03/12/2024
I want to thank Katie Manning for her response to the question "why are people willing to pay inflated prices for poorly bred and mix breed puppies?" and thank her for allowing me to share this comment to my page.
We, as preservation breeders, really need to take a step back and look at our attitude and actions if we wish to see our purebreds continue.
Katie Manning's response in full and unedited:
We don't have to wonder - we know exactly why. You can ask any person who owns a "designer breed" or a "purebred" from a backyard breeder and they will give you a list of reasons why they chose that dog over a purebred from a reputable breeder. We're just choosing not to listen, or to shrug it off and just keep making the same sarcastic posts and share the same insult memes as if those things are ever going to change anything. Here's just a short list of reasons I've heard from the people I've cared enough to ask:
- Attitude. Those designer breeders? They’re friendly, they’re welcoming, they’re all the things that purebred breeders have a reputation with the public for NOT being. You can get as mad at me as you want for saying that, you can disagree as much as you want, but it’s no secret that the general public’s impression of what we would call reputable breeders is that they’re intimidating, they’re cold, they’re unwelcoming, they’re too busy and important to speak to you, and their dogs are too good for you. Whether or not it’s the truth is irrelevant – it’s what the public believes, whether based on their own bad experiences, or the experience of a friend or family member, or a horror story on social media. I can’t imagine that all the posts and memes about how anyone who purchases a dog from anyone put a reputable breeder is an idiot and a bad dog owner, really help with that impression.
- Communication. People email a BYB and they get a response within 24-hours. They’re happy to answer all their questions up front (whether they’re truthful is another matter,) including things like price. They get picture updates of the litter every few days. Contrast that with the often all too typical situation with a reputable breeder… Several weeks to get a response to an email - if they ever get a response at all, because they committed one of the 15 unwritten faux paus which make them undeserving of even a polite response much less a puppy… Heaven forbid they sent a follow up email after they didn’t hear back for a few days, or their email didn’t have perfect spelling or grammar or – gasp – they had the nerve to ask about the price. How ridiculous that a puppy buyer would want to know if a breeder is within their price range, right?
- Availability. I know I’m going to ruffle some feathers with this one, but the reality is that the business of buying and selling puppies is as subject to supply and demand as any other business, and the reputable dog breeding community is doing a HORRIBLE job of meeting demand. No pet person who is just looking for a pet dog is going to sit and wait for 1-2 years on a waitlist with no guarantee of when or even if they’ll get a puppy. It’s not going to happen. No matter how many memes you post about how waiting that long is required… it isn’t required, because there are plenty of BYBs out there who are more than happy to meet that demand. It doesn’t matter how many titles and health tests you have that the BYB does not, because the public doesn’t care about that stuff. MAYBE if both a reputable breeder and a BYB had puppies available at the same time, the public might care enough to choose the reputable breeder, but if the BYB can get them a puppy even just one month sooner, they’re going to go with the BYB every time.
So, what can we do? What we CAN’T do is change the public cold turkey. They’re not going to change, end of story. No matter how much you complain or whine or lecture, the public is not going to suddenly shift their entire opinion on dogs and commit to waiting for weeks for a response and two years on a wait list. If that’s your only plan to change anything, forget it. Stop wasting your time.
What we CAN do is look inwards at our community and figure out what changes we can make, individually and as a whole, which might actually have more impact on swaying the public in our favour. That does not include any lectures, or shaming, or insulting memes. The obvious ones are those first two points… Be friendly to everyone, even if they’re asking stupid questions, even if their emails looks like they typed it with their toes or are only 1 sentence long, and even if they don’t know the secret handshake. How you respond to the public reflects on you, your breeding program, and breeders as a whole. Be better, even if you don’t think that one specific person deserves it.
Answer your emails. Yes, every single one. Yes, in a timely manner. That means generally within 24 hours but certainly no more than 72 hours. You’re busy? Everyone is busy! Answering emails is part of your job as a breeder. Answer a dozen emails while you’re sitting on the couch watching TV after supper. Answer 2-3 while you’re sitting on the toilet in the morning. It’s really NOT that hard if you make it part of your daily routine. If BYBs can do it, so can you. If your program is really SO big that you cannot carve even 30 minutes out of your day to answer some emails, it’s time to start looking at outsourcing that job. But just ignoring it is not the solution. And seriously, just be up front with your pricing and don’t get all put out when someone has the nerve to ask. It’s absolutely reasonable that people have a price range that they’re willing to pay.
That last point… this is where I see a lot of people get stuck. I’m not suggesting that any one breeder should be pumping out a dozen litters a year to meet demand. But what are you doing to help grow the population of your breed? Are you mentoring new potential breeders? Are you willing to place puppies with breeding rights to someone who is new in the breed, and help get them on their feet? Or do you keep all your breeding dogs under lock and key, never to leave your home, or only willing to place those puppies with already established breeders? Are you online making snarky comments about people who breed more often than you do, who owns more dogs than you own, who don’t care about the same titles or sports as you?
I met a new boarding client a few years ago who had an older Doodle and a young Standard Poodle. I asked her why she had chosen to go from a Doodle to a Poodle, as it’s not something I see very often. She told me she’d intended to get a Poodle originally before she got her Doodle. But of the dozen or so breeders she emailed, almost none ever responded to her at all, and the ones who did respond had an extremely long wait list and had no one to refer her to (or just didn’t offer to refer her to anyone.) She did what the vast majority of pet people would do – she looked online and found a Doodle breeder who answered her email immediately and who had puppies available. The fact that she ended up going back to get a Poodle for her second dog is nothing short of a miracle, as that’s not usually how it goes. But the purebred dog community had EVERY opportunity to sell this person a purebred dog from the beginning, and they failed her. That’s not her fault, that’s our fault. She tried to do what we all keep telling people is the right thing to do and we still wouldn’t sell her a dog. And she’s far from the only one – I’ve heard so many variations of this story, where someone tries to do the right thing but ends up being pushed away, except usually they don’t make a second attempt. So what do we really think is going to happen? If we aren’t willing to budge even an inch, nothing is going to change. This is an us problem, not a them problem. Until we accept that, nothing is ever going to change.
Delagrea reg'd Bernese Mountain Dogs is owned by Maureen Greaves. We are preservation breeders of Bernese Mountain Dogs located near Calgary, Alberta Canada.
