RiskyBusiness !

There used to be a show on TV that was called Dirty Jobs. Mike Rowe would go out and experience some of the “ Dirty Jobs “ that people worked at. One episode that sticks out to me is when Mike Rowe had to extract semen from a horse. He wasn’t real happy about it !

When you get your pup and bring your pup home everything is clean and looks great! But raising pups is a “ dirty job”. These furry little love balls poop and pee and bite and tear their toys to pieces. If you have 8 pups in a litter all acting this way, the battle to keep things clean and to pick up behind them is a constant and on going effort.

The safest thing I can do as a breeder to mitigate risk is to keep each pup in it’s own cage on a bleached concrete floor with no exposure to any potential harm or disease from people or the outside elements. This way I can give you the perfect pup every time! They will never have anything like coccidia or giardia, never mind something like Parvo that a customer could potentially bring in, Anything other than the pup in a cage by itself on concrete exposes them to risk, the risk of disease or getting hurt. But what about development ? When we take pups outside it is a huge risk and the potential to acquire some type of disease is a lot higher than having a pup in a cage on concrete. They dig in the dirt, they chew sticks, they eat grass, they play with one another biting and fighting. This is all risk….but is necessary for development. Sometimes a pup will acquire something like coccidia or giardia. These are readily treatable infections that puppies can get. But they sound big and scary and nasty to someone who is getting a new puppy. Many articles point to the hideousness of the breeder in which a puppy has contracted something like coccidia, when it is a result of a new pup with a weak immune system and a breeder taking “ risk “ in order to help a pup “ develop “. There are medications to treat coccidia, giardia and even parvo, but there is no replacement for the “risk” of development.

In about 15 years of breeding, the pendulum has swung back and forth for me. Sometimes I am more uptight about things than others. The balance of risk can bring “ reward “ in one area and a “ deficit “ in another area. But until the pendulum stops swinging, I guess raising pups will continue to be a “ Risky Business “ !