08/08/2025
The consequences of poor breeding.
The puppies that we have in right now come from a very irresponsible breeder, with no health testing, genetic testing and genetically poor temperaments.
Why does that matter? Marco, the more white puppy, already is showing signs of hip dysplasia at only 15 weeks old, which would lead to a lot of pain and suffering for him, as well as potentially surgeries and an early end of his life depending on severity. Doing health testing, including hip X-rays on the parents, plays a significant role in decreasing the likelihood of puppies inheriting these problems from parents. Genetic Testing also can test for genetics including genes contributing to early blindness, degenerative myelopathy, cancer, seizures, and more. Responsible breeders will be setting their dogs and puppies up for success by trying to make the most healthy puppies possible. I would not be choosing a dog from a breeder who does not do health AND genetic testing on their parent dogs, and who does not readily make that data available.
Why does the temperament of a parent dog matter? Both of these puppies are showing intense resource guarding, especially for their age. Resource guarding has genetic and learned components, but at least some of this is genetic. At a young age these puppies are willing to bite you over something they perceive as theirs, not just food but a stolen item, a stick, or as was the case the other night, a nylabone chew. They are also resource guarding from people and dogs which makes them generally not compatible to live with other dogs. They are both making progress with intensive training, with Freckles learning quicker and resource guarding a more limited amount of items, but resource guarding can absolutely come back. This behavior makes them not safe to live with kids or other dogs, at a minimum and may very well get them euthanized when they are older. We can see other genetic issues from bad breeding, a classic around here is genetic anxiety and fear from doodles. Having parents with solid temperaments means the puppies are more likely to be well tempered. If you have an anxious dog making puppies, those puppies are likely to be anxious themselves, which contributes to reactivity and other concerns.
These puppies had no socialization. Why does that matter? Socialization exposes puppies to the world, builds their resilience and sets them up for success. Good socialization is a protocol of exposing puppies to new things from birth through when they go to their new home. A breeder who is not socializing is limiting their dogs emotional resiliency and confidence. The critical socialization period for dogs is 3-16 weeks, it starts well before puppies go to their new homes.
We, as a society, need to do better. We should stop buying from people who are not doing their best to create healthy, solid dogs. We should be better educated, and educate others on the consequences of bad breeding. We owe it to the companions that we love to do better, because every year, millions of dogs like Marco are made and suffer because of our poor choices, or people thinking that breeding is easy and not doing their research.
I am afraid for these puppies futures, they should not be having this many issues this early, especially when someone went out of their way to make them. If you decide to buy from a breeder, please do your research. Please do not just breed your dog because you can without doing research and the steps to do it well, to see if your dog would be a positive contribution to puppies.
