Having been working in rescue most recently, I truly didn't realize how heavily bred so many dogs are. I mean, all breeds of dogs and mixes. Puppies everywhere!

I find it weird that I'm required by the state of Florida to have a license to charge people for me to rub on them, but no where does it seem anyone is required to have a license to bring animals into the world. Isn't that strange?

Puppies are so stinking cute, but knowing what I know now, if I had to do it all over again, I would have rescued a husky. Nothing sweeter than thinking about raising a little tiny pup all by yourself, but I get so sad seeing all the dogs in the shelters when I go look at a new dog they got in.

As humans, if we can't be responsible enough to look out for the dogs that are already in the world, we certainly shouldn't be making more. :/

For the respectable breeders...I really do think they should be required to carry a license of some kind, and the breeding should be regulated. I have lots of ideas on that...but...I could go on forever. LOL

I totally agree. There should be, since they are selling the puppies it should be treated as a commercial license. There should also be a rule as to how many litters they can have and how many dogs. I want to say either in here in FL or just may be the town I live in anything after 5 animals you have to have a kennels license.

Well, if we're going to start licensing we would need to come up with criteria as to what makes a responsible breeder (easy enough) and be able to adequately enforce this kind of stuff (a lot harder). There are plenty of people willing to buy puppy mill or backyard bred dogs, so expecting the public to be policing themselves is really not reasonable, but law enforcement has a lot on their hands as it is to expect them to effectively police dog breeders. Whats more, you many end up finding people killing or abandoning their unwanted puppies instead of turning them in to rescues or shelters because they don't want to get fined for breeding without a license. Sometimes, oops litters are really just oops litters and not someone breeding for money/fun. What if someone has an unspayed female get knocked up by a loose intact male? Are we then going to start implementing mandatory spay/neuter laws? There are a lot of details that needs to be worked out for this to be effective.

I disagree and for a lot of the reasons Danielle mentioned. Requiring licenses is not going to solve the problem and once you start, where does it stop? What's reputable and what's not in the eyes of the law? My idea of a reputable breeder is very different from most because my standards are so much higher than the vast majority. People just need to be educated, even if breeders had to have licenses there would still be overpopulation. So then what, do the breeders start having caps on the number of litters they can have? It's a slippery slope with no good outcome despite the good intentions I see in the OP. I would be firmly against any such idea.

Edited to add: This makes me think of kennel club registration. Having an AKC registered dog does not make that dog any better or more legit than buying one without papers. To me, registration papers mean absolutely nothing because they really don't speak to quality or good breeding. All it tells me is who the dogs ancestors are, not that the dog is of any quality at all. Mills and bybs sell dogs with papers, how would licensing breeders be any different?

While that is a nice idea in theory, I don't think it would fix anything. Irresponsible breeders would just not get a license and reputable breeders trying to be lawful would just end up having to do more paperwork and paying more money. I don't see how there is a good way to control BYB's and not hurt reputable breeders. The only way things are going to change is to step up and promote reputable breeders and what to look for to the general public. Education is the only way I see anything changing. Plus a lot of times the things to need to do to keep a license aren't in the best interest of the dogs. The AWA makes licensed kennels keep their dogs in kennels that can be totally sanitized and all surfaces must be non-permeable to water. So someone keeping their dogs in their house would not qualify! Carpets, normal walls, and even normal ceilings would not pass those regulations! I would much rather a puppy be raised in a house hold situation and the dogs live a nice life as part of the family than kept out in a "sanitary" kennel. Those rules help keep puppy mill dogs in better conditions for sure, but don't really work for smaller scale breeders.

One thing I would love to see happen, though it never will, would be for AKC to require proof of OFA and CERF testing of the parents before allowing a litter to be registered. It will never happen cause AKC would lose too much money, but it would be great for every breed.

It's not even just the breeders, it's all the idiots who buy dogs from these idiot breeders. Ughhh. I wish it wasn't so easy for people to buy a puppy, it's a huge responsibility!

Such a thing isn't in place because EVERYONE'S idea of what a "reputable", "good," and "respected" breeder is is different. It would be FAR from easy to list the criteria for a "respected" breeder. You ask the general population and they'll say "as long as the puppies are being taken care of (a subjective term depending on who you ask) they're a good breeder!"

There are many people who believe that simply producing cute dogs makes them a respected breeder. The Majority holds stock in "papers" - so any dog with a paper (and this isn't just akc - it's also the CKC [continental] and the other hundred of fake registries out there) - so who polices the fake registries?

I mention health testing to people and their faces squish up and the wheels in their heads turn and I get "What do you mean...health testing? Going to the vet is getting a health test!" People.just.don't.know. So you want breeders to be licensed to weed out the bad ones - but we (people who know what a good breeder makes) won't be making the list of criteria - it will be the uneducated people making the list and we'll still be where we are.

What about where the dogs are kept and in what condition? Who would dictate the list of criteria that breeders should meet there because everyone's views on that are also different? I know many in the general populous would say "as long as the dog LOOKS clean that's good enough!" - not that it would matter if the dog is walking on broken glass or nails - so long as they look nice!

But then say something like this does go through - if someone wants to breed they're going to breed, license be damned and people will buy from them because they don't know. It will also work in their(bybs) favor because policing the "good" breeders like that will raise the price of puppies (you can't make the license cheap or everyone will still have one but you can't make it a lot because many people wouldn't be able to afford it and the price of what they sell will have to go up - remember: GOOD breeders don't make money on their litters - ever. So we're making them spend MORE money?) and until people are educated, they don't understand why people are willing to spend 1000 dollars on a dog when I could go a couple hours out and get a dog for 400-800.

None of this includes the actual policing and upholding of the license and law - which as Danielle said would be a lot harder.

Sara...that's around the lines of what I was thinking...having clubs like AKC require those sorts of tests, etc.

For example, the Board of Health likely couldn't get involved, but if a state could someone pull off a board that could regulate that sort of thing it would be awesome. There are so many different scenarios and possibilities. I would at least love to see some of these breeders getting heavily fined for certain things...and let's say there are more than a few around here that make me shudder.

I just wish there were someway to get through to some of these people. Oh wait, I still go back to my original motto, "Ignorami of the world unite so I can throw you into the Spartan pit!"