I get email once or twice a week asking for advice on finding a Shiba puppy. I’m glad when people ask, because it means they are trying to buy a pup the RIGHT way, but on the other hand, I know there aren’t enough puppies from good breeders to go around and that frustrates me. So many people buy puppies from pet stores and back yard breeders because they don’t know any better, but then – even worse – people who DO know better, to some degree, get frustrated and impatient and end up buying a dog from a less than ideal source because they don’t want to wait.
Shiba puppies seem to be more popular than ever lately. I don’t know about other areas, but in the northeast US, that extra demand is being readily filled by a breeding operation who markets themselves as an "aw shucks" kind of family business but in reality they’re a mill… the majority of their dogs are poor quality, they produce WAY too many litters at a time, they sell to anyone who is buying (they even take paypal deposits!), and they’re well known not to return phone calls if/when a puppy has any health or behavioral issues. I’ve been attempting to fight the good fight against this establishment for years now but it seems they’re just producing more pups than ever before.
Why? Supply and Demand. Legally, dogs are property. Puppies, it seems, are simply another commodity to be produced as cheaply as possible and sold for a profit. What does this mean for the poor souls being created for profit? I can tell you, it ain’t good. *sigh*
So, let’s talk about why people are buying puppies when there are so many dogs dying in shelters. And what can we do it about it??? (Hint: the answer is WE CAN EDUCATE CONSUMERS.)
Puppy vs Rescue Dog
I understand the desire for a puppy. I really do. Snickers came from a breeder. My daughter was 8 when we started discussing a dog – her first – and I wanted her to have the full puppy experience. I also wanted a purebred dog for the added security of knowing what I was getting (to a certain degree) in regard to size and temperament. We spent months deciding on the right breed for us, more months searching for a responsible breeder with puppies planned and not spoken for, and then another few months waiting for him. Was it worth it? Absolutely!!! Does that mean I think that’s the only way – or even the best way – to add a family member? No. Two years later when we were ready to add a female, we adopted a sweet little rescued girl who needed a home. We adore her every bit as much as we do Snickers and we didn’t have to deal with all the puppy nonsense again! Adopting a dog can be every bit as wonderful as buying a puppy. There are some situations where a puppy is even the wrong decision, but an older dog could be the perfect companion. If only people KNEW more about their options and understood the repercussions of purchasing from backyard breeders, mills and pet stores.
A reputable breeder with available puppies can be tough to find, depending on the breed you are interested in. But you want a puppy NOW! What do you do?
How to FIND a Responsible Breeder
- contact local and national breed clubs
- If you’re looking for a Shiba Inu and live in the northeast US, start with the Shiba Club of Greater NY or the Blue and Gray Shiba Club (looking for link).
- If you’re looking for a Shiba in any other part of the country, contact the regional club nearest you for assistance (that is how I found Snick’s breeder) or refer to the breeders list on the National Shiba Club of America‘s website.
- If you’re looking for another breed of puppy, start by checking the AKC’s website to find the national club for your breed.
- contact the regional purebred rescue group for the breed in which you are interested
Contrary to what some people believe, volunteers for purebred rescue groups are seldom anti-breeding. The breed we love so much couldn’t exist and flourish if it weren’t for responsible breeders!- If you’re looking for a Shiba, try the rescue group closest to you that is listed on this page.
- If you’re looking for any other breed, try your national breed club’s site for a list of legitimate rescue groups.
- attend a dog show or other dog related event and talk to the participants
- ask your veterinarian for referrals
How to SPOT a Responsible Breeder
A responsible breeder does NOT sell their puppies to just anyone with cash in hand! Many unsuspecting people buy puppies from people who seem to be responsible breeders, but are not. Too often, the result is a puppy in poor health or with temperament problems that may only surface after time.
A responsible breeder is someone who:
- breeds for their love and devotion to their chosen breed of dogs.
- does not breed dogs to make money or so children can "experience the miracle of birth."
