The Best Breeders I Know Do 5 Things:

The best breeders I know do 5 things:

1. Deworm and get Veterinarian Administered Vaccines for their puppies

2. Health Test all of their dogs both genetically and through programs like PennHip or OFA and have standards from these organizations they expect their breeding stock to meet (Good -> Excellent for OFAs generally)

3. Do tons of early neurological stimulation for their puppies and are working with their puppies daily from the time they are born

4. Include anti-breeding contracts on their produced dogs that are "Pet" quality, and have very strict breeding contracts for their dogs of greater than pet quality (usually enforced via co-ownership) BUT may not specify Spay/Neuter in their contracts. I'm staunchly against early spay neuter as someone who works in rehabilitation and general practice because I see the long term effects of early spay neuter on the daily. They also tend to leave spay neuter in their contracts to the best judgement of the dog's primary DVM.

In the practice where I'm employed, we don't sterilize earlier than 6 months unless there are extenuating circumstances. We were also one of the first clinics in the area to adopt Balance.it fresh food feeding programs and recipes, the first to refuse convenience euthanasia (we still do B.Es), and the first to refuse the declawing of cats.

We've also limited our crop and dock procedures. We've done 10 medically necessary docks in the decade I've worked here all of which were due to injury, mutilation, or disease processes. With 3 ear amputations due to tumors or significant injury. We also refer our cosmetic crops to another doctor for clients who would otherwise get backyard crop jobs.

Your breeder should not be pushing against core vaccines and monthly preventatives. They also absolutely should not be pushing against BOAS surgeries, especially on pet dogs (and a lot of the breeders I know who push against BOAS are the ones whose dogs got them anyway.)

why do breeders push against vaccines and spay/neuter? ive never understood this

The cynical answer, that i think is the truth deep under the anti-vax rhetoric, is that it's a way to save money and excuse the fact that they are selling puppies that have never been vaccinated or dewormed, despite being 8 to 12 weeks old. Exams and age appropriate shots and dewormers eat into their profit margin. Maligning these and building distrust of veterinary staff helps hide their shitty breeding practices, and gives them a somewhat captive consumer population for the homeopathic bullshit and supplements many of them also sell. And quite a few will say that if you get them these vaccines or dewormers that it will make them *more* prone to getting the disease or conditions like epilepsy. This tells me that that have parvo on their property and shitty genetic lines.

Some breeders may truly believe all their bullshit, but the person they learned the bullshit from? Knows it was bullshit and just wanted more money and control.

*EDIT* missed the s/n part, but that goes back in to building distrust of vets to keep control over their customers along with not understanding the studies.

And it's also a great way to excuse shitty hips or elbows if you can blame early spay/neuter.