Who is responsible? - Page 4

When someone overseas want to buy my female I always suggest to pick up mated bitch. I offer my studs for free or any other stud dog in Germany and in that case we count all costs including mate and trip. After ultrasound confirmation we ship after 40 day and until now we have not got bad experience. But it is a thing of nature and everything is possible. Breeder/seller have responsibility up to airplane, and all others acts are his good wish. But it is not correct to ship female as pregnant and she was never mate or similar. That case must be punished. Buyer must contact local breeder club and if seller is breeder he can fight for rights. But if someone buy from traffic seller you can not catch that person for a head. That kind of deal is possibly high risk mistake from start. Loosing puppies, litters and dogs are always shocking. Expectations, earned time, feelings and at least money disappear in a second. All that are just some elements of life. Good and bad. Every breeder very early meet disappointments and learn how to survive and win it on his own way. We are all live and work for good things so I wish you all more breeder luck and happiness with our breed - German Shepherd Dog.

Thanks to all of you with the hlpfull hints and advice. The problem has been resolved with the breeder and I have to say they have been very cooperative beyond my expectation.

Just to add real world perspective to this I was talked into buying a mated female from Germany and paid a "premium" for her due to the pending litter. I was led to believe that I could "recoup" must of my "invested" funds from that first litter. The bitch ending up having a single pup - a long coat to boot. Her second litter was her last due to her rejecting natural stitches used to close her after a cesarean. Needless to say I didn't even come close to recouping what I paid for her. As my grandfather says "a lesson bought is worth 2 lessons taught." In short (as anyone here will tell you) you will not make money off puppies - period. Hope to break even or make a pittance to support your habit, but otherwise you're in for a rude awakening. With regard to the transporting of a pregnant female – my *personal* experience has shown it to be a waste of time. Either the stress of flying halfway around the world, leaving the previous owner she was very bonded with (he put all of her titles through SchH3 on himself) caused her to “absorb” the puppies (there’s a lot of debate as to whether this can actually happen) or she was just bred too early – either way a single puppy is pretty disappointing. In my neck of the woods dogs standing stud will give a second breeding for no pups or a single pup. Even if such a thing were offered by over-seas stud owners the expense (and possibility of who knows what happening to the bitch) would (IMHO) precluding sending her back to Germany for a rebreeding. The reality is that like everything else in the dog world buying a bred bitch is crap shoot – so why pay a premium to have one or no puppies? Instead find a nice bitch, import her and breed her in the USA. A lot less trouble with registering the litter as well… In my case I paid more than I would have for an un-bred bitch + local breeding fee and lost. I was new, not well guided and had some bad luck to boot. I’ve learned something the “hard way” and hope this post helps others considering the same path. -Calvin

.. I think everyone learns most of the time the hard way. Or is it just me?

cledford! your not the only one with that kinda luck starting out. I ended up with only 3 pups and no papers to boot. Didn't even make my stud fee and shipping costs let alone the cost of the titled bitch. I was fed the same story. Make what you paid in back on the litter...lol.

Calvin I can understand your disappointment but really you are not fair. You can buy anywhere your female, you can buy female from your neighbor, but there is no warranty that you will be satisfied. You will never know puppies number - zero, one , ten - everything is possible. Breeding is much more complicated then you try to simplify and that hard way is challenge. Your bad experience of one or zero puppies have not got nothing in common with thing that female was mated overseas and shipped or overpaid. You can have same scenario if buy female from your first neighbor and mate her with stud from second neighbor. You can count, plan and think about everything but nature things you can not predict in all. To all disappointment new breeder or breeder with less experience I can only said welcome to breeder reality.

Stephen you tried to email me sometime back. Is your dog pregnant?? Mine has 13 days to go and I'm not sure. Tina Johnson, TJbulls@earthlink.net 252-465-4483