CRAZY BAD TEMPER

You might have a 75% chance of getting a good puppy, and think the breeder good, but if you are one of the 25% who get a sick puppy or a neurotic puppy, then you might have a bad opinion of the breeder.

Some breeders produce dogs where nearly all of the puppies grow up to have problems, like chronic, non-stop yapping, or being hard to housebreak.

Or you could have a problem like one breeder told me about:

She branched out into a newly accepted breed and loved them because the puppies newspaper trained themselves before their eyes were open. The puppies would crawl out of the box to go to the bathroom on the newspapers beside it, and as soon as they could walk, they followed the mother dogs out of the kitchen thru the doggie door, and she never had a mess to clean up.

She was so happy with this breed, that after she sold the first litter, she bred the mother dog again. Then she decided to started buying into the breed, buying another adult of this breed, and looking for another unrelated female.

Then she started to get phone calls.

The first litter was about 6 months old when a woman called and said the puppy was growling at her kids. The breeder went over and re-claimed the growler and was going to keep it for breeding because she assumed the fault was with the childrens' behavior.

Later, she got another call. One of the dogs had bit the owners child badly. The family said the dog had been growling, but they didn't think it would attack their child until it did.

So the breeder called all the other people who had bought a pup from that litter. It was a large litter, and most of the people said the puppy, now nearly grown, was growling.

So the breeder arranged to drive to each home to "see how the puppy had turned out, so to know if the mother was worthy of another litter".

All of the dogs she saw had serious crazy mean temperament problems, but the ignorant owners wanted to kept the dogs. (Duh, if you get a puppy who turns crazy mean -get rid of it BEFORE it rips parts off you or your kid!).

She said she wrote out checks for each dog, mostly taking the dogs straight to the vet to be put down.

A few owners said their dog was growling or lunging at people, but when the breeder got there the dog seemed fine. The breeder brought these two dogs home (on separate days) but both had episodes of rage, and the last one nearly nailed the breeder.

A few people insisted the puppy they had bought turned out fine. One of these had the breeder convinced. The breeder was determined to find out why this puppy had grown up okay - had the buyer just got lucky and got a good one, or had it been raised better?

But the buyer would not invite the breeder over. Finally the breeder went over to the buyers home and said "I have to see this dog."

The dog threw itself at the screen trying to get the breeder. The dog was so barking mad it was nearly having fits trying to get to the breeder.

I don't know if the breeder had good morals and a strong fear of lawsuits, or if it was, as she had said, that she felt so bad seeing the ripped up kid from the one dog from this litter, but instead of leaving and calling and advising the owner to get rid of the dog, she asked the owner to bring the dog out front on a leash.

Then she began the task of convincing the buyer (owner of the dog), to see the need to hand over her pet for destruction. Arg, that's not a task I'd want.

The owner did not want to see the reality of the situation.

The breeder explained about there being something wrong with the litter.

The owner did not want to believe that the dog would only get worse, and that this was not something it was wise to ignore.

The owner refused to give up this dog who clearly was dangerous.

The breeder asked the owner why she had said such wonderful things about the dog on the phone.

The woman said that she had not known that the breeder was calling all the people who bought from that litter, she had assumed that somebody had contacted the breeder specifically about this one dog - her dog.

It came out that this dog, whose owner sang praises about, was the worse one from the litter.

It had started turning bad the earliest, and had seriously bit the owner twice, but she had refused to get treatment for fear that someone would take the dog away from her.

Finally, the owner gave in, accepted a refund.

The breeder told me the dog stared at her the whole time, and growled, and tried to get her a few times (while they were talking). So the breeder had to have the owner put the dog in the car (which is harder on the owner, than just seeing the dog be led off on the leash).

The dog was so bad, the owner called the vet out to meet her, and had him inject the dog, through the gap in the window, (breeders often have bars installed behind the front seats so dogs can be loose in the back of the car to travel to shows), which was down a ways for air.

(I presume they either tranquized the dog first, or pulled a front leg thru the window opening). She only said the vet could not open the car door because the dog was so mean.

She did say it wasn't hard to do because the dog was "right there" at the window, and never backed away from the window or tried to back off, it just kept trying to get at them the whole time.

Just recounting it, the breeder looked sick from remembering it.

She must have been tough, determined, or just desperate, because she went right out to the house of the other person who had told her that his puppy had turned out fine, even though it was late at night.

The lights were on, a man answered the door. This puppy wasn't fine either. The man said that after the call where he said the dog was fine, he had problems with it.

The breeder told me she thought it had probably had the same progression of problems and that the man maybe didn't notice it, or wasn't home much, or didn't want to talk to her about it at first.

He agreed to a refund, he put her leash on the dog she took it home, crated it, and took the dog to the vet in the morning.

That left one puppy from the litter, a woman whose address on the papers did not seem to match up.

Finally the breeder located the owner.

She was a little old lady and she did not want a refund.

Last I heard, the breeder had vistied the old lady, saw the dog was horribly mean, could not get the old lady to give up the dog, but had visited twice more.

My understanding was that the old lady said she wanted a good guard dog.

I guess she was stupid about dogs, and thought that a crazy mean dog was a good guard dog.

Loyal, loving dogs, who will side with you in a fight are good guard dog.

True a yard dog kept to prevent intruders, can be crazy and mean and might work out okay, so long as you don't care if tresspassers, of any age get eaten, the dog never jumps the fence, digs out, or escapes thru an open gate or door, and you don't mind the fact that you are in much more danger of being badly hurt from the crazy dog than what you would be from your neighbors.

If that sounds good to you, then I guess a crazy dog might be what you want, but I wonder if that's not a case of a person choosing a dog like themselves, because most people who have met a crazy mean dog don't want one, because the dog isn't protective, it just reacts to something in its head and goes for the nearest thing that moves.

The last I heard the breeder had not yet talked the old lady into returning the dog, and was considering asking the county pound for help, but the old lady's dog hadn't done anything but growl and stare, yet, so what could she tell the pound?

The breeder had gotton rid of all of the dogs of this breed, returning the nice mother dog to the person she bought her from who said he had not had a problem with her. But, the mother dog had had a second litter, before the first litter had been old enough for the problems to show up.

The FIRST puppy from the first litter had been returned when there were still some puppies unsold from the SECOND litter, but, at that time, the breeder had assumed the child had been at fault, not the dog, and the dog was growling, but not biting, snapping, or lounging (yet).

All of the SECOND litter was sold before the badly bitten child had sparked the recall of the whole FIRST litter.

The breeder said she was keeping in touch with all the buyers of puppies from the second litter, and letting them know that she needed to know if there were any problems, but so far all was well.

Although it sounds like a ticking time bomb, where the second litter will go off like the first, I don't know. I have NOT stayed in conact with the breeder.

PS - they were bully breed, but NOT pit bulls.