With our ‘product’ being a living breathing animal, one that we have deliberately brought into the world, we have to take responsibility for them for as long as they live. It’s down to the breeders where the pups end up spending their life and if things don’t work out we take them back. Many buyers signing to say they will do so have mentioned they are assured by this clause as no-one can predict the future. I naively believed everyone would see this new Scheme in the same way I had. That it was a positive step forward to ‘up-grading’ the breeding of pedigree dogs. How wrong I was !
Breeders I spoke to seemed very wary. The main reasons for not joining were;
• Kennel Club are just out to make more money out of us
• Anyone can join it including puppy farmers
• Health tests are pointless/inconclusive/expensive
• I only have dogs
• I don’t want my dog to have an anaesthetic (this one always makes me smile- no, but you would risk your dog’s life by breeding from it!)
• Kennel Club don’t back breeders when there are legal issues,
And so on.........
Some were fair reasons, most were not. But I was still hopeful for the future of the Scheme and even managed to persuade a few to join. Then a few years later I came across my own issues with it. How to find suitable stud dogs.
When it was first started, the Kennel Club gave breeders a ‘cooling off’ period of two years to enable to continue their breeding programmes without the stud dog needing to be hip and elbow scored or the owner of said dog to be registered as an (Accredited) Breeder. They presumably expected the numbers to increase enough that within a couple of years the majority would be on the scheme. WRONG!
The lack of interest by breeders to join the scheme meant that unless you had your own stud dog it was nearly impossible to find a suitable health checked dog that could be used under the scheme. Hence my decision to go into Europe to use studs with generations of health checked dogs behind them.
It was at this point my loyalty to the Accredited Breeder Scheme, as it was known then, started to wane.
Whilst I rigidly stuck to all the rules, still scoring elbows even when it had been taken off the Schemes health tests (that’s a debate for another time!) most ABS. breeders were not doing so. Many litters were registered with only one parent health tested and it was usually the bitch.
This is SEVEN YEARS after the launch of the ABS and five years from when The Kennel Club said that ALL dogs used in breeding programmes will have to have the health checks in place.
I sent a bitter and despondent e-mail to the ABS office. I detailed the facts and expressed my decision to leave the Scheme even though I would continue to provide the best possible service to my puppy buyers as I had done previous to joining.
Sam Russell was the first Great Dane Assured Breeder. This is what she says
When The Kennel Club launched the scheme in 2004 I joined immediately. The reason was simple. I was doing all the things they were asking breeders to do already. My career background had always been in customer service so when it came to breeding my Danes I wanted to make sure the pups I sold were ‘fit for purpose’ and anyone spending their hard-earned money on one was getting the best service they could. The health checks, endorsements, diet, exercise and training sheets and all the other paperwork show a breeders on-going care, a sort of after-sales service that customers buying anything else would expect.
Helen Seddon joined the Assured Breeder Scheme in April 2009 because
I only ever wanted to be a serious hobby breeder and breed the best danes I possibly could. At the time the ABS was under criticism for many things not least for allowing people to join whose ethics were particularly poor. Initially some breeders thought that by joining they could sell their puppies more easily.
For me I was happy to health test and I was probably already doing most of the things a member of the scheme signed up to. I received a letter from Bill Lambert and I never forgot what he wrote. He said one day it will be a challenge to remain an Accredited Breeder and that kind of inspired me to stick with it. What else have we got? By joining I felt I was more likely to help promote higher standards than standing on the outside whinging and complaining. At the end of the day I want to uphold high standards regarding breeding Great Danes and to stand apart from those whose ethics and ignorance continue to add to the ruin of our magnificent breed.
THE ASSURED BREEDER SCHEME
“The Assured Breeder Scheme was introduced to raise the standard of breeding and to help puppy buyers ensure that they are given the best possible chance of buying a puppy that will lead a happy, healthy life.
The KCABS reinforces the basic concepts of responsible breeding practice, which includes ensuring that breeders take all of the required health tests for their breed. By bringing all responsible breeders - who believe in and subscribe to these values - together as one group the Kennel Club empowers puppy buyers to make the right buying decision and to distinguish between responsible breeders and those who deliberately commit themselves to less.”
Great Dane Breeders currently on the Assured Breeders Scheme are required to hip score (now recommended) their breeding stock. It is also recommended that breeding stock is heart tested and bitches under the age of 2 years do not produce litters.
The idea is that responsible breeders join the scheme and fulfil the requirements to set themselves apart from less responsible breeders. The Kennel Club Assured Breeders Scheme (KCABS) will allow the ‘puppy buying public’ to recognise those breeders who are following good practice.
There are various accolades within the scheme to ‘award those more experienced breeders’. But some of the base accolades are hardly demanding and breeders are highly critical of these accolades and probably rightly so. Anyone can join a Breed Club for a yearly subscription of a fiver so why have an accolade for this? So a breeder has bred 5 litters or more. What does this mean in real terms?
A few days later Bill Lambert called me and persuaded me to stay. I won’t bore you with the conversation but he had obviously heard my reasons from numerous other disgruntled members and his argument for me staying was simple. It was if we the breeders and the Kennel Club don’t do something pretty soon the Government will and nobody wants that to happen. Officials sitting in an office with absolutely no interest in our hobby or our beloved breeds telling us what we can and cannot do. No thanks!
This might sound far-fetched but it’s really not. There is a powerful anti-dog breeding fraternity that are relentlessly lobbying to stop us doing what we love. Our apathy will be our downfall if we sit back and keep saying ‘not in my kennel’, ‘not my problem or ‘not interested.’
The Kennel Club has its flaws- but they are our only hope to keep the hundred or so years of pedigree dog breeding in the hands of those that know and care- us.
All I can say is please please please if you want to breed from your bitch or use your dog at stud get all the health checks done. I know it can be costly but if you put money before the health of your breed you shouldn’t be in this game.
I am completely aware that even having generations of hip, elbow eye and heart checked dogs does not guarantee anything. But at least I can say with my hand on my heart to anyone who has one of my pups that I am doing ALL I can to help bring healthy Danes into the world. Surely that is our sole aim?
Sam Russell
Helen Seddon
We would like to hear your views on the Assured Breeders Scheme. Is it a waste of time or should it being doing more to promote high standards in breeding? Do you have ideas on how it could be better or ideas of what could replace it. Whether you are already an Assured Breeder, someone who is thinking of joining the scheme or someone who doesn’t want to join, we want your views!
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