ellz

Absolutely not! It was certainly recommended in years gone by but dog food has undergone such dramatic advances in recent years that it is no longer necessary. In fact, in some breeds, I would think it could be potentially hazardous. Provided the bitch is being fed a good quality diet prior to becoming pregnant then NOTHING needs to change, except for perhaps the frequency and amounts of feeding as the pregnancy advances. Extra calcium can be provided through natural means that are more readily and safely absorbed by the body which will also save the breeder money in the long run as well.

Can tell you unequivocally that the price here for the American Cocker is DRASTICALLY marked down!!!!! My guess is that the breeders want to do a quick offload at that price because it is most certainly not typical for an American Cocker of ANY age!!!!!

Add me to the list. Uncle Albers/Great Barko are the only things that keep weight on my greyhound in colder weather. The Staffords which are fed it (some have other stuff instead) are shiny and sleek looking and the American Cockers had great coats on it as well. And I also recently found out that a lot of the local greyhound trainers feed their race/breeding dogs on it.

I am with you on this Steve! I am not in favour of recycling crates/hire crates especially for the transportation of puppies, you don't know what has been in them beforehand and I am always conscious of cross contaminations because I do not believe that the crates can always be sterlised/disinfected to the best levels if crates are not removed from the airport for treatment. When a new PP40 can be picked up for around $55-75 compared to hiring at around $45 the additional money is money well spent for the added protection. And having just used wayrod's transportation services, I can vouch for this and his complete professionalism! I'd like to know who the company was, they need to be accountable for their actions and if people don't know who they are, they cannot possibly be forewarned.

Don't know about other breeders but this concerns me greatly! Puppies NEED handling to stimulate them neurologically and to accustom them to handling when they are older. My puppies are handled every day of their lives from birth and I have never yet had a bitch reject a puppy due to human handling in 24 years of breeding.

Yep, I hate to agree but it has been my experience that generally if a bitch is moving a puppy away, she is trying to remove a "faulty" puppy from the litter.

I didn't actually say that anybody denigrated "me" in particular but I did comment that I use my leads with success on my dogs and my horses and thus far, those who have purchased leads from me seem to be highly satisfied with them. I actually said that Warley denigrated OTHER lead makers (in general)....as I pointed out in this thread, there are a few of us here and I didn't wish to turn it entirely into a thread dominated by me. I only posted my photos because I was asked to. Not because I was hoping for sales and certainly not because I was hoping that others would jump on board and praise me up.

She has a lot of very happy customers, what's wrong with that? Nothing whatsoever, just find it amusing that's all given that one of the "happy customers" then has to denigrate other lead makers.

Gee isn't TeamSnag so lucky to have her cheer squad on board!! And yes Warley, I DO know what I'm doing and as I've been using mine on Staffords now for every day as well as show, as well as other breeds AND my horses!!!, I think it's fairly safe to say that they're not going to come apart in a hurry.

Fang Greyhound usually lets me know there is an ambulance coming before I see or hear it. He also lets me know if there is a transporter full of sheep coming.

As I said, there are a few of us here who make them.

Sadly, part of the reason I don't breed a lot and one of the reasons I almost stopped a few years ago was the sheer LACK of suitably qualified caring homes for puppies. Unfortunately, when you have a breed like the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, everybody thinks that they should own one but the reality is that very few really are "right" for them. My apologies to the GOOD pet owners and yes, I know they are out there but as a dog breeder, placing puppies in good homes, you are forced to kiss a heck of a lot of frogs before you find the princes!

They're only about 4mm wide Angelsophie. I'd have no hesitation using one on the American Cockers or even my new Beagle. They're not at all thick and clunky. Mrs R....I can always make another for you!

I didn't mean to hijack the thread. Angelsophie, I'm not doing the bling at the moment. I'm leaning towards the old K.I.S.S. principle and keeping them simple and elegant. I personally think that the kangaroo leather is classy enough on its own! Here's a black/silver lead/collar combo. A martingale... A plain lead with a clip... Slip lead with an o-ring, made for a DOLer. Slip lead with a loop

There are also a few of us around who handbraid kangaroo leather show leads of various types too.

