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About Me
I have loved all of God's creatures from the time I was very very small. Our house was home to even a raccoon at one time. I housed orphaned ducklings in my room, and every animal that my dogs caught had to be saved and nursed back to health. Suffice it to say, I have never been without a horse or a dog, and have only recently got a new cat (my other cat passed away 3 years ago at the ripe age of 13-15. He was about 7 years old when I adopted him from a shelter I co-managed, and that was 10 years ago).
My parents own a ranch in the Guadalupe mountains, that we are in a sort of partnership on. (And I don't mean one of those 5 acre "ranches" on the edge of town, with 30 neighbors within rifle range. (If you can't tell, these "city ranches" are a pet peeve of mine, and a joke among the ranching community). To put it into perspective, it is over 22 sections in size (one section equals one square mile, so their ranch spans over 22 square miles), and that is just a small one in comparison. But, I'll rant about that on another page. My brother and I each, own 50 head of cattle, while my parents run 150. So, as you can see, its nothing in comparison to those ranches that maintain 500-1000 head or more, but it seems to be just perfect for us, because we can work it ourselves, and don't have to hire hands to help out.
I have always dreamed of breeding and raising horses. I had a pretty good band started, but turned out to be too expensive to feed the breeding stock as well as the ranch geldings, so I kept one mare, because I barrel race on her. I am not a serious barrel racer by any means, but when my boys get big enough to not need a baby sitter, I will be back in the saddle on a more serious note! My ranch horse is actually my stud. He is Docs Linx bred and is trained and has competed in reining and has done quite well for himself. (If you like to learn my about him, just drop me an email and ask, he is available for stud service to approved mares).
Before I got married and the family exploded in size, I co-managed a private animal shelter that was owned by a vet. I was sent to numerous animal behavior classes, as well as to local groomers to learn how to groom. On my free time, that vet started teaching me the skills of a Tech (Veterinary Assistant). I relished those skills and later on, they helped me to get a job as a Vet Tech when we moved to another town. It has been BY FAR, my very most favorite job.
Before that, I worked in a no-kill shelter. What a horrific experience! "No Kill" shelters are a noble idea, but completely, and enormously unrealistic. On a good day, I only had to carry 15 dogs and cats to the dumpsters, and a bad day, it was closer to 30-35. The dogs that were not killed by the other dogs, were killed by disease. The thing about no-kill shelters, is that they tend to be over crowded. I can tell you from a very bad experience, that there are far worse things than death, and for a dog, living in a no-kill shelter is certainly one of them. To this day, I will put a dog down myself, before I send it to a shelter or rescue. Working so closely with the rescues and shelters, I have found that, even though they mean well, it is not always the best thing for a dog. I know too many "foster homes" for pets that have no business caring for another living creature, and I just won't take the chance of one of the pets that I am responsible for, ending up with one! I will talk about more of this experience on another page. It is worth discussing, in the least.
I adopted my first Australian Shepherd at the no-kill shelter I worked in. He was very timid, and obviously not had many good experiences. I had worked at the shelter for 4 months when I adopted him, and he was there long before I was. I would have adopted him sooner, but there were over 300 dogs, and I just never noticed him. He was a black tri, and just blended in with all the other black dogs. He was actually in an "un-adoptable" pen when I first saw him. When my chores were done, I would corner him, and just sit next to him. He was nippy and shy, but eventually, he would let me pick the ticks off him, then after a few weeks, he was licking me in the face. I don't know how old he was, but he was with me for 4 years before he died. He was completely loyal and loving for the whole rest of his life.
I bought my first Papillon in 2002, and have been hooked on them since. It has been extremely hard for me though, because I quickly decided that I wanted to show, and show kennels are not the warmest, most welcoming people to deal with. They tend to want to control the competition, as well as the market, but I have finally been lucky enough to find some breeders who started out the same way that I have had to, or were sympathetic to what I was going through, and have helped me a great deal. I am eternally grateful to Majical Papillons, Windkist Kennels, and Redevance Papillons. With out their help, I could not have pursued this passion. Now, Peaceful J Papillons has helped me even further, by letting me buy two of their show prospects, and Majical Papillons has let me by another from them. None of the dogs I started out with were show quality, so I raised some puppies out of them to help pay for the show prospects that I now have.
I get a bit of a chuckle every time I read how a breeder only breeds for the "Betterment of the Breed" or to "Improve the Papillon Breed". The way I see it, a Papillon is a Papillon....it either is one or isn't one, and the breed Standard is written in black and white as to what a Papillon is. You can't make the breed better, you can only improve on how closely your own dogs meet that standard. This has always been my goal. I started with the most hideous looking girl, and managed to get an awesome male to breed her to. I raised some pretty decent puppies out of them and with the money I made off their litters, I could afford better girls. It has taken several years to get to the quality my dogs are at now, and I still think I can improve on them. I now have some awesome boys, and plan to use them to improve more. I will keep the best to show and will sell the rest so that I can afford to show the ones I keep. My boys are better than my girls, because show quality girls are much more expensive, and I'm doing all this on limited recourses.