- only breeds one or two types of dogs and usually only breeds a litter if they intend on keeping one of the pups. They are breeding to further improve the breed in general and their breeding program in particular, not just to produce puppies for pet buyers.
- can explain in detail the potential genetic problems inherent in the breed and is willing and able to provide documentation from organizations such as the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) that the puppy’s parents and grandparents have been screened for these genetic problems.
- can explain the reasoning behind breeding a particular dog to a particular bitch. They should be attempting to reach perfection as defined by the breed’s standard. In the attempt to reach this goal with the resulting puppies, they should be able to explain the good points of each dog and what points they are trying to improve. If, when asked about the breed standard, the breeder looks at you with a blank look on their face or tells you why the breed standard doesn’t matter… RUN!
- does not breed a high volume of puppies.
- usually participates in some sort of dog-related events such as dog shows (conformation), obedience, agility, schutzhund, sled dog racing, herding, field trials, lure coursing, earth dog trials, etc. They do something with their dogs.
- usually belongs to at least one dog club (all-breed club, obedience club, breed club, etc.).
- will tell you the good points AND the bad points of the breed. They want their puppies in the best home possible and will want to be sure you are fully aware of what to expect before you buy.
- is willing and able to give you references from previous puppy buyers. Those new to breeding should be able to give you references from other breeders of their breed or dog club members.
- will never sell puppies through a pet store or broker or any other way that does not allow for thoroughly meeting with and interviewing you to ensure that the puppy is a good match for your family and that you will provide a responsible lifelong home.
- will ask you many questions and may ask for references or to visit you at your home. The breeder is looking for the ideal situation for the puppy. They want the owner to be happy and not return the puppy because it was ill suited for their environment or life-style.
- can provide a pedigree of the puppies, not just a copy of the parents registration papers. A pedigree usually has at least three generations of the puppies’ ancestors listed.
- usually insists that puppies sold as pets be spayed/neutered and placed on an AKC limited registration. (Limited registration makes the dog’s offspring exempt from AKC registration.)
- believes in service after the sale. If a puppy buyer has any questions regarding grooming, feeding, or training, the breeder will be there long after the puppy is no longer a puppy.
- not only WILL they take back any dog of their breeding at any age, they REQUIRE that you contact them if you ever can’t keep your dog. Reputable breeders do not want to find out a dog they bred has been given up to an animal shelter or dumped by the roadside. They assume a lifetime responsibility for the canine lives they have put on this earth.
Is it worth the wait to get your next family member from a responsible breeder, instead of purchasing from a puppy mill, pet store, or backyard breeder? Absolutely.
If you would like a printable non-breed-specific version of this, please download Responsible Breeder vs. A Puppy Right Now.
GREAT post!
Hi Jenna,
I subscribe to Snick’s FB page. Very nice article on acquiring a dog. This information should be a must read for potential dog owner. We currently own 11 dogs, some of which are rescues, some of which are pure breed and some falling into both categories. My wife is a trainer (as a hobby) and competes in agility, obedience, tracking and conformation. Pet therapy is another one of her passions. We often wish we could rescue them all but sadly no one could do that including us. Check out our webpage for more insight into our crew.
Rich, I looked at your site. What a crew you have! Thanks for visiting and commenting. I hope you’ll come again.
Patience.. they say it’s a virtue.. I wish those impatient and buying from
BYB’s would practice.
Anyone reading this post that may feel impatient… Being ignorant at the time, my last Shiba was from a BYB. Family folks.. nice people.. House looked great! Temperment of mom and dad shiba, fantastic… I bought one of their offspring.
Fell in love! I could so go on with the virtues of my boy, Nikko. There is a term in
japanese “Nikko Nikko” which means happy, fun, bouncy, joy joy joy! which really described him to me. Unfortunately………. at the ripe old age of 4, i had to put him down as he had Chylothorax.. They never could figure out why and trust me, we had every test possible run to try and figure it out. Unfortunately, it’s a death sentence.. I have no way of knowing whether he was predispotioned to this horrible condition genetically as it was a BYB (backyard breeder). My heart was broken as i laid in bed for 4 months.
