I don't sell my dogs' lives

Caring for dogs day and night, every day of the year, all your life, never vacationing, always available, with the expense of so many investments made to keep them happy, feeding them the best possible food every day, paying for veterinary bills—well, all of this comes at a price! And someone has to pay that price, since animals don't go to work on their own, don't decide to get married and set up home, and don't take the trouble to raise their own puppies.

Since we, as pets, must decide on dog marriages, since the dog's health is in our sole hands, since veterinarians, feeders, and specialists charge a fee, it's impossible to be a breeder without earning a fair income, not based on the value of a living being's life, but on the cost of getting it. Every dog is worth as much as the next. A mixed breed is no less valuable than a purebred. A purebred dog is not a better living being, or one with more rights by birth, than a foundling. The choice to go to a shelter to get a dog can be just as noble, if not more, than that of going to a breeder—you just have to know what you're doing!

Very often, people do some quick calculations, wondering why you can charge such a price for a dog. They do a quick calculation—how much food costs, how much a vaccine costs, and how much a microchip costs—and wonder, or ask you, or think, how you can ask such exorbitant prices as hundreds of euros. Many go from being ignorant buyers to becoming ignorant breeders, thinking they'll make a fortune, and they usually end up giving up after a while, tired and worn out by the effort of being a breeder, abandoning their dogs to the first person they come across or to the nearest shelter, or they end up becoming human traffickers. Breeding isn't about raising a litter.

A breeder is not someone who has a female dog in their home, breeds her, and then places the puppies in a home. Just as conceiving a child doesn't make you a mother, or even a mother, but rather raises, loves, and protects it. As parents, we are largely the product of how our parents treated us. A breeder is someone who, litter after litter, succeeds in producing healthy puppies who will be appreciated, loved, and understood. A breeder is someone who contributes to the species and breed in question, improving it. A breeder helps people understand their animals, improving their lives, or preventing them from ruining theirs by adopting an unsuitable four-legged friend. A purebred dog is not a luxury item to own.

A purebred dog, and "any dog," is fostered because it is loved, wanted, known, and because, for these reasons, it can make others happy. Crossbreed isn't synonymous with "nothing" or "mongrel," but should simply be a sign of "born from parents of a different, unknown, or indefinable breed." Crossbreed could also mean "being unique," and for this reason perhaps even more special, precious... The fact that a crossbreed has fantastic qualities doesn't make all crossbreeds suitable for the same person. I love all dogs, but I breed purebreds because I try to breed in my home dogs suited to my life, suited to certain people, dogs that are happy. To do this, it's more practical and safe to know exactly what they will be like, rather than relying on chance.

This is how breeds were born. In a hypothetical perfect world without chains, only the strongest and most useful animal would win and reproduce. In this life, the only one I know, the strongest is the dog most useful to man, and he has the best chance of having a good life. I want to breed lucky and beloved dogs, important to someone. Breeding useless dogs would always make me tremble for their lives. I don't want my dogs to be pitied and bought blindly, out of pity. I want them to be useful, for people to recognize their qualities and want them even if it costs money to keep them, because they realize they add something extra to our lives. A useful dog is a dog that can find a home even as an adult, in the unfortunate event that its owner can no longer care for it.

A dog taken only out of mercy will always be in the hands of its god-man, at his mercy, and I don't want that. Saying that all dogs should be taken from shelters and that dogs shouldn't be bought is pure, stupid demagoguery that serves no one and is based on the ignorant notion of people who mistake animals for objects, and unfortunately, they often say this. Perhaps the best, kindest, and most altruistic of us stop having children of our own to go and adopt all the children dying of hunger in the world? Perhaps we give up the joy, the happiness of having a child of our own, a little one who grows up naturally, happily with us, without ever having experienced stress or problems or illnesses, because so many children suffer in other parts of the world? Can the suffering, the sadness of life, make us all stop living a natural life, which therefore also makes us happy? Should the entire canine species be abandoned? Will we ever have only dogs born by chance, the fault of some criminal who abandoned, mistreated, or indiscriminately bred them? Not all dogs are the same. They should all enjoy the same rights, of course, because no one is to blame, but they are very different from one another, in terms of abilities and health.

We cannot allow "pathology" and abandonment to become the foundation of tomorrow's dogs and cats. Altruism must not and cannot lead us toward illness, toward an unnatural life, just as it is unfair that sick purebred dogs are born, full of diseases that can only be cured because medicine has made significant progress today (a sick purebred dog is the most disgusting thing there is!). So why are so many so quick to lecture breeders? Why are they so quick to count their pockets? When animal rights activists attack breeders, well, I always think we don't understand each other, that they haven't grasped that we are on the same side: the defense of animals. I could never attack animal lovers, even if their reasoning is flawed in many other ways. I hope that reading these lines of mine will help someone realize that we are not all the same, neither they nor we. In many other cases, however, the problem is money… and sometimes ignorance, and the two things combined, do the rest.

