How would you sum up a 'good' breeder?

Please finish:

For me, a good breeder is one that...

Just as an example heres the start of mine:

For me, a good breeder is one that puts health and temperament, and the welfare (both short term and long term) of breeding stock and their litters before everything else (that means health testing parents, not breeding for exaggerated features, not breeding for profit but to better the breed etc). A good breeder also...

One who breeds with the aim of breeding to a high standard and doing the breed no harm, whose sole reason for breeding is not to make a few pounds.

Health, temperament and good examples of the breed. Someone who interrogates you before they allow you to have one of their precious puppies.

Pretty much what you said Azz!

All of the above plus one who asks me as many questions as I ask them . Also who insists I take the dog back to them if at any time in its life I can no longer keep it .

A good breeder also.......[LIST]

• is passionate about their breed
• is knowledgeable about their breed
• does something with their dogs apart from breeding them
• assesses the health, conformation, temperament or working ability of their dogs before breeding
• aims to improve on the results of those assessments
  • has a wider long term view of their breed
• provides a safety net for the dogs they breed by having them back or helping to rehome them should the need arise
• provides a puppy contract and care booklet to each puppy buyer
• complies with the ethics of their breed club especially concerning ages before breeding and number of litters
• raises their pups in the home and provides lots of 1:1 interaction and socialisation
• provides support to their puppy buyers for the lifetime of the dog
  • • is happy to allow puppy buyers to visit to view their dogs, the conditions their dogs are kept in and where pups are reared
  • views their dogs as pets first and foremost

A good breeder does NOT :

• Breed a large number of different breeds
• always have pups available
• rehome their breeding dogs once they are no longer 'useful'
• breed from dogs that are of substandard in terms of health, conformation or temperament
• breed to pay their mortgage
• become obsessed with one feature to the detriment of others
• advertise in free ads or generic internet puppy sale sites
• sell to anyone simply because they have the money
• sell through a third party such as pets shops or traders
• sell several litter mates to the same owner
• sell to those who cannot meet the needs of the breed
• transport their pups to another venue to sell them
• raise their pups outside

Note I have not mentioned KC registration as I believe that good breeding is good breeding and does not need to apply only to pedigree dogs - however I do think that those breeding pedigree dogs must have a reliable way of recording their pups lineage - currently the best one is the kC reg and so for me, having all pups KC registered is one of the things that defines a good pedigree dog breeder

A good breeder is one that:

- KC registers all breeding dogs and puppies
- health tests for all their breeding dogs and puppies (where needed), all tests done required for the breed
- raises the puppies in the house under 24/7 supervision
- keeps the environment the puppies are raised in clean
- starts toilet training once the puppies can walk, around 3-4 weeks old
- starts socialisation of puppies early around children, household noises (eg hoovering), car travel etc
- if breeding from a pet, conformation should be looked over by an experienced person in the breed to ensure the pet dog conforms to the breed standard
- only breeds occasionally, a bitch only has max of 3 litters with at least 18 months between litters, and only a few bitches bred