As Barbet breeders, we have huge responsibilities.

We have a responsibility to Remy and Willow, our dogs.

They come first. Every decision we make is based on what is best for them. We need to be sure that they will be happy with our decision to breed. We need to be sure they are physically fit to breed. We need to be sure they are psychologically fit to breed. We need to be sure their personality is one that will be happy with the mating. For Willow, we need to be sure that her personality will cope well with pregnancy. We need to be sure that her personality is compatible with bringing up puppies. More than this, we need to be sure that she is happy. And for Remy, we need to be sure he can cope with the situation, and that he remains happy. We also need to be sure that none of this upsets the wonderful relationship Remy and Willow have.

We have a responsibility to uphold the best breeding practices.

This starts when we choose the puppies we bring into our family. This is the time where we need to make decisions based on the future, that our choice of puppy has the potential to meet all the criteria necessary if we decide to work towards breeding. Once our puppy is an adult and old enough, we need to ensure that we have completed all the health checks necessary to ensure that the next generation of puppies will live long and healthy lives. The health checks are a combination of physical tests and DNA tests that give us information on different aspects of health which determine whether there are health conditions or the possibility, so that we can make a considered decision on whether to breed or not with a particular dog. We also need to consider temperament and personality, as these are so important for the personality traits of puppies. Then we need to be sure that when we breed and how we approach mating is about what is right for Remy and Willow. It’s about how we look after Willow during pregnancy and when she is nursing puppies. And how we help Remy cope with the changes that pregnancy and puppies bring.

We have a responsibility to the puppies that we bring into the world.

We must ensure we have enough knowledge to support and guide our puppies whilst they live with us, this is essential for putting foundations in place for healthy minds and bodies, and for them to grow up into competent, happy, adults. We need to know about neurological development, exercise, nutrition, and how experiences influence our puppies’ personalities, likes, and dislikes.

Finding the right parents is essential for our puppies to have the life they deserve. We need to ensure our puppies have the parents that are right for them, parents that love who they are and ensure their puppy’s personality is nurtured and supported into adulthood. Parents are parents for life, not the good times, the easy times, or when it is convenient. Being put into rescue is not an experience any dog should go through. We need to keep in touch with our puppies, to ensure they are happy, healthy, and have the best life with their parents.

We have a responsibility to the parents we place our puppies with.

Matching a puppy with a parent involves looking at the lifestyle and expectations the parents have for the puppy so that personalities and things they like work together. We need to support our parents as they navigate live with a youngster, teenager, adolescent, adult, and senior dog. Bringing up a puppy can be challenging as they go through life stages, but life can run smoothly when we understand what is going on in the brain and how to support and guide them. We need to keep in touch with our parents, so that we can give them knowledge and guidance when they need it. To ensure they have the best life with their puppies.

Our responsibility lasts for the whole of our puppies’ lives

We need to support our puppies for their whole life. This means we need to be able to do many things. We are family, and that means we are part of each other’s lives, we keep in touch. We need to be there for our puppies and their parents when they need us. We need to be able to support our puppy parents if they do find themselves in difficult circumstances. We need to be able to find another home for a puppy, whether that is with us, or another family,  if their family were unable to continue to care for them.

We have a responsibility to the breed.

Many breeds have been developed over hundreds of years as it takes time for physical and temperament traits to be reliably passed on to the next generation. The decisions we make now have the potential to maintain that reliability, impact that reliability, or take the breed in a different direction. We need to choose which dogs we breed from carefully to ensure we keep the essence of the breed in future generations.

Overall

We have a responsibility to be ethical, responsible, loving, caring, and compassionate in every aspect of breeding, from that first decision to breed, right to the end of every life.