Back Yard Breeders

I'm not sure about anyone else, but, I, for one, am tired of the term 'Backyard Breeder' and its misuse.

When I hear that term, I think of some slob with a hoard of dogs (all sick, of course) in a stinky shed somewhere who knows nothing about dogs or how to care for them, much less how to breed them. Someone who buys the cheapest full blooded dog they can find. Someone who  feeds them hardly anything or the wrong food, puts them in a kennel in a shed in their backyard and anxiously waits for them to come into heat. Gives them no love or attention or vet care. They do this for money, not because they care about their dog. Are we in agreement so far??

 Well, then why am I considered a 'backyard breeder'?? I don't have years of pitbull experience but I am willing to learn. I have a beautiful male dog with no health problems and no conformation faults. He was a present from my son. I have bred him to our female that was also a christmas present to me from my husband. They are both full blooded APBT's. They are not papered but both of their parents were. They fell out of the registration process and can only be registered with the APBR. My males parents were registered with the ADBA but my son failed to get the papers and was in the Army and stationed in South Carolina. So, I can't get them bc he doesn't remember where the house is. My female's mother is UKC registered and her dad's parents were registered with, I think, the ADBA.  Anyway, I can't get their pedigree either. But, I know my dogs. They both have sound temperments and good body structure. They both are naturally protective of our person and our house. (Maybe that is just a pitbull trait, I'm not sure) They both were easily trained to guard us and our house. When someone pulls up our dogs will bark and growl and snarl and go ballistic until we tell them it is ok. They also do this when they are on the leash.  They are not bully dogs but more of (don't eat me up for use of this word) game dogs. They are tall and lean.

I decided to breed them because they are so much alike and I like their traits and their looks. Although they look totally different, they produce some great looking pups. Do I do it for the money? Not at all. When you take in the cost of properly raising a dog and keeping a dog and the paltry price I charge for puppies, I don't even break even.

I do it because I think (and maybe wrongly) that everyone in the world deserves a dog like mine. They are my love and my friends. I have owned my female for 4 years now and I love her to death!! Sadie doesn't go more than once a week without biting my husband, but she is great. She loves people and kids and she loves to play. She loves to play fight even more than anything. Which is why we get bit. She won't forget a thing you do to her either. When she was 3 months old we used to let her out without a leash, cos she never left the yard and she comes right back. Well, that day she went to our neighbors house and he had a couple of dogs in a pen. Sadie got into it with his Weimariner and the lab. They got her good. She had a gash on her cheek and when my husband heard them fighting he yelled for her and she came back. She never forgot that. She got loose off her leash about 6 months later and literally tore that Weimariner up! By the time my husband got over there, she had half of his jaw in her mouth and she ripped it off his face. And, if you are play fighting with her and you get the better of her and yell break. She will stop but within the next 6 hours she will bite you when she gets the chance. Sadie is the queen bitch in our house. 

But, alas, she is not my dog anymore. I gave her to my husband when my son got us the male. T-Bone was the love of my life as soon as I met him. He was sooooooo adorable and his nose was broke, because they had his daddy on a chain in the backyard with the mother and puppies running loose. They used to fight his daddy and his daddy had gotten ahold of T-Bone and broke his nose with his teeth. My husband has a strong voice and it scared T-Bone, so he took to me right away too. When we first brought him home, we had to potty break him so we kenneled him when we weren't home or when we went to bed and also because I wasn't too sure how nice Sadie would be to him. So, his kennel quickly became his home and he loves it.  We found out he was dog-aggressive when he was about 6 months old. A lady with a dog came to our yard sale and T-Bone started growling and barking at her. Then he started to lunge at her and I took him inside. We didn't completely understand it until after Sadie had her first litter (she was 2 yrs old and T-Bone was 8 months old) and a person we had sold a puppy to came over with the puppy to show us how he had grown. The puppy was 4 months old and T-Bone was a year old. He came charging out of the house and grabbed this puppy by the throat and flipped him up against the side of the house while we stood in total shock.

Then before we could move, Sadie came charging out of the house also and my husband grabbed her just in time. We kenneled T-Bone and put Sadie back in the house. I took the puppy to the chair and Sadie came running up to it and bit it in the head and kept running. She is a bitch sometimes. Usually, she likes other dogs, but somehow, she knew that T-Bone didn't like that puppy so she was gonna help her buddy out.  She is loyal like that. Anyway, she took to the puppy and T-Bone just growled and snarled in his cage the rest of the time he was there. With this last litter, we had the puppies kenneled next to T-Bone and this one little male puppy would growl and bark at T-Bone constantly. It worried him so much that he bit a sore on his tail. He is also food aggressive when those puppies were near him. I guess he thought they were going to get his food. He would snap and growl at them when he had food in his kennel. Yes, he is very dog aggressive.

 My point is this. I know my dogs every behavior and conformation fault and they are minor. They are:

1. My bitch is tiny built. Very leggy.

2. My male is so huge that one person thought he was bred with a mastiff. (which he was not)

3. My male is very dog aggressive and his puppies have a higher chance of being dog aggressive.

Those are their faults and you can see my dogs and I always tell everyone about T-Bone being dog aggressive. No, I don't know their bloodlines or their pedigrees. They are not show dogs, we have them house guard trained so I consider them working dogs. Yet, you pedigree spouting snobs think I am a 'backyard breeder'. I consider you rude and you consider me uneducated and ignorant. To each their own.