Holmchappell
 

Nobody wants to buy from a puppy farm, where bitches often produce a litter every time they come into season and puppies are reared in squalid conditions with little heed to their health and welfare. However, it's not so easy to tell when these practices occur hidden from view, on a smaller scale and in a domestic environment. You can go to someone's home and find breeding dogs kept for most of their lives in small kennels or cages and exercised in barren concrete pens or cramped gardens, all behind closed doors. It may not be as bad as a puppy farm but it is still less than desirable. 

   You also probably don't realise that the Kennel Club register puppies bred on puppy farms and in such undesirable circumstances as those just described. So long as a breeder enters two KC registered pedigree parents for a puppy, and the bitch hasn't had a registered litter in the last twelve months (that doesn't stop her having an unregistered designer cross-bred litter in between) the KC will register it. So, KC REGISTRATION IS NOT A MARK OF QUALITY OR ASSURED WELFARE. 

   HOWEVER, BUYING A PUPPY FROM A KENNEL CLUB ASSURED BREEDER, YOU ARE GUARANTEED HIGHER STANDARDS. Assured breeders are inspected and are obliged to comply with a set of rules regarding everything from their dog's living quarters, feed and exercise through breeding practice, health testing and record keeping. Assured breeders are also required to provide you with sufficient information, with good quality after-sales support and the scheme encourages your feed-back and provides you with a framework for complaint, should the need arise.

   I am proud to be an Assured Breeder and support the scheme wholeheartedly. Whatever breed you eventually choose, for the sake of your future with your dog, make sure it has had the best possible start in life and purchase it from an Assured Breeder.

   For full details of the scheme, use the button below left to visit the Kennel Club's website.