Have Expectations but Be Realistic

What do you expect from your breeder?

It’s a genuine question.

Do you want a breeder who spends their time exposing puppies to the real world, introducing crates, starting basic leash skills, working on manners, letting them experience different surfaces, sounds, animals, people and environments?

Do you want perfectly posed weekly pictures of every puppy?

Do you want both?

Maybe you don’t care about the perfect pictures at all. Maybe you’d rather see the real ones. Puppies covered in dirt. Puppies asleep in ridiculous positions. Puppies experiencing something new. Puppies learning how to exist in the world they’re eventually going to live in.

But have you ever actually stopped and thought about what you expect from your breeder?

And are those expectations realistic?

Something that I think gets forgotten, especially with social media, is that breeders are people with entire lives happening behind those adorable puppy pictures.

Does your breeder work outside the home?

Do they have a family?

Do they have other dogs and animals that need care?

Do they have help raising the litter, or are they managing most of it themselves?

Are they spending 30 minutes getting the perfect picture, or did they spend those 30 minutes introducing puppies to crates while they cleaned the puppy area?

Neither question is meant as an excuse for poor puppy raising. Good breeders absolutely should have standards for the care, cleanliness, health, socialization and development of their puppies.

But sometimes I think social media has created expectations that everything should happen perfectly, constantly and publicly.

I’ve raised a litter while working at a veterinary clinic, and those were LONG days.

Before I even came home, I had to think about biosecurity. I needed to change clothes and make sure I wasn’t bringing something home from the clinic to a litter of vulnerable puppies.

Then I came home and managed probably 95% of the cleaning and puppy raising myself.

Not because my husband won’t help. He absolutely will. But his job means he isn’t always home, and ultimately, I made the decision to breed my dogs and bring these puppies into the world. They are my responsibility.

So I do the best I can.

I clean.

I introduce crates.

I work on leash skills and manners.

I expose puppies to as much of the real world as I safely can.

I take pictures when they’re doing adorable things.

I answer questions.

I write educational posts like this one, along with the fun posts and the more serious ones. There are actually quite a few topics I hesitate to post because sometimes important conversations aren’t necessarily comfortable conversations.

And behind all of that, I’m screening dozens upon dozens of messages.

Many of those conversations will end immediately after I say the puppies are spoken for.

Others will end when I give the price.

Some people will never respond again.

And that’s okay. Honestly, that has become part of breeding in the age of social media.

But I think there’s value in remembering that there is an actual person on the other side of that kennel page.

So ask yourself what you really expect from your breeder.

Have expectations.

Please have them.

Ask about health testing. Ask about temperament. Ask how the puppies are raised. Ask what they’re exposed to. Ask about the parents. Ask what the breeder does to prepare those puppies for their new homes.

Hold breeders accountable to the things that actually matter.

But also understand that the breeder raising your puppy may be choosing between getting the perfect eight-week glamour shot and spending that hour giving eight puppies an individual experience that will actually benefit them.

Sometimes the best puppy raising doesn’t make it onto Facebook.

Sometimes we were too busy actually raising the puppies to take the picture.

Be kind to your breeder. Don’t lower your expectations, but make sure the expectations you have are focused on the things that truly matter.