Well, anyone who thinks breeding means making money at the expense of animals, let them try it themselves, spend a lifetime getting up at night to check on puppies, to care for dying or suffering elderly people, answer the phone all day to people who need advice on raising them, pick up tons of poop (this fragrant detail of our lives is overlooked by many, but it's perhaps the most present constant), let them deprive themselves of vacations, private life, a normal life, and then we'll see if they still think that way. Oh sure, you can not do all that. You can be an architect, an engineer, a banker, and in your spare time go and serve food to two animals kept in cages. You can find the time to deliver puppies, but not the time to meet people's needs. You can find the money to pay advertisers and workers, almost always illegal, to better sell your wares... You can still be a merchant of lives in Italy today, but that doesn't mean we're all like that. It doesn't mean that just because some people take advantage of dogs and cats and the naivety of others, we're all like that. Perhaps a babysitter shouldn't be paid? Perhaps a teacher or a doctor shouldn't be paid because they're all figures who should care more about loving than surviving? But how? But you should do it out of passion, some say when they have to pay these gentlemen's bills.

But since when do people who love others and animals earn their living on nothing? Shouldn't they be paid more, because life is based on it? The foundation of everything else? Why is it that, instead of trying to better compensate those who, in addition to providing us with work, also give us examples of pure love, we do nothing but humiliate them and try to give them as little as possible, exploiting their love for life and what they do? A breeding farm doesn't cost the same as a single litter, but rather the entire human life it takes to produce that litter. In a breeding farm, there are healthy dogs that reproduce, and dogs born with some disease and who will never reproduce, elderly dogs, but who are equally loved and cared for like the others, and who often cost a lot of money, and this must also come from the luckiest ones.

When breeding, look for older dogs, because they will be a guarantee for the breeder, not young ones who are always healthy, always bring in money, and are increasingly attractive. For every litter born and raised healthy, there are often others where everything went wrong, where a lot of money was spent traveling far to find a worthy husband for our female, but perhaps only a few puppies were born, perhaps the mother had to undergo a cesarean section, perhaps all the puppies died, perhaps she didn't get pregnant, and all that's left is the costs.

A breeding farm also has all the onerous costs of obtaining health and administrative permits for breeding, construction costs, the facilities needed to ensure the well-being of all the animals, and the costs of surveyors, agronomists, and accountants, but no one thinks about this. It's one thing to have a healthy female who gives birth to a splendid litter in your home, and everything seems beautiful and goes wonderfully, making the joy of birth seem trivial, and it's quite another to give birth to this miracle of life over and over again, bringing this joy to many people. No one talks about all the people who, while raising a litter at home, have found themselves faced with the shock of a first-time mother suffering from convulsions, or one who fails to give birth... or one who has a ruptured uterus. The comparisons used to belittle the work of breeders are always made only with the very fortunate litters that have involved very little expense.

A private individual with a wealth of knowledge about dogs, who has spent all their free time pursuing their passion for dog breeding, and who is willing to share this love with others in the form of puppies is often a wonderful choice for finding a puppy. I'm the first to say this, but there are very few of these people compared to all the people who desire and need the affection of an animal. The breeder and his breeding method are nothing more than the product of the society around us. If there are dealers in lives, it's because there are people who value dogs as objects, who, when they buy, think only of owning them and not of the fact that they are rewarding an exploiter of lives. If animal life were given greater value, it would be much easier for breeders to ensure the animals' well-being, and only animal lovers would proliferate, because people would immediately recognize self-serving dealers and would always be willing to pay well for what truly matters.

And have we forgotten about taxes? Being a breeder also means paying taxes, eh? Yet as soon as you mention VAT, people, rather than being happy to have an invoice for the money they've given, rather than being happy to contribute part of their money to this Italy that's doing so badly, rather than being happy to deal with an honest person, they just walk away. We're talking about professional breeders; when we're talking about amateurs, the equivalent is having a contract in hand. Having an invoice in hand for a purchase that will last at least a decade seems anything but foolish to me, even economically and commercially speaking, considering the unpredictability of life, the difficulty of breeding well, and the mysteries of genetics. It's one thing not to pay VAT on a coffee (and that's also wrong), and it's another, much more foolish thing, to have no record of an often substantial payment, for something that will be with us for a long time.

