So I checked this guy's place out. He had 19 dogs kept outside only in mini-yards (I'm guessing 20 ft. by 40 ft.), usually with more than one dog per yard. They didn't have much in the way of shelter-each had an overhang/little building thing, but it wouldn't provide any shelter from the rain (too narrow) and not much from the sun, depending on the angle.
He had 3 bloodhounds, 2 mountain dogs, and the rest were Saints and Newfs. He said that he usually charges $1000, but he had three litters of Newfs in November. He had three from the previous two litters. Two had eye issues (lots and lots of drainage) and were very timid-one wouldn't even smell my hands). The other was outgoing, jumpy, seemed healthy. Then he had 8 more. They were all skittish, didn't seem to even know him. They were 10 weeks old. The adult dogs were either rambuctous (jumping up and slamming against the cages for attention) or scared to meet me (I'm guessing it was me and not him, but these were saints and newfs that you'd expect to be social).
The puppies were kept in a barn. They were in 7'x7' pens with concrete floors. He told me he usually has hay in them, and there was hay in the barn itself, just not in the pens. There were windows that they could walk through to go outside into pens that were about one and half times the size of the pen they were in. The three older pups (12 weeks, he said) were in one pen, and the 8 younger pups (10 weeks) were in another. A third one was empty. They were being fed Purina Dog Chow. He said the puppies wouldn't eat it, so he had to put some canned food in their food. He figured they didn't like the taste, he said, but he said that is all the adult dogs got.
The adult dogs that were happy to see a new person were very friendly, just wild, like I said. But I guess if they get almost no human interaction, they would be. They had mats in their hair and were quite dirty, but not excessively so. Most all of them had water (I noticed one dog had an empty bowl and commented on it). I couldn't see if some of their bowls had water.
He came right out and said that the dogs are better the more time you spend with them and that he just didn't have enough time to spend with them. I wanted to say, then why the heck are you doing this? But I didn't.
The way I see it, the only thing I can report him on is the not-so-great shelter and an empty dog water bowl. Can you report a breeder like this for not socializing his animals or not spending enough time with them?
He told me his puppies were usually $1000, but now they were $500 for females and $700 for males so that he could "move them". I asked about the older female and male and he said they were $500, too. I asked about the one outgoing puppy, and he said she was $1000 b/c she had such a great personality (but they all would if he socialized them!).
I really wanted to take the older female or male out of there... especially the male, as he was on his own in a smaller pen. The female was with another female and the male that he uses as his stud. The male seemed to have issues with other males, and Riley is right near his age (7.5 months). The female was friendly enough, but she was wild. She had to be about 150 pounds, and she had no idea that she couldn't jump up at people. She was taller than me when she stood and she'd throw all her weight at the fence. She was a doll, though, just completely untrained. I couldn't decide whether to take her (wasn't sure how to get us all home safely, as I brought my dogs with me and I drive a Jeep), take a puppy, or just walk away. I just felt so bad for all of them... I ended up getting the least scared of the 8 puppies. The rest of them literally screamed when you picked them up. They were scared out of their minds. She clung to me when I picked her up and seemed to show a little interest in me after that (well, she looked at me, the others cowered in corners and hid... this was after they were all inside-originally, they were hiding outside, and when we went out there, they either ran inside or hid in holes they'd dug under the concrete of the building).
So what now? I really shouldn't have a third dog right now (I rent, though I'm hoping to move very soon), but I couldn't leave them all there. Who do I report him to? If I report him, what do I say? What is important to note (other than they need better shelter, constant water supplies, etc.)? Can I mention that he doesn't socialize them? There were 30 dogs total, assuming my count of 19 outside was right. One thing that really got me was he baby talked them and seemed to care, but why doesn't he do more?
I'm sorry this is so long. There are probably people out there with worse breeding practices, but you've got to be doing a pretty bad job to end up with scared and unsocialized Saints and Newfs, don't you?
