Breeder Talk

@ownedbyspencer: LOL– your empty nest isn't staying empty at all! Hope the girls had fun at their sleepover. :) We have great fun!

I have learned far too much about this industry and know that because a dog is registered AKC doesn't mean that the pup is well bred and even from humane conditions. I sent the AKC an e-mail after learning a great deal about the puppy mill industry and they have not responded. If you wish to really know more you can look for the National Mill Dog Rescue and check out the ASPCA. The national government won't pass FDA legislation to protect animals from unhealthy to down right cruel conditions. I always encourage everyone I know that if they wish to get a pure bred dog to find a rescue or meet the breeder and see the conditions the puppies are from. The AKC gets millions of dollars every year from people "registering" litters online. Anyone can register if they want to fill out the paper work.

@Channing's_Girl: I bought my pup from Mary Alaniz. She said his parents had been tested. He will be a year old in 5 days. So far no health problems. She was very nice and told me if I have any questions or need advice to contact her. I researched the breed and breeders for over a year before I bought one. I think if the dogs are well bred (in terms of genetics) and are healthy that it is oK if they are not AKC registered, especially if you are not interested in showing and are going to have them fixed anyways. Also, her dogs are pets to her, not just a dollar sign, she seems to really care about them, they live in her house, unlike some breeders who keep dogs in kennels. Good to hear. I bought my Basenji from her a couple years back as well. I got the runt of that litter (the last one left) but she's doing just fine.

No, it won't be the same. I recently lost a beloved dog myself. I'm so sorry.

To the OP, unless you do health testing, and then get a title on your dog, your best bet is to not breed. To do it right will cost you more than you could ever get in stud fees unless he is phenomenal. To Rosie.. wow. No. Contact BRAT and adopt a dog. The fair thing to your dog is to love her, spay her and not risk cancer, dying or complications from whelping and other issues. The responsible thing to your children isn't to become a backyard breeder creating puppies, but to show them you actually CARE about animals and not produce more. Unless of course you are willing to fork over the money required to do all the health testing (this is not your vet saying "she's fine" but rather hip xrays, Fanconi DNA, thyroid, heart etc!) AND pay for stud service to a dog who has also been tested (good luck with that– most reputable stud owners don't just breed to anyone).

Markings in other breeds certainly are genetic, so would be surprised if not with basenjis. But hopefully the breeders will speak up :)

Congrats on a nice sized variety litter! Had to pop over to facebook to see them. :)

FB is free, so easy to just set up an account… However, I did add some new pictures from yesterday

Congratulations :)

@thunderbird8588: Hi Kathy, both my dogs came of course resposible breeders in the UK. I could be speaking out of turn here and i hope someone in the UK will correct me if i'm wrong but UK breeders in the Basenji world as far as i am aware don't tend to breed that many litters to warrant moving a dog on to make room. The Basenji population in the UK is still quite small Sorry, but I doubt it. Lets say you have done it all right and you are starting out with ONLY one bitch. You breed, you keep a bitch. Now you have 2 bitches… breed the original bitch again once the next year, may now have 3 bitches. Next year you may skip I guess, so okay, couple of years later you breed 2 litters (original and at least one of the other 2). So now 4 yrs out the original, 2 daughters, and probably one or 2 from the new litter. You now have 5 dogs. Can you really manage and give attention to 5 dogs? if you have kids and family, sure. What if you want to add an outside dog, or a puppy or 2 comes back, or even the next years breeding-- you can easily be up to 8 or 9 dogs. Doesn't matter if you are in the UK, USA or France, if you are seriously breeding, you are going to accumulate more dogs unless you place the older ones too. I understand it is hard. Heck I kept and spayed a very doggy bitch (Rottweiler) because my child and husband fell in love with her. Fortunately I had a cobreeder with her half-sibling who took the next generation and sent me the 3rd. But those are ROTTIES who are often gone by 8 to 10 yrs, not much longer lived Basenjis. If you can't do it, don't get into breeding. Either you are serious about moving the breed forward which means a long term plan and generations... or you just want to breed once for the experience. If you are in a breed that is not already bleeding out with massive overbreeding, and you do it right, many once-only folks produce puppies for which there are homes and I don't fault them. But those who are dedicated and keep at it for decades are the keepers of the breed and my hat goes off to their work. Btw, you want horror stories -- try the Benkisers who had an accidental breeding they didn't want to ever breed from but decided one would be good for working sheep-- so they (their phrase for it) "grew them out" to 6 mos, picked one and SHOT THE OTHER 5. Add in they had a 6 yr old daughter-- well I have never spoken to them since and it's been some 12 yrs. Or Felicia Luberich -- another Rottie breeder, who posted on the AOL boards that she had a litter of puppies she couldn't sell and was going to euthanize them all. Rescue folks BEGGED HER to let them spay/neuter and find them homes. She said if she couldn't get her $2,000 per puppy, no one could have them and she was going to kill them. Perhaps when you work in rescue as long as I have, you appreciate people who do what is responsible for their dogs. And rehoming a dog at almost any age just isn't irresponsible to me.

