What is a Backyard Breeder?

Sometimes on Fan Friday, you guys ask questions that pretty much need their own video to get an answer. This past Friday, I was asked by Monica, what is the difference between a backyard breeder and a professional breeder? I'm actually going to answer this in a two part series. Well, part of it will be answered both today. Another part of it will be answered on Wednesday. I have to come back Wednesday to see the other half of this. Basically today, I'm going to tell you what a backyard breeder is. A backyard breeder, basically, is somebody who's breeding dogs without really knowing what the heck they're doing. To put it pretty simply. They could be breeding out of their backyard or their basement or whatever, but they call them backyard breeders. Backyard breeders usually do not breed to show standard. They usually don't have show dogs. They pretty much just have a purebred dog or not a purebred dog. Sometimes two, but they usually have a purebred dog that they decide. My dog's cute. My dog's adorable. I should let my dog have puppies so that we can sell the puppies and make money. Backyard breeders like to sell dogs for profit. Not to better the breed, just for profit. If you know anything about breeding dogs, you don't breed dogs for profit. If you breed dogs correctly, you really don't make a lot of money doing it. Usually you don't make any money doing it. One of the easiest ways to figure out if the person you're buying from is a backyard breeder. Let's just say that you decide you want to buy a Siberian Husky. You get online or you look in the paper. You find Husky puppies and you say, okay. Call them up and they say, all right, the puppy's $300. Come on over and get it. That's a big red flag that that person is a backyard breeder. A responsible breeder will not just let you walk over, take your $300 and give you a puppy. They're going to want you to sign a contract. They're going to want you to fill out an application. They're going to want to know more about you before they're willing to let you have one of their puppies. Backyard breeders don't really care. They just want your money. A lot of times when you go to a backyard breeder, they will not have vet records of the puppies. They won't have vet records of the parents, which are things you should ask for when looking at a puppy. A lot of times, backyard breeders are basically ignorant of how breeding really works. They don't breed to breed standard. If you look, each purebred dog has a standard that they're supposed to follow. Basically, when people breed dogs, you should be breeding them to uphold the history of the breed. Their standard size, their standard weights, their standard shapes, their standard sizes. Breeding them for what they're meant to be bred for, according to standard. Backyard breeders don't do that. They're breeding basically for profit. A lot of times with backyard breeders, the dogs, the parents and the puppies won't have a lot of hands on. You know, the people basically just did it because they want money. So, you'll end up seeing these puppies that really haven't had much human interaction. Maybe living outside in yucky conditions. That's how Shelby was. Shelby was from a backyard breeder. Living outside in the mud. Weren't you? Living outside in the mud. Those are a few things you really want to look for. The biggest red flags when it comes to them. If they don't want you to sign a contract and they just want to hand that puppy over to you, you may want to second guess where you're getting this puppy from. Now, a lot of times, backyard breeders sell their puppies really cheap. You may be able to get a purebred Husky for two, three, four hundred dollars. You know, fairly cheap. Where if you go to a reputable breeder, you're going to pay seven, eight, nine hundred dollars or more. It may seem like a good deal in the beginning, but you are buying a puppy from somebody who doesn't care about the genetics. If the dog has a genetic defect, they don't care. They bred it anyway because they thought it was cute. You shouldn't breed a dog just because it's cute. I think Shelby's cute. I think Oakley's cute. I thought Shiloh was cute, but it wasn't a good enough reason to breed any of them. They all have, you know, little issues that pretty much mean they shouldn't have been bred. Shiloh had a lot of allergies and a lot of, you know, those types of issues, which pretty much, I wouldn't call her defective, but kind of would make her a defective dog for breeding. What do you think? Defective dog for breeding? That sounds really bad. I'm not meaning that to be as mean as it sounds. But hopefully, you get my point. A lot of times, backyard breeders will also sell multiple breeds of dogs. So if you're going there, say, to look at a Siberian Husky, they may also have German Shepherds and Malamutes and a bunch of different breeds on their property. That's another thing you want to look out for. If they have lots and lots of dogs, you probably don't want to buy a puppy from them. Backyard breeders are actually the single greatest cause of overpopulation in pets because they're basically breeding just to breed. Backyard breeders usually don't have bad intentions. They're usually just really ignorant to what they're doing. They don't understand how to breed. So basically, so I don't make this video super long and give you too much information. If you're going to look for a purebred dog and you're looking for a breeder, some things that you want to stay away from are breeders that don't have contracts. If you say, say you buy the dog and three months from now you lose your house and you have to get rid of the dog, a responsible breeder will gladly take that puppy back from you. And usually that's in a contract that says if you ever have to give up the dog, it has to go back to the breeder. A backyard breeder won't even have a contract. So you want to make sure there's some kind of contract to be signed. You want to usually want to make sure that there's some kind of application so that... Because the breeders should be concerned that the dog is going to its forever home, not just any home. It's one of the reasons backyard breeders are usually just breeding for profit. They could care less where their puppies go. And if you fall on hard times, they could care less to take their puppy back. So those are just a few things to look for in what a backyard breeder really is. There are lots of information. There's lots of information out there on the internet. If you look up what is a backyard breeder, you can read a lot of information on it. On Wednesday, I'm going to do a video telling you... Giving you guys some tips on how to find a responsible breeder. Again, we always suggest shelters first. But you know what? Sometimes... Everybody wants a puppy now and then. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if you are going to get a puppy instead of going to a shelter... You definitely want to find a responsible breeder. And try as hard as you can to stay away from backyard breeders. Thanks for watching you guys! We'll see you on Wednesday! See you on Wednesday! you