I implore anyone.. everyone…. do your damn homework! I would not wish my heartbreak on anyone.
I now have a bouncy happy 7 1/2 month boy from a reputable breeder (thank you, Pat from Hi-Jynx!!!!) and though i miss Nikko every day… Yoshihiko(baby boy)has brought joy back into my heart.
This is an example of what you set yourself up with.. all the while thinking.. “I really only want a pet.. i don’t want to show my dog”.
I’m sorry for being so blunt.. but i wish i had known more back then.. Though i will never regret my Nikko.
I’m so glad Yoshi has brought you happiness. 🙂
More photos soon???
I just don’t understand how people who buy a vanity dog rather than rescuing one from a shelter can then write an article about how sad it is that these ‘poor souls’ are being treated as commodities.
Hello? You bought your dog on the open market rather than rescue a puppy and make a donation to a shelter.
How is your form of treating a dog as a commodity better than the way someone else treats a dog as a commodity?
Hi Humane. You have an excellent point. I want to address two pieces of your comment separately. One is the idea of the “vanity dog” and the market for purebred pets. The other is the “commodity” question that you pose at the end of your comment.
Vanity Dogs
I assume by vanity dog, you mean a purebred dog. Personally, I disagree with the perspective the purebreds exist solely for vanity reasons. I do agree that there are some useless breeds and also breeds that have multiple problems due to bad breeding for misinformed purposes. I wish that weren’t the case, but I still don’t believe purebred dogs shouldn’t exist.
I know it seems odd to some people, that someone as involved in rescue as I am would be OK with the breeding of dogs. I am, however, a breed enthusiast. Many breeds exist for a reason. They were bred over 100s of years to achieve a certain purpose. Many dogs are still used for those purposes today and breeding RESPONSIBLY to strengthen the traits that make them good at those jobs is not a bad thing in my mind. Some breeds aren’t still used for their original purpose, but their breed characteristics are unique and it would be a shame to lose them. Shibas are a perfect example actually. I’m definitely not hunting small game in the city with my Shibas! BUT the traits that are unique to the breed make them an ideal pet for my personality and lifestyle. Conversely, I’ve met dogs of other breeds that I didn’t like all that much. Some personality traits (such as clingy affection or goofiness) or physical traits (like drooling) are so unpleasant to me that I’d rather not HAVE a dog if they were my only option. There are many different types of people in the world and having different types of pets makes sense to me.
I’m sure I’m not explaining this nearly as well as I could if I took awhile to formulate my thoughts better, but I really wanted to address your comment. I hope I’m making sense.
Defining Commodity
I did indeed buy one of my dogs – Snickers – from a breeder. As I mentioned in my post above, I had specific reasons (legitimate to me, possibly not to you) for wanting both a puppy and a purebred. I hadn’t thought of it the way you present it, but I do see where you are coming from with your question… by seeking a particular type of dog, researching a breeder, and then purchasing the dog I am effectively shopping for the dog – treating it like merchandise. I do see your point here. But I’m not sure how to avoid the similarities to shopping…
Do I believe our companion animals are sentient beings with rights to humane treatment? Yes. Do I believe a person should have the ability to find and choose and companion animal that suits their personality and lifestyle? Also yes. How you do that without “shopping,” I don’t know. Is it really THAT different from how we choose our friends or mates; we know a set of characteristics we are looking for and we choose accordingly. It’s harder to find a dog based on characteristics though. It’s not like you can go a shelter and take dogs home on a trial basis till you find one that fits. You can’t take them out for drinks and dinner – like a date – to discuss what sort of activities they like. Breed characteristics are one way of trying to find the right type of pet for your personality, lifestyle, activity level, etc.