Congrats! Should be a nice litter!

You should be good and nuts by week 5! I don't envy you at all, Happy puppies!!

It seems that 1990 and 1991 were good years. I got my first show Basenji in 1991 also. :) The breeder that I got my foundation bitch from lived in another state and wasn't interested in continued contact after I bought the dog. I didn't know anyone else who even owned Basenjis. (This was before internet.) Only one couple I met at dog shows took the time to even speak to me when I first started showing. They gave me tips on handling and grooming but they did not serve as mentor. I did not have a mentor for my first litter but it turned out well; five puppies of which 3 became conformation champions and 1 became a field champion. My mentor came about later. We disagreed on many things over the years but I learned a lot from her. Now it's my turn to be a mentor. I didn't really know what I was doing early on but I really enjoy it now.

There are alot of Amore Kennels (mostly small fluffy breeds, cane corsos, and a few other breeds) but there are no Amore Basenjis as a kennel name. Sooooo i am hoping that is a good enough reason to say i can use it ;) :)

These people did show some of their Basenjis and actually did get points on some of them. That doesn't always mean much though. A person can enter a bunch of their own dogs in a small show and if no one else enters then they get points on something they own. I remember the pups they were selling as "show prospects" were poor quality and priced higher than an actual show prospect from a responsible breeder.

That's hilarious. :) When you stopped the dremel, he woke up! The dremel is not Kipawa's most favourite thing, but he does put up with it. But not like Anubis!

@Anubis's: I don't think I'd ever breed but I would at least like to know her heritage and such. … then: I'd love to get into breeding but don't want to be classified as a back yard breeder myself. So I am going through all necessary steps to avoid that. I want to be responsible should I decide to breed. Both my dogs are cleared healthy from my vet and now Ill be doing the DNA test for Fanconi so I have record of it as well. then: Very true. If I cant find her breeder Ill probably end up having her spayed. Is there any tests that can be done for any other issues she could have? I know Basenji's can have glaucoma issues as well as hip problems too. Going to have to step out of this one after I say my piece, because it is obvious you got this bitch HOPING to breed. Instead of doing it RIGHT, finding a quality show breeder, waiting for a quality responsibly bred bitch, you bought a pig in a poke hoping you could get enough info to pretend you are not backyard breeding. You can't. Find the breeder, don't find the breeder– spay her now. The likelihood that she is well bred are close to zero and even if you found the breeder, even if she/he gave you papers, why would you breed a dog from someone like that? Most likely the bitch was on a limited registration or simply from nonregistered animals. But your intent is becoming clear and it makes me very sad. You don't think you would ever breed, or breed HER? If you are interested in getting a mentor, learning genetics/lines/breeding, great. If for one millisecond you considered breeding this bitch, I am a bit shocked. That you even consider your male to be helping the breed-- a dog with no titles, sold to you obviously without a neuter contract or requirements to show before breeding, assuming because you have his pedigree that to YOU his line is known... well head shaking here for sure. Reading names is meaningless. DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCEPT about the health issues, progeny produced, genetics or ANYTHING on every single dog in that pedigree for at least 5 generations back? If not, you are not ready to breed. Do you understand basenji genetics in particular and dog genetics in general? Nope. Not ready. I don't care if you have $100,000 set aside for emergencies and raising a litter, it does not make YOU a responsible breeder and it does not make the litter worthy of having been produced. SPAY/NEUTER your PETS. Get a mentor, learn to show, learn genetics, learn Basenji lines, and then and only then, look for a bitch that has POTENTIAL (or be prepared to pay a lot for one who has proven it and a breeder willing to part with or share). Right now, you could not be doing it much more backwards if you were trying to write a guide book for how to do it wrong.

Jennifer, I could probably find out more info on the sire and dam. I bet I can ask Becky and she can get it for me. I guess she's pretty good friends with the lady she got my girl from as a pup. She might indeed go back to him as Graham isnt terribly far from WF I dont believe. Ill see what else I can find. All I know is she's an awesome girl and I wouldn't trade her for anything :) She DEFINITELY keeps me on my toes though! She has a crazy obsession for anything paper…mainly paper towels and tissues. She will snag em off the table and run away as fast as she can so she can go shred it lol.

The public database does not list breeder but Sally does track breeders in her personal database.