Homestead How-To Bred to Work
Photo courtesy of Sharon Rives
The Homestead’ s Perfect Pup
Picking A Reputable Breeder for Your Working Dog
By Sharon Rives
Choosing the right breeder is not just a one-time transactional interaction. A preservation breeder is there for you and your puppy for its entire life! From the beginning, they take the time to get to know you, understand your lifestyle and family needs and help you make an informed decision about which puppy in a litter best suits those needs. This doesn ' t end when you take the puppy home; it is just the beginning. They will be there to help you with training and rearing questions, and even take the puppy back if a life change gets in the way.
Whether you’ re raising a livestock guardian dog, a stock dog, a hunting companion or a family pet, knowing what a reputable breeder demonstrates ensures you get a healthy, well-bred dog suited to your land, your work and your family. With so many breeds and purposes, understanding a breeder’ s standards and practices is the key to setting your dog and your acreage up for success.
Choosing the right breeder can often be confusing and daunting for the average person. A lot of fancy words, flashy websites and salesmanship, or lack thereof! So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak?
What is a Preservation Breeder
A preservation breeder is exactly what the name suggests, someone who has dedicated themselves to preserving the traits, heritage and abilities of the breed of their choice. They demonstrate their dogs’ abilities in the show ring, the hunting field or the stock arena with guardian dogs.
They actively compete or have real working dogs that perform the jobs they were bred for, daily. Ideally, they are doing both or have dogs that they bred that are.
They are health testing their dogs according to their breed club ' s recommendations. More on what that is, and the questions to ask and what to look for on this, a little later.
These people are passionate about their dogs and where their puppies go!
Where to Find a Preservation Breeder
So you’ ve decided which breed best fits your family and lifestyle, but where do you find reputable breeders? A great place to start is your chosen breed’ s official breed club.
The American Kennel Club website is a great starting point for this, or a Google search with“ your breed of choice- club” will usually yield good results. These clubs are the overseeing bodies for their breed. They will usually have a list of breeders or a contact person to help locate one. They will have the recommended health testing for their breed listed; all breeders you look at should be doing this testing.
Health Testing
Which brings me to health testing. What is it and why is it important?
All breeds have health issues, just as humans do. Some of them are common among many breeds, such as hip or elbow dysplasia, eye issues, etc. Some are unique to a particular breed, or set of breeds, such as hearing issues.
As breeders, we cannot eliminate every single issue, but we can strive to produce as few of these problems as possible. Testing is a key tool for breeders to make informed decisions and produce puppies with the best chance of avoiding these health problems.
The Australian Shepherd, for example, has hip and elbow dysplasia, a slew of genetic disorders we have direct
34 AcreageLife March 2026 AcreageLife. com