# Approx. percentage of dogs being returned to breeders



## GSD_man (Oct 6, 2007)

I am curious to find out the approximate percentage of dogs that are being returned to breeders in general. I am also curious to find out the reasons behind the return and if you - as a breeder - ever found yourself in a situation where you refused a return.

Did you ever have a customer wanting to return a dog for a BS reason and how do or did you deal with the situation?

Would be nice if some of the pro's could share from their own experience. 

Many thanks in advance.


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## Andaka (Jun 29, 2003)

I have had three dogs returned to me in 25 years of breeding. Two were owned by the same couple and were returned because of health issues of the owners. The third was sold as a showable puppy and returned at 3 years of age because he only had a few points towards his AKC championship. The weekend I got him back, he was Winners Dog both days. Go figure. My contract says that I will take back any dog at any time at no cost to me.


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## elisabeth_00117 (May 17, 2009)

Well, I am not a breeder but I do know that my breeder (I should say, Stark's breeder) has had 1 dog returned to her in 15 years of breeding and it was this year.

A male out of Stark's parents (1st litter), the couple had just had a baby and one was transfered out of the country for work and the new mother couldn't handle a 3 year old dog plus a new baby and the tasks of caring for a home. 

The dog was taken back by my breeder where she found a home for him with very good friends of hers that already had a GSD (one of her dogs that was 8ish?). He looked just like Stark and if 'he' was a 'she', I would have taken her!


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

My brother gave me a dog back. I have her, trained her, tested her, etc. 

I did have a guy drive over to my house to drop a puppy back off. He did not call first and I was late and literally running out the door with the puppies to the childrens' home halloween party. For some reason I felt I should not leave the dog at home, and should not take it with. I was flustererd and told him to take it home, and I will call him that night and take the pup back. 

I called him that night and his wife got on the phone. They had had a spat and No WAY was he getting rid of her dog. 

Last I heard, they are divorced now. He has the dog. Not sure how that happened. I only have her number. It has been four years, but he still has the dog.


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## trudy (Aug 25, 2008)

I have no problem with good reasons, illness what ever but hate when I hear stupid excuses. Ty's breeder is getting one back later this week, cause owner moved in with new guy and he doesn't like the dog....Say what????? So yep she is being sent back with almost no warning COD, pick up on such and such a day. Doesn't matter breeder is in cast and 5 hours from airport, And she si the one calling for favors to pick up and temporarily keep til she can have her and rehome her. I would never dump a dog or cat no matter what, yep I've had kids and new babies and moved and been sick and so on but same as I kept the kids the dogs and cats stayed too. This is a personal pet pieve of mine, dogs returned to the breeders are the lucky ones, most are dumped at pounds and shelters.


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## Chris Wild (Dec 14, 2001)

We have had this happen 3 times. 
The first, as the pup matured he turned out to be a bad match temperament wise for the owner. So he was returned and placed in a more appropriate situation, and the owner was given a much more suitable pup in exchange.
The second, a pup was purchased by someone who wanted to do SchH. Sometime between then and when the dog turned 2, the owner decided SchH was "too hard" and instead he wanted to make big bucks off being a working line puppy producer. As soon as the OFAs were done on the dog, he called demanding full AKC registration. When we told him no, because he hadn't fulfilled all the requirements in our contract for full registration (which include title) he threw a fit, said he didn't want the dog and was going to sell him. He would not return the dog to us. So we finagled a way to get the dog back by having a proxy person step in and pretend to buy the dog from him, who then turned around and shipped the dog back to us. The dog was in horrible physical and mental condition and had been neglected and abused. We rehabbed the dog and found him the perfect forever home.
The third was our girl, Della. We placed her as a pup on a co-ownership with someone who lived nearby and wanted to do SchH. He began training with our club, then when she was just a few months old his job moved him out of state for a couple months and since he couldn't take her with him, she boarded with us for that time. Unfortunately this sort of situation continued over the next year and a half or so. He was in MI for a couple months, then out of state for a couple months with her living with us while he was gone, then back, then gone again. Finally enough was enough and we told him he could have another dog when his life stabalized and he was going to be in one spot, but Della was staying with us.


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## ThorDog (Feb 12, 2010)

We are not a breeder but we were in a situation where we had to return our dog to the breeder. We never thought we would do such a thing because when we get a puppy we are their family and forever home. Unfortunately our dog had some mental condition and snapped one day and severely attacked my husband. We had to return him to the breeder only to find out that had happened before to them with 4 other dogs. We still miss him and it was one of the hardest things we ever had to do. 

It angers me when people don't do their research and think they should get a GSD based on looks and can't handle one then return the puppy or a poorly adjusted adult. I also think breeding should be done by experts and not backyard breeders.

I commend the breeders that take their dogs back and try to find them forever homes, your commitment is appreciated!


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

I got a Siberian Husky puppy when it was 8 weeks old. I had it for almost 4 weeks and could not handle the puppy any longer. There was no doubt in my mind that the puppy had psychological problems. It growled, stalked, bit, bared it's teeth, charged us and was food and toy aggressive towards my GSD. It was completely out of control. He was my birthday present to myself. I did research on the breed and I felt that I could handle any challenge it threw at me. I was really looking forward to bringing him home. On the day that I picked him up he was absolutely beautiful. He seemed sweet and playful, but then my friend and I got in the car and he started barking at her (sounded like an aggitated bark) he started to bite at her and gave her a big bloody scratch on her cheek. We figured he was just freaked out. When we got him home he didn't change. When I went to put the leash on him he would freak out and attempt to bite my hand while growling and baring his teeth. He became very food aggressive and toy aggressive with my GSD. My GSD wouldn't be anywhere near him and he would charge at him and bite at his face. He got him several times above the eye and would tear and shake. I was terrified that he was going to lose his eye. He went after my cats numerous times and I know that if he would have caught one he would have inflicted severe damage to them. He bit me, my ex, my friends, my aunt, my cousin and my mom. My mother was petting him and then he turned around without warning and bit her, he wouldn't let her hand go. When he bit me he charged at me and then let out this angry bark and bit my hand I couldn't get him to release, I actually had to pull his ear to get him to release my hand, after he released he continued to growl at me. My hand bled alot and it puffed up. The last week I had him he began to stalk people. My aunt watched him for a couple days because I was out of town for my uncle's funeral, he stalked her and ended up biting her in her back. My aunt refused to come over again as long as I had that puppy, she said she cried 2 nights in a row over him. I cried every night because of the stress he caused me, I couldn't believe a puppy could act that way. I decided that I could not keep him, he was too aggressive for me, my dog and my cats. I tried to contact his breeder, I left her 3 messages on 3 different days and she never attempted to contact me back. I ended up selling the puppy to a person that had alot of experience with the breed. I told him how the puppy acted and he felt that he could handle him. He had the puppy for 3 months, he did OB classes with him for a month and a half with no progress. His friend was a dog trainer and offered to take the puppy for a week and see if he could fix the behavior. After 3-4 days he gave the puppy back to his owner and said he couldn't help him and that he should have him pts. The guy sold the puppy almost 2 weeks ago. I dont know where he is now  The puppy is 6 months old now


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