27/03/2024
1000%
Dear future "working home,"
While I know you have dreams of podiums when you bring your little working line puppy home, you have a much bigger responsibility to this little puppy I'm trusting to you.
That's great that you've researched pedigrees, have a club and maybe even a solid mentor. That's amazing that you have all the latest tug toys and a custom wide agitation collar with his name embroidered on it. And I'm really stoked that you already have his instagram loaded with fire emoji's detailing his daily puppy training sessions.
But over and over, my puppies are FAILED by their working home owners. Owners who look amazing on paper. Owners who have all the goals and dreams for their little puppy. And it's not just MY working home owners. I know other breeders who feel this same pain as they send their little ones out into this world. Knowing that these puppies who could excel at so many things are going to be set up for failure by the first people who have their hands on them.
How are they being failed?
By s**t advice. S**t advice from the clubs that are mentoring them. S**t advice from the internet. S**t advice from those around them.
I'll scream it from the roof tops ....
Stop taking these working prospects and shoving them in crates, only to come out for "work" in the name of drive building. If they need full deprivation to "work" then the genetics aren't there in the first place.
Stop taking these working prospects and controlling every single morsel of food to the point of deprivation, over long periods of time. If the food drive is that bad, the genetics aren't there in the first place.
Stop taking these working prospects and never letting anyone touch your puppy. "He should treat people like furniture." Yeah ... solid advice for some puppies but I know when you wash this dog in 18 months, I now have a full size adult intact male Rottweiler who's never been handled by strangers. Great, thanks.
Stop taking these working prospects and never letting them interact with another dog or animal. "He should be neutral to dogs." Yeah ... great ... now you wash this dog in 12 months and I have a full size intact male Rottweiler who doesn't know how he feels about his own species.
Stop taking these working prospects and never telling them "no" because you want them to be strong on the field. Great....now when you return King Kong to me, he isn't really going to know what to do with those big feelings when that's not how the world works.
Stop depriving your working line puppies of a solid start in life ... because when you wash that dog from sport for an issue YOU created .... now I have to clean up the mess.
Raise your puppy for sport however you want, but at the end of the day if that dog doesn't pan out for sport you are giving them a death sentence if you haven't also raised them with a pet dog life in mind.
Sincerely,
A Working Dog Breeder
