Licensed breeders

Information on finding your puppy, the Assured Breeders Scheme, the Kennel Club and issues relating to breeding your Schnauzer are dealt with in this section.
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Whitby35
Posts: 1
Joined: 14 Sep 2021, 09:58
First Name: Glenn

Licensed breeders

Post by Whitby35 »

Should people who are licensed breeders often breeding several breeds be assured KC breeders. I see a lot of people advertising themselves as licences breeders . I feel that to a person looking for a puppy should still insist on seeing mother of the pups .I feel local authority inspectors leave a lot to be desired .What do other people think.
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zeta1454
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Re: Licensed breeders

Post by zeta1454 »

Hello Glenn and welcome to the Forum :)

The current legislation in England states that:

A breeding licence is required for anyone breeding three or more litters in a 12-month period and/or anyone that breeds dogs and advertises a business of selling dogs.

Per the Government’s guidance for licensing in England, when determining whether a breeder is ‘advertising a business’, a local authority must consider the number, frequency and/or volume of sales; whether high volumes of animals are being sold or advertised; and whether low volumes of animals are being sold where high sales prices or large profit margins are involved.


I have quoted this from the Kennel Club website guidance which can be read in full on this link with the requirements in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland:

https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/dog-br ... gulations/

This can mean that a KC Assured Breeder may require a local authority licence without necessarily being a high volume commercial breeding establishment. There have been changes to the law in the past few years from the original requirement for a local authority licence which was often only for those breeding over 5 litters a year and consequently was often of itself a reason to avoid certain establishments. I agree that local authority standards of welfare for obtaining a dog breeding licence are not to be relied upon for finding a good breeder as almost all local authorities have neither the expertise nor the means to fully assess the quality of any dog breeding home. The Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme does demand a detailed 2-3 hour assessment of dog breeding premises by a suitably qualified and / or experienced assessor so should be of a higher standard. (This may have been affected most recently by COVID-19 restrictions).

As regards checking out a breeder and seeing mother with pups etc. it is absolutely the case that any puppy seeker should be following all the guidance as regards how the puppies are being raised, whether they are home-reared, how much work has been done by the breeder to socialise and rear them to be resilient and self confident; health tests relevant to the breed; etc…..No licence from any source should be regarded as a substitute for a puppy seeker carrying out all the research and checks themselves.

Re breeders breeding several different breeds I would be wary as the knowledge and experience of each breed can be quite substantial and unusual for anyone to have enough in-depth knowledge of multiple breeds to raise them well and provide the necessary support, advice and information for puppy buyers on each of the different breeds. However, there may be some breeders who have experience over the years of more than just one breed so may be raising puppies e.g. of a couple of breeds and there is no need to think they are disreputable.

It is also worth noting that the legislation re dog licences specifies number of litters rather than puppies and this does mean that for any breed (or cross-breed) which commonly has large litters e.g. Standard Poodles with up to 10 puppies or St Bernard up to 12 pups per litter this could potentially mean a breeder raising between 20 and 24 puppies from 2 litters in a single year whereas a toy breed such as a Papillon or Maltese often have only 2-4 pups which would result in between 4 and 8 pups in total over 2 litters.
Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole. ~Roger Caras

Magic - Silversocks Sharade at Darksprite
Trilby - Darksprite Rosa Bud


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