By “commodity” I was really referring to the practice of commercial breeders of bringing lives into the world simply to make money. (That was what I meant by “poor souls being created for profit.”) There is a HUGE difference in the way these dogs are bred and cared for and the way a dog from a responsible breeder is bred and cared for. Responsible breeders breed a small number of dogs, very carefully, seeking to maximize health and genetic soundness. They spend time and money to have healthy, happy dogs. They study the genetics of different lines to make decisions about which dogs to breed or not breed, they test for inherited diseases and other issues before breeding, they give their adult dogs and puppies the best care, and they look for the best homes for their puppies. They never breed more dogs than they can take care of or find great homes for and they never breed an adult that shouldn’t be bred. Commercial breeders don’t care about any of these things. They put any two dogs together that can produce puppies, regardless of genetic soundness or health. Their adult dogs are often only kept in conditions as required by law. They spend as little money as possible, so they can maximize their profits and they usually breed as many dogs as they can. They don’t care whether their adult dogs or puppies suffer physically or emotionally and they couldn’t care less where their pups go after they are sold.
I hope that helps to clarify how I can feel the way I do about puppies being bred to make money even though I bought one of my dogs from a breeder.
Excellent post! Thanks for writing it. I have a rescue Shiba who is a good case for why we need responsible breeders. He’s a sweet, loving dog that wasn’t socialized as a pup and has horrible aggressive issues with other dogs & small kids. He also has a possible seizure condition which makes him lash out and act very confused. We don’t know for sure but suspect he was a puppy mill or BYB pup. He has come a long way since we adopted him and we love him dearly. But not everyone did or would and he’s not the only pup in that boat. Yes we should rescue but not everyone can or should for various reasons.
This is a great post, I am linking to it from my shiba’s blog, so more people can read it!
Jen, Ginger and Emily – Thank you all very much for your comments.
(Jen, yours was stuck in my spam for some reason so I only just saw it. Sorry!)
If I can find the time to get it written, I have a similar post about rescue organizations brewing.
Hey Jenna,
I total get what you are saying. I was always a rescue dog person myself. Shortly after I got married my mix schnauzer passed away if 16yrs. For our next dog we went through a breeder. It was really important that this new dog be OUR dog. (Plus we have two cats as well.) Which is way we want to get a puppy. Of course we wanted different things. He wanted a corgi and I wanted an aussie. So we got an Augie! After learning more about the “Designer breed” we fell in love with the combination. We have thought about breeding, but don’t want to go about it as a backyard breeder. I know there is a lot of back lash on developing new breed but come on. How did those other breeds come into existence. The Augie is really just introducing the Merle gene into the corgi. People argue that why don’t you just get a cardigan corgi. But the cardigan corgi and the pembroke welsh corgi are very different in looks and temperament. With the pembroke welsh corgi it is more like a little fox when you leave the tail on. A lot of the breeders that I have come across are just as bad as classic car owner. Don’t you dare modify or change your car. We have a movie car and they hate us. We just want to help better this great cross and share the joy that our augie has given us. We are more interested in being a hobby breeder not a backyard breeder.
Hi Kelly. Thanks for visiting and for commenting.
I agree with you that that some breeders don’t want to see ANY changes in their breed and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Working breeds can change over time if the need filled by that breed changes. On the other hand, the answer to your question "How did those other breeds come into existence?" isn’t simply "Well, someone took two breeds and put them together." There are some modern breeds that came about sort of that way – the Doberman Pinscher is a good example of a breed that was formed by combining several existing breeds over time. However, many breeds came about over hundreds of years of tweaking to meet a specific need or criteria. Some, like the Shiba Inu, have been around for thousands of years and breeders have simply refined what natural selection created.
I can’t say that I condone "designer breeds" because my general impression is that most of them are cobbled together by backyard breeders who know nothing about genetics and don’t have a good reason for combining breeds other than "it will be cute." It sounds like you’ve really done your research though and have a real love for the Augie, so I hope that if you do endeavor to breed, that you’ll be thoughtful and responsible and the Augie will be better off for it. 🙂