What Could Go Wrong?
The new and hopeful breeder dreaming of litters of puppies never believes there are so many things that can go wrong. The only thing on their mind is the excitement of raising puppies, enjoying new life with their family, and in many cases the dollar signs of profit from each puppy that is sold. They walk blindly into the breeding journey believing they will buy a couple of dogs, breed them, find homes for the puppies, and it will be simple, easy, fun, and will only require a small financial investment.
IF ONLY THEY KNEW THE TRUTH.
I wish that breeding were as simple as all that, but it isn’t. I know many people who believed these things about breeding, then the hard truth and reality of it all came in and knocked them off their feet. That dog they bought failed their hip testing and has dysplasia, and now they can’t breed them. That breeding they paid hundreds or thousands of dollars for two months ago expecting a full litter of puppies resulted in a singleton, or worse yet, no puppies at all. The litter of 12 puppies that were born were cute and fun the first few weeks, then the last few weeks the amount of horribly messy puppy areas and non-stop odor and noise in the house became overwhelming and frustrating……and more expensive than expected when several became sick and needed veterinary care! And what to do with the puppies from a litter that you can’t find homes for? Do you discount your fee drastically just to place them? Do you begin training the puppies and wait patiently until homes can be found? And what if that doesn’t happen for months and you have older puppies around much longer than expected?
ARE YOU REALLY PREPARED?
Ask yourself honestly. Are you really prepared? Has someone shared the good and the bad with you? Do you believe the reality of what you’ve heard or has been shared? If you don’t, you should. There are so many things that can go wrong. You can make all the right plans and do everything in your power to be knowledgeable and prepared, but things will happen that are out of your control. If you aren’t prepared to weather the bad situations, and if you can’t survive potentially devastating financial loss, or aren’t willing to raise older puppies until the right homes can be found, you need to think twice about moving forward with your plans to breed.
WHAT IS YOUR PLAN B?
When it all goes wrong and your Plan A doesn’t happen, what is your Plan B? If you get anything from this at all, I hope it is that you should always expect the unexpected and you should always have a Plan B ready. Things will go wrong. They will go horribly wrong. No one enters the breeding journey and comes out the other side without heartache or devastating experiences emotionally or financially. It’s part of the journey, but it’s the part that most people dreaming of breeding don’t believe will be their reality. Trust me. It will be your reality one day and what are you going to do when that happens?
TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND OWN YOUR CHOICES.
You made a decision to move forward with breeding and when something goes wrong it is easy to blame someone else. It is easy to blame the breeder you purchased the unhealthy dog from, but did you do your research and ask about parent dogs health testing or look at pedigrees? It is easy to blame the stud dog for your girl having a singleton or no litter at all, but did you progesterone test and know the exact days that were prime time for breeding? It is easy to blame that same breeder for not refunding you the stud fee when only one puppy was born, but did you read the contract before you signed it and understand their terms before you agreed to them? Take responsibility for the things that were yours to be responsible before. It is your responsibility to be informed and to understand the potential risks and situations you may face. It is your responsibility to understand what could go wrong, so you are prepared and ready to deal with those situations when they occur, instead of being blind sided and left without a Plan B. It is your responsibility to care for and nurture those puppies left in your care for months when no families are interested in them.
PROCEED WITH EYES WIDE OPEN.
Everything you do and each choice you make in your breeding journey has an impact on the outcome for you, your dogs and puppies, and the families you will work with. The majority of people deciding to have puppies have done so without much thought or planning at all. They rushed blindly and quickly into the dream. When cold hard reality hits, they are left without the knowledge or tools to properly deal with those situations, or they simply don’t own their responsibility maturely and try to ditch the situation quickly.
The breeders that proceed with eyes wide open, acquiring all the necessary tools and information to be professional and successful, and wisely understanding there will be good and there will be bad…….those are the breeders who will be set apart. Those are the breeders who will be successful at their endeavor and that others will respect. Those are the breeders who asked “What could go wrong?” before they got too far into their breeding journey and they did everything they could to eliminate as many problems as possible, but understood the unexpected could happen and had a Plan B when it did.
What could go wrong? A lot. And I see it daily in posts from new breeders on Facebook pages and in forums. I hate to see these posts that reveal the person never gave much thought to what they were doing, because it usually means the dogs or puppies are the real ones to suffer at the hands of inexperience, lack of knowledge, and no desire to truly be prepared for the journey.
You have a choice. Do you want to do it well and have the proper tools and knowledge to deal with the most common issues and problems? Or do you want to move blindly forward and be rolled over repeatedly by unexpected and potentially devastating situations? The answer to “What could go wrong?” will be very different with each of those choices, because one of those choices leads to efficiently and knowledgeably dealing with situations with the least amount of negative impact to you, your families, and the wonderful puppies you are responsible for.
Your puppy families deserve your best. Your dogs and puppies deserve your best. Don’t let them down.