ROFL I love your general experience juxtaposed with their myopic views of special dogs of a certain breed! I know a bit about breeders. Nowadays you’re required to jump every hoop to be acceptable to them. But basically, they hold you hostage with “deposits”. This was not standard when I got my first serious dog in the ‘80s, thank God. Otherwise I probably would not have had my most wonderful dog. But now getting a purebred is a PITA.
The conformation breeders have gotten pretty nutty. Deposits, spay-neuter agreements, co-owner agreements, all sorts of weird stuff.
I haven't seen this with the performance breeders . . . YET. Most of them are quite sensible, even the top-flight breeders. I got a nice (if crazy) pup from probably the best breeder of field trial Labs in the country. It was very straightforward, we just corresponded and shook hands on the deal. Only requirement was to use the kennel name in her registered name.
It wasn't anyone's fault that she turned out to be EIC Affected. There was no genetic test for that condition until she was two years old. So I spayed her. She's still a very nice (if crazy) Lab, the retriever judges absolutely love her because she has that elusive quality called "style". Control, however, is still an issue!
Yes, we were looking for a Greyhound one experience, and after several encounters of the worst kind decided it wasn’t worth our time. One’s appearance before these Lords of the Dogs only feeds their insatiable voids. Then another occasion a year, or perhaps two later we were looking for a Great Pyrenees, but SHEESH!!!
We have enough that come to us of their own free will having been either dumped, or having become lost after Fourth of July, or New Years celebrations drove them from their homes in panic. We’ve spent much time trying to find lost one’s homes over the many years all too often to no avail, so we care for them until their time.
Currently we are down to three dogs, fifteen cats, two guest cats, two horses, and one donkey.