do
not want your puppy to go through). If you're
going to add to the population, you should
also take at least some responsibility for
the problems of overbreeding! Everyone who
breeds should also be actively involved in
rescue. Don't ask others to take responsibility
for what YOU have produced. Please visit
the following web sites to learn more about
responsible breeding: http://www.doglogic.com/danefaqs.htm
http://www.dog-play.com/ethics.html http://www.sunnysidefarm.com/breeding.html
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