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Pet Mill, BYB, Authentic Breeder

The title of the article lists three categories of breeders that have distinct qualities.

PET MILLS -- I won’t spend much time on pet mills because the CMDR would simply not facilitate mass registrations from one breeder. But just for general knowledge, a pet mill is a place with no genetic goals for improving a breed. It keeps a large number of breeding dogs, and produces pups on a massive scale. Used up breeding dogs are killed or dumped in shelters and are generally in poor condition. The goal is money. Pet mills are generally shut down by state enforcement when they are found.

Can there be a legitimate large scale dog breeder? As someone who connects with farms and people who raise many breeds of domestic livestock on a large scale, I would still answer no because a dog is only useful to the degree that he can work with humans. There is simply no way to raise dogs on a large scale because genetic selection doesn’t depend only on things like carcass meat to bone ratio, or on how measurably crimped the fiber is. Dogs... we have relationships with.

BACK YARD BREEDERS -- I want to be very careful with this designation because a back yard can be the best place in the world for a dog to be born! I don’t necessarily agree with the non-nuanced shaming of all backyard breeders. Family back yards (farms, small properties, etc) complete with loving (carefully trained) children, are a good way for dogs to come into the world, as long as money doesn’t become the goal and the situation doesn’t evolve into a mill.

The one negative thing that keeps a BYB from being an authentic breeder is the lack of genetic passion and rigorous ongoing selection. Most BYBs think of breeding as getting the two best dogs they can find, and making pups. After a short time, breeding into genetic corners, and encountering real world breeding situations, a BYB will either throw in the towel or get serious with genetics, and begin to strive for unique quality lines within a breed. Then they will look back and facepalm their BYB years.

AUTHENTIC BREEDER -- In most cases an authentic breeder is a graduated BYB, who didn’t grow into a mill, but went the other way and became knowledgable about genetics. These breeders will not have “production pairs” until after years of genetic work, and will seldom be moved to make the same pairings over and over because they have realized there is no genetic purpose for that.

Breeding isn’t casual... it is experiencing aggravatingly constant prodding to ride genetic lines. This never ends. Lines continue to improve and that’s the addiction.... the joy of working with your own lines, watching the trait combinations unfold, seeing your dogs function on farms for a lifetime, seeing your farm letters become known and valued, and working until you can sit back a bit into some short term “production” with some pairs whose lines you know for five generations. (By the way, I am not there yet).

I have been raising CMDs for 15 years. I have a lot of great dogs, but I do not have a production pair. Soon I hope! (POST EDIT 2023 — I may have a production pair!) That said, I do know people who have great pairs that warrant some repeated breedings. I feel fine about having a quality stud who studs for an extended season (until I can replace him with a grown out evaluated son who exceeds him...and I am always growing out sons of my studs!) But I don’t make my females reproduce for their whole usable lifetimes. I try and use different studs to maximize the genetic impact of my girls in my program and in the breed, I grow out daughters, and then when I have a great one, I retire the moms to permanent homes. I want them to have plenty of life left when that happens. (Post edit 2024. I have two production pairs!)

I have never had more than 8 dogs on my land with the exception of nursing pups, and they are usually reserved before birth. Of these 8 dogs, I usually have one or two breeding females and one or two breeding males, plus young dogs I am growing out. At this writing I have one breeding female, three young females I am growing out, two breeding males, and one son from each male that I am growing out, for a total of 8 dogs. This is a pretty good size for a minimal genetic program, not much pup production but lots of genetics, and I also have a a few trusted friends I partner with, so the genetic projects extend a bit beyond my place. A lot of the really good breeders who are innovating genetics in the CMDR are structured very similarly and networking with small groups of friends for genetic diversity.