It is amazing to me that some people know so little about their breed but will still produce puppies!  Big old no-no.

I have no problem helping someone whom I feel is sincere in learning more so they can produce better dogs and be accepted by their peers and thought of a breeders instead of a puppy mill (PM) or backyard breeder (BYB). 

I meet these people all the time when they inquire about buying a breeding dog from me.  I obviously would not sell them a show/breeding dog with no strings attached.  They would have to learn to show it, make it a champion and then breed the dog under my guidance and then sell the puppies with protective contracts.

This training could go on a long time before I would set this person free amongst the wolves and without the full knowledge that they will continue to learn and produce BETTER dogs than they started with.

Every "breeder in training" starts somewhere and established breeders need to be more kind to these people.  We all started with a pet quality dog we thought was simply the best in the world and we wanted to breed it for various reasons.  Hopefully we see a quality dog at a show and aspire to do better.  Most people will neuter their pets and develop a relationship with a breeder who will help them find a better dog to purchase.  NOT one of their own dogs but a test dog from another breeder.  HA! So funny.

Newbies need mentors.  So many of us are getting up there in age and will retire from show/breeding in the next 20 years.  Who will take over our dogs for us?  Who will show?  Who breed?  Better question is who do "we" want showing and breeding?  People who are clueless?  No.  As the current guardians of our breed we must search for and nurture a new generation of breeders. 

Dog breeders are notorious for scaring the general public away from us. We are the protective coating for our breed. We are wonderful and loving with our dogs but basically suspicious of anybody else who says they want to breed.  That's why so many puppy buyers return to the nice people at PMs & BYBs.  Because they are more than willing to say whatever the buyer wants to hear about how wonderful their dogs are and sure you can have papers and breeder her!  Heck they don't care.  They want the money and say good-bye and good luck.

Dog breeders police their dogs carefully so people don't get a hold of one of their pet puppies or dogs and use it to mass produce in a PM or BYB program.  That's our worst freaking nightmare!

There is so much to learn about the finer points of the Shiba.  The little details that make a truly fine specimen look the way it does and why exactly the PM Shiba doesn't look that way.  It take time studying the whole body of the dog.  Diagrams drawn by Japanese breeders are very helpful and I use them all the time to help people see what I see in dogs they ask me about.

More to come!