I am very satisfied with the boys I have at the moment. I have met my biggest goal, which was owning a "Cisco" puppy. I have idolized him since I started this venture 5 years ago! It was pictures of HIM that made me want to have a Papillon so bad! I was on a waiting list for one of his pups for about 4 years. When I had the money, Lynn didn't have any puppies, and when she had puppies, I didn't have the money. This year is when everything started falling into place, and now I have 2 Cisco grandbabies, and 2 Cisco babies. I have made it into the show ring with my Cisco son, and my Cisco grandson, and did impressively well with both of them for our first time out.
I have Chuck, and Princess, who are from the Babacka Admiral, Monarch and Zelicaon lines. Both are from Majical Papillons. Chuck is really the one that opened the doors for me, and it is because of his awesome puppies that I could afford the Cisco puppies. One of his awesome puppies just recently won her Champion title in South Dakota!
I have one more guy that I idolize, and that is Beauty Fly Solitaire, who reigns over the Cadeau Papillon Manors. If I can now get one of his pups, my Papillon dreams will be fulfilled, and I will have everyone necessary to build an awesome breeding program for my own Showing aspirations! The steps have been taken....I have filled out an application, and been approved for one of their puppies, I'm just having a hard time getting the money together, when they have a puppy. When it is meant to be, it will all fall right into place, like it did with the Cisco babies.
So, my immediate goals? To get into the show ring with my boys. I also want to get a 4H Dog Program going here in Carlsbad. My kids have shown some interest in it, so I think it will be fun, and I would love it if they learn to enjoy it as much as I do. And lastly, to get a pup from Cadeau Papillons' Solitaire. Once these have been achieved then I will update with some new goals.
How to Buy a Puppy
I wanted to add some friendly advice on how to buy a Puppy, because it is very common to get an email that says "How much are your puppies" and nothing else. So for starters, do your research. Almost every website that sells advertisements for dogs or puppies has a page that describes the different kinds of dogs. Here is one for example, for the the Papillon. Before contacting a breeder, you should already have a general knowledge about the breed. If you contact a breeder asking questions like "Do Papillons have long hair", then it is obvious that you have not done your homework.
Once you have done your homework, do a Google search for "Papillon Kennels", "Papillon Breeders" and "Papillon Puppies". Visit as many websites as you can. On their websites, you should first look for the Moms and Dads of the kennel. If they don't have pictures of their adult dogs, move on to the next website, because if they are not proud enough of their adult dogs to have them listed on their website then I feel like they have something to hide. But, also keep in mind that not everyone has time to keep a website current, so if you find a Papillon litter for sale, and parents of that particular litter are not on the website, but other parents are.......its probably worth your time to just ask for pictures of the parents, because I'm sure they just haven't had the time to add them to their website...but their is the off chance that if a parent is not on the website somewhere, then maybe they have something to hide...it may be a mismark, or something, that would not look good on the website, so just be careful. The ones you want to avoid are the ones that have no adult pictures at all, only puppy pictures.
Secondly, you also want to see the other dogs the breeder breeds. If they breed 5 or 6 different kinds of dogs, I generally move on to the next one. I breed only Papillons, but I used to breed Australians as well. I attempted breeding Chihuahuas at the same time as the Papillons and Aussies, but was just too difficult.....I can imagine what its like breeding 5 or 6 different kinds of dogs....they would surely have to live in cages to prevent accidental mixed litters, and the amount of socialization the puppies get couldn't be very much. Along with this, if a breeder has that many breeds they are working with, then its obvious they are concerned more about quantity than quality, and is reason enough for me to not do business with them.
Once you have found a kennel you like, and the parents you want a puppy from, contact the breeder. Always email first. People have busy lives, and when communication is initiated through email, the breeder can respond at their earliest convenience, rather than catching them in the middle of doing something. I never call a breeder, unless they request that I call. I for one, have 5 kids, as well as all the horses and dogs to care for, and I don't have time to entertain on the phone, so I only take phone calls by appointment.
Another reason I prefer to communicate through email, is so that everything we discuss and agree to is in writing. Email agreements are bind-able by law, so you have proof of what is said and/or agreed to should you ever have to go to court. It is good to have a contract, but many times, email discussion touch on subjects that have not been mentioned in the contract.