When money is due, everyone is ready, polite, and quick... but once the money has been received, things change, and all this kindness becomes a memory. Dealers have no time for kindness, and they even respond to rude people, because their only focus is on the money... Will it arrive or not? This is their constant thought. A dealer doesn't waste time taking a thousand photos, he doesn't know the details of his dogs' lives. He doesn't waste much time on visits, he moves quickly, he has no time to waste, and yet there are people who are intimidated by this false demeanor, this icy coldness, sometimes by a jacket and tie, by two notions about the breed that anyone could learn, to the point of submitting, and end up rewarding it. A breeder should always have ready answers to all or almost all of every buyer's questions... He should at least know his subject inside out.

This is why we no longer even reply to emails asking us simply for the price.

When we feel full of philanthropy, we try to educate the most obviously ignorant without malice, but when someone asks us about dogs and cats based on their coat spots, their sex, their pedigree, and that's all, well, then they'll just find a wall in their face and no answer. We all love beauty, we all want to choose, we're all curious, we want to think for ourselves, but many of us also need to learn what it means to breed, and what the important things to look for are. Many think that if they choose first, they'll get the best dog, something to brag about forever and that will also bring them love, because they're gripped by an immoderate sense of victory and optimism. "I want the certainty that the dog will grow up to be huge"... This is what we hear every now and then... Please go elsewhere, I reply...

Given that making the first choice and choosing a dog with certain qualities requires a fair amount of knowledge about the breed, the bloodline, dogs and cats in general, and the way puppies are raised, the first choice, even among many, doesn't always equate to a dog with great qualities. It all depends on the parents, the puppies' character, and the person making the choice. The best dog for me—for breeding, to compensate for the shortcomings of my other dogs—isn't necessarily the same for someone who will have that dog for life. The best dogs for me are those who are cuddly and playful; that doesn't necessarily mean they're the best for someone else.

Finally, tell me how I can best do my job as a breeder, how I can find a happy home and people who love my puppies, when I'm asked for a dog with long legs? As if you were choosing home furnishings? Tell me how I can think about animal welfare, when people want to get a dog for the holidays, regardless of the fact that puppies need a certain amount of time to spend with their mother, to grow up into sociable and self-confident cats? Sometimes for three months I constantly change my mind about puppies, I struggle enormously to understand which qualities a puppy is best suited to me, yet many people, in a flash, are convinced they'll arrive and hit the jackpot! How can you reconcile curiosity, arrogance, haste... and, ultimately, the money we each have a certain amount of time to spend, with the most important thing: the animal's life.

When you're considering getting a dog, carefully consider your life and find the best dog to make it happy and peaceful. If you get the right dog, everything will seem easier, and even giving love and cuddles will be simple. It's pointless to go pick up a dog from the shelter out of pity, lacking the knowledge of dogs to heal an often traumatized personality, lacking the money to pay a trainer to heal this traumatized personality, and not getting a dog or cat suited to our needs in life... and often having a complicated one, too. What can a woman who lives in an apartment full of knick-knacks and antique rugs do with a dog who, through no fault of her own, has never been socialized and bites? Doing good is wonderful, and I recommend it to everyone, but you also have to know how to do it.

Choosing a dog may seem easy, but it isn't. You have to know yourself well enough to be ready to accept the life of a cat with you. We often want super-active dogs like Jack Russells, but do we have time for them? Almost always, we want the biggest puppy, but then maybe we work all day and don't have time to care for that puppy. So what's the point of indulging this morbid desire? Is it to make an animal grow up badly? Feel lonely and insecure, and turn it into a frustrated adult that will then need retraining, or worse, one that we can no longer tolerate? Wouldn't it be better to get an adult dog who, perhaps by bad luck, has returned to a breeder, and who would require less time? An adult is no less than a puppy. So, first piece of advice: choose the breed that's best for us, but not only that! After studying the breed's characteristics, let's see if the dogs from that breeder meet the standard.

Let's see if those individual dogs, that male, that female, that breeder, are as we imagine them. It doesn't matter if we get a dog that isn't standard, has different markings, or doesn't have the characteristics of a purebred. The first thing that matters is getting a dog that's right for us! It doesn't matter if we get a purebred or a mixed breed; what matters is getting one that's easy to love, suited to our lives, and healthy. A purebred dog should simply be tailor-made for us. It should be a dog that gives us certainty, or at least a greater chance of health, than an orphan born by chance whose temperament we can't predict. The latter won't be worthless for that, it'll just be an unknown quantity, and therefore a more difficult feat "in theory," requiring even more experienced and well-prepared owners. But welcome! A breeder should charge for the work they put into understanding their dogs' temperaments, not for owning them. When someone asks me for a dog to show, it's clear they don't understand me at all. I'm looking for owners who love my dogs for who they are and for themselves first and foremost. I don't care if it's with my dog or

they win fashion shows.

