Changing A Byb's Point Of View

[twodoggies2001]

I'm sure she is a loving owner and cares or her dog. Let's hope that she can look forward enough to realise she probably has chosen the wrong breed to jump into breeding with. She possibly looked at the price tag of bb puppies and thought she could earn a few dollars to supplement her income.

Yup, that was definitely my first thought.

She brought her son along too to some of the classes and he obviously adored the puppy and they participated in the training activities etc. I don't think she's a terrible owner, maybe just terribly misinformed :/

Most pet owners are. That's why trying to teach the 'ignorent' by the experienced is the way to go.

[Leah82]

I second asking questions. What you want to do is talk to her and have her come across her own reasons for not breeding without it seeming like that was your agenda.

Say you heard that she was looking at breeding - seem interested

Ask her if she's done it before - conversation might need to be adjusted at this point

Ask her if she knows if any of her dogs health issues are genetic - hopefully the conversation will flow at this point.

Then you can mention you've heard some horror stories in past from breeders and would be too scared to risk anything happening to your dog.

Wish her luck with whatever she decides to do.

If you start spouting a lot of facts you'll likely put her on the defense and she won't be actually taking in anything you are saying

Hopefully by approaching the situation more gently she might come to you questions if she starts doubting her plan to breed.

I came across a similar situation last week but was very cautious about offending anyone as they were my parent's friends. I started talking about my own dogs a bit later and mentioned how it's good they have genetic testing these days to try and wipe out a lot of these issues like PRA which is what one of my dog's have.

[Panto]

Asking a lot of questions then bombarding them with information (that shows they obviously didn't know) can make them quite defensive and close off... the difficulty in successfully carrying this off is making sure they still feel like they're on top, or, somehow being able to let them lean towards wanting to learn from you...

the 'gosh I couldn't do it to my dog' etc whithout any tones suggesting she is intending on being cruel to hers, might be a good approach.

Just want to say good on you for wanting to give it a go anyhow. You never know, if it does work (or even if it doesn't), what you begin here might down the track help this person stop someone else in her position... "you know, I used to want to breed mine too til someone in puppy class said..." etc.