If you browse Rhodesian Ridgeback breeders websites (and probably any dog breeding website) you will find that breeders state how they breed to improve the standard of the breed.  They breed for quality not quantity.

I use to look at these statements and be quite impressed but now….. well now I think these are just words.  It doesn’t mean that the breeders actually do that.  When you think about it, of course they are going to make statements like that, they aren’t going to come out and say that they breed to make money or anything like that are they?

If a breeder knows that one of their dogs has or possibly has a genetic problem, should they disclose this problem to both potential puppy buyers, or to other breeders that might use their dog as a stud dog for breeding.

This is the story behind why I am so intense with this topic at the moment.

We are looking at buying a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy.  We found a nice litter with nice parents, and in particular a very nice sire.  We would love to have one of his puppies.  So we contacted the breeder to see if there were any puppies available and we were told that there is not likely to be any available unless another buyer pulls out, which could happen depending if the puppies are rated as show or pet quality.

So we waited and about three weeks later the breeder rang us to say that a buyer had pulled out and so there was one puppy available.  This puppy was pet quality because it had excess white markings.

So that’s fine, all is good, we go ahead and pay the deposit.  The puppy is in another state so we arrange and pay for it’s flight to come over to where we are.

Then, one week before we are due to get the puppy I get a phone call from the breeder telling me that the puppy has an overbite.  She says we would not be able to breed from him because this is a genetic problem (we weren’t going to breed since he was pet quality anyway).

So, I didn’t know much about overbites at all and if they could cause any potential problems in the future for the puppy – problems that could cause a lot of money to fix.  So I asked the breeder questions and I asked if they could send photos of his teeth.

I searched the internet to see what I could find out about overbites and because I have a lot of Ridgeback friends on Facebook I asked the question on Facebook.  Here is the exact quote that I wrote:

Ridgeback friends I need advice – we are buying a puppy and get him next week. He is pet quality not show quality. Breeder rang today to tell us he has an overbite. He is interstate so we can’t actually see him so now I’m stressing. Can anyone tell me much about overbites and is it something we should be concerned about?

So there was no mention of the breeders name, nothing said about the breeder at all, just a simple question asking if anyone could give me advice on overbite.

The next morning the breeder rang me and told me that they would not send the puppy to us and were refunding our deposit.  They accused me of defaming them as a breeder and claimed that I made defamatory remarks about them on Facebook.

Huh???

How did I defame them when I didn’t mention their name and I didn’t even say anything bad about them, I simply asked a question.

As for the photos I asked if they could send, they sent me two front shots and one side shot of the puppy – but none where the teeth or the extent of the overbite were able to be seen.

I’m left in shock and quite upset and very angry at the breeders reaction to me asking a question about the overbite.  As a buyer don’t I have the right to ask questions about the puppy and any potential medical problems it might have?

This is a genetic problem, I’m not an expert I am just stating this because this is what the breeder said.  So with their reaction, I am left wondering if it is because they are scared that the RR community will find out that their dog has this genetic issue.  If it became known then people would not want to use him as a stud dog and that could affect their business as a breeder badly.  I say business because if this is the attitude they have then they treat it like a business and not like a breeder that breeds for the benefit of the breed.

In a way I can understand their fear of this news becoming public, however, ethically this is wrong!  And a good, reputable breeder would not breed from a dog that they know has this genetic problem.  After all, they told me that I couldn’t breed with the puppy because of it so why is it ok for them to continue breeding with the parent that has the bad gene???

With breeders like this around, the breed will never be able to be improved.  Keep hiding the genetic problems and selling the ‘reject’ puppies as pets, and how is that going to help the breed standard.  Don’t they even think for a minute that although the puppy with the overbite is being sold as a pet and not being bred from, one of the other puppies that doesn’t have an overbite so is sold as show quality could still carry the gene and produce puppies of it’s own with an overbite!  As can future puppies that are bred from these parents!

Is it really at the stage where we should start demanding DNA tests before using a particular sire to breed with or DNA tests on puppies so we know if they are genetically correct.  Just because a puppy looks ok and has all the right markings etc, it could still carry the bad genes if dogs that are known to have the gene keep being bred from.

Anyway, that’s my rant.  I do feel quite strongly about this because of how nasty these breeders got when they thought that it could become known that they might have a genetic fault in their blood lines!  If they do have a genetic fault then they shouldn’t be breeding this dog – simple as that!  Don’t treat your buyers like crap because  you’re scared they are going to let the cat out of the bag!

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