Being a good breeder means you take excellent care of your dogs and you can make critical decisions when necessary. Sometimes the decisions are made for you.
One of our puppies born Monday had to be euthanized by Friday. Total bummer for the Thanksgiving weekend. It had a clef palate. The vet said she was amazed I kept him alive so long and euthanasia was the only solution to the poor baby's problem. I was draggin' my butt around by then too. Getting up every two hours to tube feed a puppy is hard on a gal with Fibromyalgia. People with FM need good hard sleep more than the average healthy person. So he is gone now and I can sleep but the emotional toll is great too.
Almost everyone wants to raise puppies at some time in their lives. It sounds like fun (no one ever thinks about all the poop), playing with puppies all day long. Well, it's darned HARD sometimes. Hard when one dies before his time. Hard when you've grown attached to a dog for the last two years while you trained and showed her and a health test doesn't turn out well so you have to spay her and place her as a pet because you can only have so many dogs and you won't have room for your next show and breeding prospect if you keep YET another just as your pet.
People tell me stuff like "oh I couldn't give any of them up, I'd have to keep the whole litter" and "I couldn't raise a service dog puppy because I couldn't give him back" things of that nature. Personally I think they are being selfish not to let a dog have his own family or not see the greater picture of raising a puppy to be of service AND the special companion to someone less fortunate then themselves. Animal breeders are not heartless for the most part. Sometimes we just have to make hard choices that are in the best interest of our animals.
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