The section below is a real email I received regarding a litter of Bedlington Terrier puppies in the Midwest. I have changed the names of the people and dogs, and want to use this to describe why you should NOT buy a puppy from a breeder like this, a back yard breeder.

My name is Jim Puppyseller and I am located in Nowhere, IL. I have four available females and one male. My dog’s name is Poormama, a 25lb blue female. She is from Bigtime Breeder’s Hot Shot line. His dogs are champions in the U.S. and Europe, and Poormama’s brother, Showdog, is the 2003 Big Show Champion and her uncle is Olderdog who is currently a retired champion and studding in Europe. Poormama’s mother is from Chicago, named Big Mama I'm On Fire and her father is Hot Shot Far To Go.

        Poormama was bred with “The Blue Boy,” a ten month old, dark blue (not liver) from a UKC champion bloodline. Blue Boy's father is the current UKC Champion.

        There is no spay or neuter clause with these puppies, and they are currently three weeks old. They were born on April 21^st and will be available to leave their mother by the third or fourth week of June, or certainly by the Fourth of July.

        Neither Poormama nor Blue Boy are affected by CT. Poormama is a 1-2 and Blue Boy is a 1-1, making their puppies either 1-1 or 1-2’s. However, Poormama is a third generation 1-2 which means that she her bloodline is unaffected by CT and therefore all of my puppies are essentially 1-1’s.

        Poormama is from champion bloodlines and her puppies will be excellent for breeding or show. She is an amazing dog and an amazing pet and in my opinion there are currently no better dogs available in the U.S. Please contact me at fake email@yahoo.net if you are interested. Have a great day.

1) His own dog is not an AKC champion, he does not mention that she has ever been shown, or has any AKC points. That her brother was shown and is a champion does NOT make her breeding quality. She might have a short tail, short narrow ears, poor coat, bad bite, any number of faults. Just because one dog is nice looking, it doesn't make all their siblings nice looking - are all your siblings as good looking as you are? As athletic? As smart?

2) Olderdog is "studding" in Europe because no one is breeding to him here in the USA. He is bigger than the standard, he is affected with CT, and he's been sent away. That he is not here making waves in the USA should make you concerned if he is so wonderful.

3) The sire is only 10 months old - not nearly old enough to have reached his full height, weight or finished his development. So Poormama was bred to a dog who could turn out to be not very nice, but it was too soon to tell. His sire is a UKC champion - it should be a BIG RED FLAG when someone uses an alternate registration service to register their dog. You can get a UKC championship in one weekend by beating one other dog of your breed. So you could bring a decrepit specimen to show against your poor specimen, and get a UKC championship. "Dark blue" (not liver) - of course he's dark blue, at that age, most Bedlingtons still have their puppy color! Tell me how much color he has when he's three years old!

4) No spay neuter contract - another red flag - pet puppies SHOULD be sold with spay neuter contracts by responsible breeders. No matter how sweet, smart, adorable your dog is, it doesn't mean they can improve the breed and should be bred. And it will be healthier for them to be spayed or neutered. This is exactly where a puppy mill will get it's breeding stock, and soon you'll see badly bred Bedlingtons in pet stores. Their mother will have lived in a wire crate her whole life, dirty, matted, with never a kind hand. Imagine the life she'll lead - never go for a walk around the block, go for rides in the car, chase a tennis ball, visit the dog park, play tug o'war or sleep on the bed. They won't do any health testing - it certainly doesn't sound like this breeder did. They won't care about CT because they're just pushing puppies out the door. The pups will be poorly socialized, poorly bred, and will hurt the breed as a whole as they'll get a reputation for poor health, poor conformation and behaviour. Think of the Westies  you see visiting the pet food store, and you ask the owner if it's a Westie-mix because it looks so little like what it's supposed to?

5) This breeder's puppies will NEVER be "essentially 1-1's"!! A bad 2 is a bad 2 is a bad 2 no matter how many generations you carry it along - in 98% of cases, it is the BAD gene for Copper Toxicosis. By breeding a 2-2 affected dog to a 1-1 clear dog, you produce 1-2 carriers. They are then bred to another 1-1 clear dog, producing some 1-1 clear, and some 1-2 carrier pups. If you selected a 1-2 carrier (as his female is) and bred it to another 1-1 clear dog (as he did), any 1-2 pups are STILL CARRIERS. This breeder obviously knows so little about basic genetics, he does not represent his puppies accurately. If someone buying a dog from him follows his twisted faulty logic, they could very well breed CT affected dogs in the next generation.

6) There ARE better dogs available in the US. They are being bred by reputable breeders who biopsy their breeding stock as well as do DNA testing - as is recommended. They are testing for other health concerns too, like cardiac disease, eye disease, kidney disease. They are exhibiting their dogs against other quality dogs at American Kennel Club shows, and getting points and eventually championships on their dogs, demonstrating depth of quality. They follow the AKC and their breed club's code of ethics, they sell pets - well bred, healthy, socialized, pretty pets - on spay neuter contracts to assure only the very best are bred from and improve the breed. They read, and learn, and can accurately communicate to YOU, the concerns with CT in our breed, how they have worked to eliminate it from their line, and the science behind it. They will continue to pursue excellence, not the almighty dollar, and will love your pet for it's whole life, just like you do. And if for any reason you cannot keep your beloved Bedlington, they will take it back, and you can rest assured it will never be in a wire cage, leading a life of misery.

Please buy from caring, reputable breeders, as that is the only way puppy mills and back yard breeders will be stopped.