It is also very important to always include a brief description of yourself, your family, your current pets, and what you plan to use the puppy for, in your first email. Will it be a family pet? 4H Program? Search and Rescue? Conformation Showing? If you want the pup for future breeding, it is most important to describe your facilities, their living arrangements, how many dogs you have and what your breeding goal is. Also keep in mind that many people say what they think you want to hear in order to be successful in getting a dog from you, and the first sign of one of those is: "I am looking for a nice female to show, and to breed later on". There is no red flag that flies higher to a breeder than that very comment. If that is in fact what you are looking for, then be sure to follow it with proof that you are going to be showing it... AKC show records and/or pictures are a good start.
If you have found a puppy on a classified site like www.puppyfind.com, Always, always, always check their other puppies available. There is usually a link somewhere within the page of their add that gives you the option to see their other puppies. I have clicked on some that had 12 pages of puppies, (each page at that site has 12 puppies), and each page having a different breed. Finding this should be very alarming, when shopping for a puppy! It doesn't hurt to give them the benefit of the doubt, as maybe they are in a community like mine, where a large number of people don't know how to use computers, and someone would put an add on their account for their friends. This would be excusable for a few different breeds, and it should say that those puppies belong to friends that don't have computers....if not, then I would avoid them like they have a contagious terminal disease!
I am also very leery of breeders who register with CKC, UKC or APRI. CKC is an Open registry where all you have to do is sign on the line to get them registered....you can register anything through them. Though APRI has stricter rules, they will give full registration with breeding rights, to dogs that have been sold with limited AKC registration. To me, this is dishonest. Always ask if you can have AKC registration instead, and offer to pay any related fees. If the breeder refuses, then the odds are, they bought the parents with Limited registration, and probably on a spay-neuter contract, and are using APRI so they can still breed and raise puppies against the breeders' wishes.
On another note.....I've heard that AKC can be expensive and difficult to deal with. If a breeder has a litter of puppies that they are selling as pet quality, and would like to avoid the hassle of going through AKC, its no big deal to register them with APRI instead, and in this case, they will usually get you AKC papers if you are willing to pay the associated fees. I personally have not had a hard time with AKC at all, and have not found it difficult to do business with them.
Another thing I avoid is "Filling out applications so they can pick the best pup for me". I put entirely too much value in a puppies expression to be letting them tell me which pup is right for me, then offer no returns or refunds when they are wrong. Maybe that works well for folks who are getting their first dog, but with my experience and training, I prefer to pick my own. With that being said, I also put alot of value in what breeders say about their pups, and I very commonly ask "which one would you buy, if you were looking at them as an outsider", and most are very good at giving honest and helpful information.
Lastly.....be easy to work with. Shipping dogs is not the easiest task to accomplish. The airlines have rules, and the breeders have real lives with schedules of their own. If the breeder says they can only ship "one day this week", but it happens to be on the day your son has ball practice, either miss ball practice or be prepared to wait. Some airlines do not take reservations for dogs, meaning that if another dog gets their first, there may not be a spot for yours, and the breeder has to try again another day. If certain papers get forgotten at home, the airline will not accept the dog, and the breeder has to reschedule....breeders are human too, so be understanding and easy to work with, and in the end, hope for and try to gain a friend out the ordeal. You can never have too many friends.
How to Sell a Puppy
I am ALWAYS shopping and looking at puppies....even when I'm not in the market to buy, I just love looking to see what everyone has available. The first thing I look for when shopping for puppies is good pictures. So, from a buyers perspective, you want to have good pictures. Start off with a good camera, to begin with. Don't take pictures of your puppies with "Camera Phones"....the pictures from a camera phone are very grainy, and most have some sort of "glow" that makes it difficult to see what the puppy or dog looks like. Don't use a digital camera that is less than 1 Mega Pixel, or the pictures will be too small, and will be pixilated. Don't take pictures with the camera facing the sun. It is better to have your shadow in the picture with the dog, than to have the whole picture glared by sunlight. If you are only selling pet quality pups, then all the cutesy gadgets in the pictures are no big deal, but if you are marketing your pups as show or breed quality (which are the same to most breeders), then you don't want the toys, balloons or ribbons to distract the buyers' attention from the awesome qualities of your dogs or puppies.
Secondly, you want to be at eye level with the puppy or dog. Sit on the floor, or on the ground, at his level, to take the pictures. I have even taken pictures laying with my belly flat on the ground for the best angle. If you don't mind using the kitchen table, that is a probably the best angle you can get.....set the pup up on the table, sit down in the chair, and your camera should be right level with the pup.
I like to see pictures of each side: front, back, right side and left side. The right side is just so I can see the markings, because the left side is the side the judges see the most. (I'm just learning all this stuff myself). I also like to see pictures with the breeder holding the pup, because where their hand is on the pup, his hair usually sticks up, and I can get an idea of how long his hair is. I also like to see pictures of the pups being handled or playing with a person, so I can see their expression. Their expressions are also very important to me.
