Truly a fascinating thread, and a real can o'worms.
I see a lot of the different angles in this conversation. My grandmother was a very fine breeder of GSD and collies back in the early 50's (Elm City out of Fredricton NB). Her line was, if I do say so myself, one of the finest all round dogs - temperment, intelligence, health and look. As such for decades my sister suffered great heartache in her love for the GSD breed - a number of dogs in the last 35 years with excellent pedigrees and conformations and horrible health complications. About 5 yrs ago her mentality did a shift and she quit looking at a dog's (or parents') conformation championships and started focusing on working dogs her young Nadja has had much success on the working field and was bred to a fine young man chosen especially for his temperment and working style and titles. The litter is now two weeks old. I couldn't be happier for her it's taken her 35 yrs of work to get to those 8 little fuzz balls.
Like my sisters (I have another who breeds Corgis), I had a long standing interest in breeding. First with my Saint 25 yrs ago, she had health problems (flea allergies and skin problems) and a breeder who wasn't all that terribly helpful in mentoring me as a neophyte. Then I started my research and looking for a Newf. I was in the process of looking for a breeder when Buddy came into my life. Buddy? He's a stunning looking Newf, with a really nice temperment. But of course Buddy will never be shown or bred because he's a (sorta) rescue, with no papers, and no pedigree to breed him would be irresponsible. No matter how extraordinary an example of the breed he may be, no matter how many health clearances, no matter how many DNA tests I had done - it just can't be done. And as Buddy came to us from a BYB, local folks only ask 'where'd ya get him?' and don't really ask any father than that about the circumstances - so I suspect they already think I'm a irresponsible owner (of course - I could just be painfully shy and a bit paranoid and feeling a bit insecure self esteme issues - any of you other rescue owners sometimes feel a bit out of water when hanging out with groups of 'purebred' owners and breeders?)
Here's the thing: a) I've spent a lotta work over the years with all sorts of animal rescue groups, and a responsible breeding or not - there's still that touch of guilt about bringing another litter of puppies into the world and then b) everything one reads says to be a responsible breeder you show your dogs - to show your committment to improving the breed to the breed standard. But as has been talked about here showing doesn't say anything about a dog's health, and only about their temperment in the ring. Now a good breeder is going to do those health clearances, and is breeding for temperment as well and those are the things you're going to be looking for in your breeder and in your dog.
For me, I'm not particularly interested in showing. A good looking dog is nice, but the standards change (see the GSD), and vary so much from country to country - US Canadian and European standards are so different. You breed and show a brown Newf in Canada - well you couldn't (you'd also be viewed with a lot of hositlity as irresponsible), but in Europe you could be a champion. Frankly, I'm kinda of the opinion that it's this focus on showing that has IMO led to a systemic bias of breeding for look that has hurt so many breeds. (not that puppy mills and byb's don't also have to shoulder their own share of the blame).
As for me, I'm just not into the whole club/showing politics and focus - that's just not my thing. I'd love to get Buddy involved with a working (carting especially) club, but my inquiries locally haven't turned up much in the way of working clubs. Even if we found a club, even if Buddy won a fistful of working titles - without the registration papers he could never be bred.
Ya I understand why it has to be that way. I understand the problems. Popular breeds, BYB's, Puppy Mills, Pet Stores - the system is the only way we have of trying to push back against those problems. I just wish like others that there was at least some consideration for health issues as well as look.
I'd love a beautiful litter of fuzzy black trouble makers (named after vaccuums - Kirby, Hoover, Dyson, Bissell, ... *snicker*), and every so often I get bit again with the 'puppy fever' bug, but without showing and titles it wouldn't matter how much OTHER work and selection and guarentees I did I'd still just be another BYB. That's just not something I'm willing to do. So ... no puppies for me.
This has all been a round about way of agreeing with most of what's already been said in this thread. In the end for me finding a responsible breeder isn't about titles, or club memberships, or organizations (although that can be a good place to start). It's about someone caring and committed, someone you can work with and you feel will be there for you, who's done the background work,