Heeeeyyyyy Take note of Tansy's breeding perception. Lovely post Tansy, nice to see some "ethical" breeders join the thread. The "ethics" to think about their buyers needs instead how everything effects them. And yet AGAIN BB is reading and interpreting ONLY the things in the post that agree with what they want them to agree with! NOBODY is saying they don't want purchasers to have their papers. And ST is not saying that ALL puppies are sold with main registration papers. Not all states HAVE express preparation of papers and even those which do, don't always end up as such. The assumption is also that the stud dog owner has signed off appropriately on the registration application and that the microchips have been done in the states where microchipping is compulsory. I also would not like to have a puppy microchipped prior to their first needles and I do NOT have injections done prior to the age of 8 weeks EVER! I don't get hung up on registration papers...MY equivalent of a TEN generation pedigree is more informative than a three generation pedigree a la a registering body anyway.....do you have any idea of the amount of work can be in researching and data entering enough pedigree information into a computer to generate one BB? NOTHING in this thread has convinced me that what I do is wrong. If anything, it has made me more determined NOT to sell to particular individuals. I have had many potential owners try to push me around and tell me what to do with my own puppies in the past and I'm no more inclined to let them do so now, than I was then, when I didn't really understand as much and hadn't had the experience that I've had to date. To be perfectly frank, in many cases, with my breed in particular there are times that I think I'd rather euthanase every puppy that I don't keep for myself. At least then I can vouch for what happens to them and not have to deal with idiots any more!

Asking the price isn't a bad thing at all. Of COURSE you need to know how much a puppy is going to cost you. The point is that there are ways of doing it which will offend less, just as there are ways of approaching ANYBODY that you don't know if you require a service or goods from them. I PERSONALLY find it objectionable when people say "how much" with no introduction, no information about themselves or for what purpose they would like one of my puppies or the kind of home that they are offering. LITERALLY not a day goes by where I don't reply to a request asking "how much" and that is no exaggeration. Every email is given a reply, unless I cannot understand them or unless they tell me that they intend to purchase a dog and/or a bitch and want to breed. Having wasted (yes wasted) so many hours composing nice emails to such people over the years which have turned into nothing more than slanging matches because they will not be told and won't leave me alone when I tell them that no puppy of mine will be sold to somebody whose only interest is breeding from it, I don't even bother any more. I daresay I'm not alone in this. As said previously in this thread. My preference is replying to the emails who tell me exactly what they want, what they want to know and giving me an opening to be able to compose an educated and informative email in reply.

There were some manual registrations going through at the time, but not many. In most cases, dogs were just being shown with TBA as their registration numbers and many people were praying that their names would be accepted. It would have been a clerical nightmare to sort out otherwise. For my part, I purchased a puppy in August 1997 and didn't get the papers until March 1998 but could have still entered him in shows had I wished to do so.

Yep, my father has to tell my mother that he's L-E-A-V-I-N-G to K-L-A-W to the C-L-U-B soon or his lot go berserk!

I hear you but I don't agree with all that you say. When you have a "popular" breed or one that has a mixed reputation due to bad publicity or misinformation, you are naturally guarded with your replies and with the email enquiries that you get. Believe me, when you have received enough emails, it is VERY possible to get the "tone" of an email. And as I said, an email that just says "I want a staffy, how much are they?" (and usually not even with punctuation or decent, legible spelling either) is not necessarily how I would like to start what will most certainly be a lengthy interview/conversation process with somebody to whom I am going to entrust something into which I have poured many hours of my life and a heck of a lot of love. IF somebody is going to so quickly turn to purchasing from a pet store, simply because they are easily offended, then they probably aren't the kind of person I would be comfortable to deal with anyway and they probably wouldn't get through my own personal "selection criteria".

I am led to believe it is related to the infamous Poodle case that isn't mentioned in polite company.

I think I've shared a situation here of a dog understanding something. Old Dolly was sitting in the back of the car and Mr Ellz put a tray of lamb chops in the back with her (yes....not exactly smart on his part but there you go...it was a "boy thing"... ). As he put the chops in, he said to her "there you go Dolly, have a chop!" We arrived home and opened the back and yes, Dolly had been in the chops BUT....there was only ONE chop missing. Mr Ellz had said have A lamb chop and have A lamb chop she did!!

If there is the likelihood of a dispute, they may not even tell the OP that much.

I breed for me not for other people. If people want one of MY puppies, they do it MY way...it sure as heck ain't Burger King. I have the runs on the board and I am perfectly entitled to be arrogant. If buyers don't like it, they don't deal with me. Simple as that. I spend a lot of time screening and liasing with my puppy people prior to the sale of a puppy. Anybody purchasing a puppy from me is WELL aware of how things will work, not least because I use a written agreement which covers both parties AND the puppy and this also includes information about how the transaction will work (and cover all parties) if the papers are not yet back from the canine registering body. Nobody purchasing a puppy from me is left in the dark, no matter how old the puppy may be or what register it is placed on because they will have been told verbally AND via written means how the transaction will work.

NSW do not require a dog to be transferred into the purchaser's name by the breeder. NSW will not get involved in a dispute over ownership.