And yet, like everyone else, I love beautiful dogs. Does this seem irreconcilable to you? And why? Perhaps there's a need to show off one's beauty or love? Sure, you can do shows and parades, as we do from time to time, rejoicing in victories like everyone else. You can have fun doing everything you want when you're happy and comfortable together, but that can't be the basis for a relationship. I don't want people to win trophies with my dogs. I don't want to satisfy someone's delicate aesthetic sense with my dogs. I want to give them friends forever. Dogs to love and who are capable of reciprocating that love. I want to give dogs that are suited to people, and I want people to be suited to them. I want to be clear about my dogs' characteristics, and when they differ from the standard or average of other dogs, I point it out. I want to be called in the middle of the night if my dogs are sick. I want to be tormented by questions because this is my life, and there's nothing more beautiful than being able to teach what you know.

There's nothing more beautiful than having a passion since childhood and passing it on, sharing it, making it grow day after day thanks to the questions and doubts of others, thanks to experience. This is what you pay for in a breeder... the experience... the knowledge... not the ownership of a dog, not the taking over of a life. Anyone can buy, you just need the money. Anyone can have a sense of aesthetics, even the most selfish or animal abuser in the world, but time, this simple thing, the willingness, the humility, the ability to get muddy and laugh with your dog, can only be possessed by a father, only a breeder who truly loves his animal children. Always try to learn about the true characteristics of the kennel and the dogs present. Pay someone for the good they have done and will do, not for their collection of animals. First worry about whether a given animal is right for you, and then about finding it, because once you've found it, money is the least important thing. The expense of buying a dog is truly nothing compared to the good they can give us, but nevertheless, having never been rich, we understand this difficulty too.

Well, it's better to wait then and get the right dog from the right person, rather than rushing to a dealer, to disappointment, to a bad relationship with an animal that no one will ever help us with. Dogs can cost a hundred euros, but a surgery to treat them can cost thousands of euros up front and thousands more over the course of their life for continued care. A dog can be healthy, but if they have a bad temper, not only basic training will be necessary, but also the expensive consultation of a behaviorist. And how much does mental health, peace of mind, and joy in a home cost? I'll tell you... it's priceless. That's why I never try to hand off one of my dogs to anyone as if it were nothing... The best advertisement for me, as a breeder, is not the dog that wins a trophy, but the happy dog that lives with its human friend, radiant with joy at being able to share his life with him.

This is the image of my dogs that I want to keep in my mind, this is what I want to convey. In this kennel, show dogs aren't born, dogs with a label other than that, first and foremost, they are dogs I like and are useful to my life, because without use, without true passion, nothing can be good. Here, American-standard Golden Retrievers are born. If a dog isn't useful to you, if you can't love it, if it isn't useful to you, then you won't be happy and you won't be able to build anything good. However, if you live your dogs to the fullest, if you know everything about them because they make you happy and make you want to deepen your knowledge every day, then you will grow in your passion and you will convey something concrete to people.

It doesn't matter if you own a champion, it's about loving your pets and talking about them for hours. Standards change, dogs get sick, get injured, but the joy they bring us lasts forever. It doesn't matter if a dog's ears are smaller than the standard; it only matters if that dog is in line with my life and that of those who ask me for it. Dogs aren't acquired for show, nor are they acquired out of pity. They're acquired to love them and to be loved. There's nothing immoral about wanting to be loved, just as there's nothing immoral about wanting a wife or husband who makes us proud and happy.

A purebred dog should mean "a dog that's easier on your life," "easier to love," "a dog with a family that will help you through difficult times." This is what you pay a breeder for... To reward them, to help them do better, and to receive help in return. I hope these lines have helped those who often wonder "why buy a dog?" "How much does a puppy cost?" Dogs can't be bought, but anyone who works gets paid. For your own good, always look for someone who takes the time to talk, who explains, who can be reached often, not someone who's available for an hour a day, who's never around, who only asks and gives nothing, because if someone doesn't have time to answer you, they almost certainly don't have time for dogs either. Anyone who doesn't know their dog's weight, coat condition, personality traits, or other details... is someone who owns one but doesn't love it, or doesn't have time to love it... Always ask for a contract, invoice, or receipt for the amount you pay, because those who have nothing to hide and do everything right will have no problem guaranteeing your pet, and will give you a perfect one... vaccinated, registered, and guaranteed forever. Those who love their dogs are reluctant to give them away and are suspicious; they want to know who's on the other end. Those who want to get rid of them or make money will often make everything easy, will answer briefly, even to blunt and rude questions, and won't take offense because they have no pride or love to defend, but are only concerned about the income.