Lastly, I prefer to buy from a breeder who is ready to gain a new friend. I have stayed friends with most of the breeders I have bought pups from. If you get short with someone because they ask too many question, or bug you with wanting more pictures......if you are not willing to help them pick the best pup for them, there is always another breeder and litter to pick from, they do not have to buy from a breeder that gets cranky or irritated.
About Puppy Mills
Everybody has their own ideas and presumptions about Puppy Mills, and it has a lot to do with perspective. To some breeders, everyone is a Puppy Mill except them. Since I have worked in the Animal Care and Animal Shelter fields, I may have a different perspective on it than some. I make that judgment by how loved a person's dogs are. If a breeder's dogs live in cages day in and day out, and are only let out for exercise and training, I would consider that a Puppy Mill. If "Mom and Pap" have a beloved dog that shares their sofa and bed, or lives in the back yard, and want a litter of puppies out of her, I would not consider them a Puppy Mill. If a person just completely loves dogs, and enjoys having puppies around and all the joy and love that comes from them, I would not necessarily consider them a Puppy Mill. If a "Backyard Breeder" loves their dogs and cares for them well, and gives them lots of love and affection, they are not necessarily a Puppy Mill by my standards.
There is a lady I know, who raises LOTS of puppies.......to most people, she is considered a Puppy Mill, and normally I would too, but what is different about her, compared to commercial Puppy Mills I have dealt with from the Shelter and Clinics, is that her dogs are well cared for. They are not fed the cheapest dog food available at Wal-Mart. They are clean, healthy and receive vet care when needed. The only thing that suffers at her place is "Breed Quality", in that you won't find a Show Quality anything at her place. I have been to her place a couple times and her yard has been clean....with so many dogs, I expected that we couldn't get to the door without stepping in a pile of poo, but we went all over the yard playing with puppies, and never ran into a pile (and we showed up un-announced, if that tells you anything). The dogs didn't have fleas or ticks, or look "wormy" and they all smelled clean. Her dogs and puppies were healthy and happy, and she was within her Constitutional right to do what she was doing, so who am I to judge? If I had gone there and found sickly puppies, a nasty yard and sad, depressed dogs, I would certainly jump on the "she's a puppy-mill" bandwagon, but that is not what saw.
When I worked at the shelter, we dealt with one lady, that was finally shut down, who had over 50 cages.....visualize rabbit cages.....that her dogs lived in. They had wire floors, and empty, dirty food/water bowls. Their hair was matted to the skin, where raw, oozing sores were revealed after being shaved. These dogs were frightened, and some where aggressive (which I am sure is from being on the defensive for so long). They were very underweight, and stunk to the high Heavens. It was very much like the places described here.
After seeing that kennel, I gained a new perspective on exactly what a Puppy Mill is, and would much rather see those dogs at the place I mentioned before, where they would at least be cared for properly, fed daily, kept clean, and see a vet when needed.
What some of these "Everyone's a Puppy Mill" breeders don't stop to think about, is that the best way to shut these people down, is to offer puppies at an affordable price, and to offer payment plans. If a person can't afford to pay $2000 for a dog, they will look for a breeder in their price range, and sometimes the affordable price is at a Puppy Mill. They seem to have the impression that if you can't afford their $1500-$3000 dog, then you just don't deserve a dog, and that attitude is not going to help shut these places down. Don't get me wrong, if you want a high quality dog, be prepared to pay for it, but on the other hand, the inflated prices don't help the Puppy Mill Issue.
So, in my personal opinion, when determining whether I think a breeder runs a Puppy Mill, I look at their dogs' Quality Of Life, and this is how I feel: If a breeder's dogs live in cages with limited activity and love, then they run a Puppy Mill. This includes the show breeders that have 20-50 dogs living in high dollar cages they call "Kennels". In my experience, their puppies are not well socialized and are timid and reserved when they reach their new home. If a person has more dogs than they can afford to care for properly, and are breeding for more, then they are running a Puppy Mill. If a person has more dogs than they can show proper affection for and have time to play with, then they are possibly running a Puppy Mill. This just goes to show that you can have the most expensive and fanciest kennel ever built, and the fanciest supplies and most expensive this or that, and still be a Puppy Mill. A cage is a cage is a cage....no matter the angle you look at it, or the name you call it.
On the other hand, if a breeder has a couple of kennels they use for breeding, to keep the dogs separate to insure the intended father is the only sire of the litter, then I don't consider that a Puppy Mill either. The more boys a breeder has, is the harder it is to keep them separate when the girls start coming in heat. You have the fighting to contend with, along with the "digging under", "climbing over" and tearing up everything in between. Cages are essential for this reason, but to have dogs living in them all the time does not allow the dog a very good quality of life.
