However, despite no recent litters, in order to maintain ABS membership we are still subject to at least one inspection in every three years by a trained, experienced assessor and to a report by them to the Kennel Club as to whether or not we still meet the standards of the Scheme. As we have recently had our third assessment since joining the Scheme, I thought it might be interesting to Forum members to share our personal experience of the assessment visit to give an idea of what an inspection on this Scheme entails. This is specific to the Assured Breeder Scheme only and is not applicable to breeders who only register their puppies with Kennel Club which is simply a registration for a fee and does not involve any inspection by the Kennel Club.
Although we have been a small scale breeder in the past (no more than two litters in any year and a total of 35 puppies born over seven years with seven of these still living with us as part of our family), we have found that the assessment visits which are supposed to last between 1-2 hours can stretch out to three hours once we get talking about our dogs! With an assessor who is as passionate about dogs as we are it is probably understandable
The assessment involves a discussion about the dogs we have in our family, where they live, how the average day is organised re feed times, exercise etc., diet, health, grooming. The assessor meets the dogs and wants to see and photograph areas where the dogs sleep, the outside garden where they play and exercise, their toys and activity items, where their food is stored, what vehicles are used for transporting them to vets / play / holidays. There is a set list of questions regarding knowledge of relevant breed health schemes and which ones we carry out, membership of breed clubs, how we raise the puppies from birth through early weeks to the timing and preparation of going to new homes; how potential puppy families are screened and what criteria are used to decide who will get a puppy and the information, guidance and support given to families who do adopt one of our puppies. Health and breeding records are examined and the Puppy Pack information for new families which we have compiled giving details of breed characteristics, temperament and health, history of the breed and guidance on on-going socialisation and training of the puppy. A separate individual puppy information sheet which is provided with specific details about temperament, training and health, immunisation etc. is also examined and both this and the Puppy Pack information are forwarded as documents to the Kennel Club for additional checking, as are our Contract of Sale documents.
Photographic or documented evidence was required for much of the assessment and the assessor went out into the garden with the dogs to photograph outside areas, checked indoors where medications and first aid kit were stored as well as the food, discussed general healthcare and checked microchips, vaccination cards and the diary records we keep regarding our dogs in terms of health and in particular the dates of seasons for the girls and, when we did have a litter, the dates of mating, birth, on-going weight charts for pups etc. Records must be kept for ten years so we were able to go back to our last litter details for this. We were asked about our whelping facilities when we do have a litter and we have countless photographic evidence of this and of our pups progress from birth to leaving home to show as well as sharing experiences of sleep-broken nights in the 3-4 weeks of sleeping beside the whelping box with Mum and pups from immediately before birth to weaning and the pups' progress to the daytime playpen. We were also asked about our use of KC resources in planning a mating, coefficients of in-breeding and health test pedigrees, whether we participate in breed health surveys and continuing breeding / health study. (The Kennel Club also provides free online study courses on a variety of dog related topics via the Kennel Club Academy.) The assessor also wanted to know whether we found new homes for any of our dogs who are not intended to have a litter or be used at stud - in our case, we keep them all as it would be too heartbreaking to part with any one of our family but breeders who breed more often than we do may re-home some dogs and as all breeders are required by law to find the best homes for their ex-breeding dogs it is a relevant issue.
The assessment can be tiring as there is so much information to be provided and questions answered but we do have the opportunity to ask questions ourselves of the assessor and make any comments regarding the ABS itself. I have enjoyed the discussions we have had with the assessors over the three visits and the experiences they have shared too regarding dogs they have or are involved in training / showing. The fact that they are experienced with dogs in a range of activities as well as breeding and have on-going training specifically for the ABS assessments give me more faith that they understand the importance of aspects of breeding and dog health that go beyond the tick box report for a breeding licence from a local authority official or even a vet whose experience may only be from study or experience of abnormal / emergency birthing situations and who may know little or nothing about neonatal nurturing and puppy socialisation.
There is more information on this link re the ABS for anyone interested:
https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/breedi ... endations/