Anyone who doesn't want to leave any traces in the dog's life, who doesn't respond by email, doesn't offer prices unless they're in person, doesn't receive receipts, doesn't invoice or invoice at a fraction of the actual price, doesn't have any vaccinations or chips, is someone who wants to hide and should be wary of. If something is done well, it can be done openly, and can be discussed anytime, anywhere. Run away from where you read "Puppies always"... "Puppies for every budget"... Remember that puppies are always healthy, with some exceptions, and that problems and illnesses come after a while, but they last a long time and are more expensive than buying a well-paid puppy. Like any brand of car, it will work well for a while... the difference in a dog's quality will only be noticeable in the years to come. On the other hand, don't expect the moon; dogs aren't appliances, and if a puppy develops problems, try to understand that it's not possible to predict everything. They are living beings; the unexpected will always exist. Don't think it's a good idea to pay a puppy to take it away from a badly behaved breeder, because with your money, he'll breed twice as many as those unfortunates. Leave that puppy where it is to prevent others from suffering like it. If you have serious concerns, report it!

For all these reasons, we will always have plenty of time for those who have time for us. We will ask to be paid for our work, and everything will be invoiced regularly. We will always be reachable for any questions. We will avoid providing too many photos of small puppies, showing them to others, or choosing them before they are eligible for foster care. This is to avoid pandering to hasty people who aren't really dog lovers, since you can't say much or offer advice about a puppy that's too young. However, when the puppy moves home, we will provide a souvenir album of all the photos and details of the puppy's growth, because we don't want to hide, but rather avoid fostering morbid curiosity and impatience. A puppy should be chosen slowly because it deserves to be loved deeply and forever, so if someone is in a hurry, we prefer that they choose a different path than us.

We don't like exhibitors, a category that shouldn't exist, but that doesn't mean we'll breed ugly, useless, or unconscionable dogs. We simply consider them all beautiful because they're our children and desirable, but we won't charge more for those who indulge the tastes of some judge. Our job is the same whether we strive for the most beautiful puppy or the one who appeals to fewer people. We don't sell luxury cars, we don't sell lives, and we will never strive to please anyone's aesthetic tastes. Costs may vary slightly from litter to litter, depending on the difficulties encountered or the expenses incurred to produce those puppies, but they will never be astronomical or paltry.

We ask all those who adopt one of our puppies to sign a contract, committing to the same responsibilities we do towards their new families and the health of the species and the breed, should they breed. We will also be generous with advice for anyone who wishes to share this joy. We, the breeders, are the first to understand the joy of birth, of caring for them, of being mothers and fathers. How could we not help anyone who wishes to do the same? But as with all things, everything must be done well, if possible, and without rushing... We will forever be friends and a second family to all those who love animals as we do. We don't run a shop, so you can't just show up at the gate as if we were always open or had a butterfly collection to show you. We have many commitments with our dogs, so much care to provide them, and we must therefore first fulfill these, and then, by appointment, also show you the fruits of our labor. I know, it's often said in the industry that the ideal way to understand how boarding houses and farms work is to swoop in unexpectedly, and that would be true, as would be the case for any other category of workers to be able to monitor phone calls, conversations, private lives... but it's illegal as well as impractical.

Certainly, those who have a hard time meeting people don't project a good image. We always try to be as available as possible, but we also need to plan our lives, so if you were to suddenly drop by, please know that we would definitely be forced to send you home, wherever you've come from. Announcing a visit ahead of time is also a matter of good manners. We won't attack anyone who tells us they want to give a dog as a gift to their child; in fact, we appreciate children being raised to love animals, but as a parent, we'll ask them to take responsibility for the dog, and we'd also like to know the dog's life expectancy. They're not toys, they're living beings! We don't sell dogs to third parties without knowing them, and we require them to sign a contract stating that they're taking the dog "for themselves" and not for sale or material transfer to third parties.

We ask for the right of first refusal if someone no longer wants our dog, to prevent dishonest people we don't want to give dogs to from sending compliant friends in their place. We only give dogs to those who plan to keep them for life, not to those who plan to try them out as objects and then get rid of them if they don't suit us.

- Erica