Last year I started professionally breeding miniature dachshunds. I have both AKC and CKC dogs here and yes, I sell the puppies. www.dachsieindulgencekennels.com for more information. However, I am not in this for the money because if I was I'd have gone bankrupt already. I have found that the expenses involved with running a kennel the RIGHT WAY are exhorbitant. You have vet bills, supply bills, construction bills, feed bills and then there's the required massive amounts of time you have to spend with the dogs. IF I just had litter after litter and didn't care about registrations, heallthy pups, pedigrees, and overall conformation, I could probably make some money.
Instead, I choose to have healthy pups and sell them with spay/neuter contracts in most cases. I choose to NOT breed my females each heat. I choose which males they go in with and if the male is not healthy I do not breed the pair. I keep a waiting list of clients with notations of what color/coat they want, and then contact those clients when I have a new litter. If I do not have a waiting list, I do not breed my females.
So why do online bloggers with NO OTHER OUTSIDE LIVES insist I am an abuser of animals? Because to them, selling the pups makes me the owner of a puppy mill. I do not sell to pet stores, I do not sell all pups with full registrations nor breeding rights and I do not sell sick puppies. I don't overbreed my dogs and I will retire dogs that develop health issues or have deformed pups. All pups are placed in homes or kept here. Anyone who buys a dog from me and then has issues that preclude keeping the dog, can bring the dog back to me, no questions asked. HOW DOES ALL THIS MAKE MY OPERATION A PUPPY MILL?
The correct answer to this is: It's a kennel not a puppy mill. I am a responsible breeder with ethics and a great love for dachshunds as a breed. It breaks my heart when I have sick puppies or lose one of my babies. I greatly resent the opinionated asses who are uneducated or deliberately ignorant or better yet, just immature drama seekers.
