ONE REPUTABLE BREEDERS MISSION

NO ONE SHOULD BUY FROM PUPPY FARMS. RESPECTED GOLDEN RETRIEVER BREEDER, FIONA BAIRD TELLS US WHY, WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR, AND HOW TO ACT ON IT.

Fiona Baird grew up in Sussex and has been a professional dog breeder and trainer all her life. Her family have had the same line of working Golden Retrievers for generations. Her grandfather started the line over eighty years ago, which her mother continued prior to Fiona. She grew up with dogs, started working them, then went on to train gun dogs.

Fiona began residential training of other peoples’ dogs and now breeds dogs that become Medical Detection Dogs (MDD). Fiona supplies pups which are placed with their first foster family. Family members bring the dog up, integrating and associating it into family life. Members of those foster families take the dogs to MDD, a business owned by Dr. Claire Guest OBE. The dogs undergo training after which, they move on to their ‘forever home.’

Fiona Baird is a leading voice in the training and breeding field and gained so much experience, she wrote ‘Training Your Puppy,’ published by Merlin Unwin, ISBN-13: 978-1906122829 which retails at £9.99 and is available from Amazon.

Deception And A Heartbreaking Discovery In Suburbia

The classic advert with a headline stating that there is only one puppy left is the clincher. Imagine turning up at a reasonably nice house in suburbia to view the potential new member of your family. The dog of your dreams; the dog your child has cried for over the past three weeks, only to find that they came from a puppy farm. You’d be devastated. That’s what happened to Fiona’s dear friends.

Owners of a Dalmatian dog already, Fiona’s friends visited a house where they bought their gorgeous dogs. Her friends were the least likely people in the world to fall for the trap, yet what they hadn’t considered was if the bitch was the mother of the pups. Did they look at the bitch’s undercarriage? Did she look like she’d been feeding puppies for the last eight weeks? Both her friends realised after the event, they had been conned and their dogs had come from puppy farms.

Fiona told Vanity Fur Magazine, “Having bought the puppies, which all seemed terribly above board, it was only when they got the puppies home, both were found to have numerous health issues. They thought, hang on a minute, when we picked up our ‘last puppy,’ almost certainly the next ‘last puppy’ was probably shipped in. This happened quite a while ago.”

It would be easy to think to ourselves, ‘avoid buying puppies online’ but there are legitimate, reputable breeders who do advertise online. Fiona explained, “A friend of mine got a puppy via an online ad. It was from a breeder who had a bitch, and wanted a litter but they didn’t have a clue as to how to sell them, so they advertised them online. When my friend arrived, the bitch was obviously present with the litter. There was lots of clean bedding, and they were clearly being looked after well. It was very obviously ‘above board’ to the buyer.”

In an ideal world everybody would get recommendations from friends or by word of mouth then find the dog of their dreams. Realistically though, people will go online. Having found a breeder online, Fiona recommends the first thing you should do is call them.

“The first thing to note is the breeder. Are they asking you lots of questions? If they don’t ask you questions like, why do you want this breed? Why do you want a puppy? Have you thought about it? then there’s a chance they may not be reputable.”

Fiona explained that when people contact her, she quizzes them at length. Importantly, she went on to say, “If the breeder doesn’t want to know anything about you, walk away. Walk away before you ever go near those puppies! Once you see the litter, you’re doomed! Now they’re cute puppies and you may feel the urge to ‘rescue one,’ even if something doesn’t quite seem right. Thus, the whole cycle just keeps going.”

“When you arrive, some of the more obvious things to look for and ask about include making sure that the bitch is present and is fully engaged with her litter. Where are they? Are they in the house? There are perfectly nice puppies being born in kennels, but is it clean? Do they have nice bed? Next, you shouldn’t normally expect to see the Sire. I never have the Sire present, but you should certainly ask who fathered the litter. I’ve driven for four hours to get my bitch mated because of the care I have taken to get the right breeding.”

In Fiona’s professional opinion, asking questions is the most crucial aspect to buying a puppy. Some key questions she suggests people should ask breeders include, “What’s your bitch like?” “What’s her temperament like?” “Who’s the father?” “Why did you choose the father?”. Fiona went on to say, “If it’s a puppy farm, they’re going to cough and splutter. They won’t have a clue about the father, that’s just another dog being used as a stud at the puppy farm.”

“I’ve talked with people who said they found a puppy online and told me the breeder even offered to deliver it to them, unseen! Unfortunately, alarm bells did not ring. This will save the breeder a fortune; they can now ship the pup straight to your house, and you don’t have to go through the middleman, carrying out the pretence in a nice little semi-detached somewhere.”

Fiona described once warning a buyer off from a sale, “She had gone online, even after I’d warned her, and found a litter of Spaniels. I asked her to send me through the pictures she’d received of the litter. What the prospective buyer saw was a cute litter of puppies. What I saw was there was a bit of manky old newspaper, enough to see it looked like some dirty old garage. It just didn’t look right. I told her to walk away and ask some more questions. She agreed it didn’t sound right. It transpired the breeder didn’t want to know anything about the buyer. If the breeder doesn’t want to send pictures of the litter together, walk away.”

The growth of puppy farms, which occurred during the Covid lockdowns could be slowed considerably if everyone stopped buying from them, and over time they would not exist. They would have to close.

Fiona said, “It’s such huge business and it is terrifying. You don’t know [they’re from a puppy farm] until you get your puppy home. Also, people need to be better at walking away. At the point they get to see these puppies, they kind of realise it’s not quite right. They’re not sure why it’s not quite right, but now they’ve got a cute puppy in front of them and it’s going to cost them a fortune in vets bills. All puppies are cute, but we don’t know at eight weeks old what their temperament is going to be like. I am a huge believer in genetic nature, not nurture with dogs’ temperaments. You can turn a good puppy bad by ill treatment, but if the correct genes are not present, you’re duped.”

Fiona advises it is wise to ask how many litters the breeder has on average each year. “If they innocently answer, ‘six,’ then this sounds like it’s kennels and a house and a pretty hardcore business. I mean, I have a litter possibly every two years, could be every three, mainly because I’ve got a long list of people who want them. I shall have a litter this year because I need to introduce a new dog to another one. I spend hours and hours looking at pedigrees and talking to friends.”

Finally, if you’ve decided on a particular breed to buy, Fiona recommends finding out if there’s a breed society or club and getting in touch with them. This is because, often they may recommend one of their members who is having a litter. You could search for a particular breed online, but Fiona recommends going through the Kennel Club first, to help confirm seller credentials via their Puppy Register.

We owe it to our furry friends to give them the best life. It begins with choosing where your dog comes from very carefully. Finding genetically, healthy, and socialised dogs which you can feel confident have been ethically bred, must be something we must all aspire to, right?

Vanity Fur Magazine thanks Fiona Baird for sharing her story and of course, her wisdom.

STEPH ALLINSON