3 Reasons A Breeder Doesn't Have A Contract And Why You Should Walk Away
Breeding in the U.S. is totally unregulated which means there are staggering numbers of breeders who are either uneducated on breeding or who run it as a scam to make money. Often unscrupulous breeders seem genuine in the beginning but once there’s an issue they leave you on your own to deal with the problem.
You can weed out a large portion of uneducated and unscrupulous breeders by looking at their contract. A contract that is written with legal jargon protects you as much as it protects the breeder. An abundance of the less desirable breeders either use a contract they’ve typed up on their own that doesn’t actually contain any legal jargon or they don’t use one at all.
Below are 3 reasons why a breeder doesn’t have a contract and why you should walk away from them.
The breeder is new to breeding. A person being new to breeding isn’t the issue, we all got our start somewhere. The issue stands when you purchase a pup from someone who hasn’t adequately prepared for the responsibility of being a breeder. If they’re missing a contract they may also be missing other key things like health testing, knowledge of proper care, knowledge on choosing parents properly and so on. It’s important to ask why they don’t have a contract, and how they intend to handle situations like health issues, temperament issues, or the event that someone needs to return a puppy.
The breeder doesn’t understand why a contract is important. A breeder whos contract doesn’t contain correct verbiage and legal jargon has little understanding of why a contract is important. This means their contract would hold little weight to protect you in the event arbitration is needed.
The breeder has no intention of further responsibility after the pup leaves their care. You may not feel this is a problem on the day you bring your pup home, but what happens if something goes wrong? Are you going to be on your own? What happens if your pup has health issues? Is reactive to people or other animals? Has training problems? Or if you need to bring your dog back due to life’s unforeseen circumstances? If things go wrong you’ll need to have a contract and health guarantee to protect you.
It’s always important to choose your breeder first, then choose your puppy - not the other way around. Once you’ve chosen a puppy you begin to make decisions based on emotion, and if there’s an issue later you’re stuck relying on a breeder who may not be on the up and up. There are many breeders out there and you can be choosy.
Read 7 Things That You Should See In A Puppy Contract and 9 Tips For Choosing The Right Breeder.