When bad things happen to good dogs and good people
WHY ME? You did everything right. Choosing to add a dog to your family was a well thought out decision. You spent months researching breeds to find the one that was just right, you avoided the temptation of puppy mills and pet stores. You did everything you could to ensure that you were getting a quality puppy from a reputable, ethical breeder. After months of anticipation, your little bundle of joy arrived and was everything you dreamed of and you looked forward to 12 to 15 years of bliss with your delightful Havanese companion. Then, disaster strikes.
A beloved pet dies young of heart failure,
another develops an unexpected disease, a once
healthy bouncy exuberant dog starts to limp, you hear
the devastating news that your Havanese, your best
friend has a disabling condition. WHY ME? Sadly, this question rarely has any concrete answers.
When faced with a situation that one has little or no
control over; most people desperately need some type
of resolution. Frustration often leads to lashing out in
an attempt to find and assign blame, in the hope of
assuaging feelings of guilt and helplessness. It's easy to
lay fault at the breeder's doorstep, perhaps deservedly
upon occasion, but often not.
A common way of thinking is that good breeders only have good puppies. Most contracts state that the breeder be notified if anything happens to the puppy, but many owners choose not to, feeling justified by believing they were swindled by a bad breeder who could not care less about the puppies they produce and so don't deserve to know. Regretfully, some people initiate malicious gossip, spread vengeful rumours and start a personal vendetta. In haste to lay blame, the one person who could be a most valuable resource, a shoulder to lean on, a support system in a difficult time; is getting overlooked. Here are a few things that you may not have thought of.
Why you should tell your breeder
By telling your breeder when something happens, you allow them to help you with experience, advice, comfort, and perhaps even some financial assistance. By telling them, you also help future generations of Havanese. If you don't tell your breeder, they may not know of a potential issue in their breedline. Problems may be the result of a fluke, a one time thing that will never occur again, or an unfortunate combination of genes or a previously hidden genetic fault. By telling your breeder when problems arise, they can then use the information to investigate pedigrees and try to find where the problem originated (or where it didn't which is just as important) and so help make educated breeding decisions and try to avoid having these hereditary defects repeated in future litters.Health testing: A reputable ethical breeder chooses breeding pairs carefully, selecting dogs which are complementary to each other, hoping to pass along their very best qualities and to ultimately improve the breed. While we all would like for health testing to mean eliminating all diseases in the Havanese, the reality is that of the majority of health testing is diagnostic not predictive; tmeaning that tests are reflective of what is happening right now in a dog and not necessarily a firm indication of the future. Reputable breeders keep up to date with health matters in the Havanese and keep an eye on ongoing research developments. They test for the most common genetic conditions. Breeders who test aren't trying to find something wrong; they are trying to be sure things are right. While they know that things occasionally happen, they breed each litter as carefully as possible to minimize health issues. Breeding is a risk. A breeder breeds each litter with the current knowledge about the parents and the breedline. Things can and do change. This is no way excuses unethical breeders who breed indiscriminately or breed without any health testing at all.
Health guarantee: A health guarantee should be your breeder's word that they stand behind their puppies and have done their best to produce dogs free of genetic defects and health issues. It is not a guarantee that nothing will ever happen throughout the life of a dog. Unfortunately, no one can guarantee that. The only way someone could guarantee to never produce a puppy with a health issue is to never breed at all.