Argh

I was speaking to a woman today, she mentioned she had a cavalier & I said I had 5 dogs at home.
" oh really ? because were going to breed our cav, are any of yours boys"

Her vet had told her it was better for her girl to have a litter before speying ( ARGH !! ) & she wasn't going to bother registering the pups & would just sell them cheap as she only wanted pets ( she seemed to think that made her plans sound better)

I tried to tell her about all the health problems , how cavs are so complicated,etc but she didnt really listen. & It was hard not to sound too preachy or she'd just think I was an over the top control freak.

Maybe someone should write a book specifically on breeding cavs PROPERLY. People might take a little more notice of something in print than a stranger on the street

I think that for any breed, there are more 'private' breeders having one or two litters than informed ones. I must admit that before getting into the breed, I'd thought that a puppy from a proper caring home was better than one from a 'breeder' , ie someone who uses kennels, believing that care was the most important thing. This was probably because I'd always been lucky to have long-lived robust springers, a rescue collie and,as a child a long-lived peke (she was from a small terraced house but I think they may have been show people-I was only 8 at the time).

I wonder whether the lady had a nutty vet or whether she was refering to advice given back in the days when anaesthetics weren't as safe as they are, now. Just three years ago, I was chatting to a neighbour, whom I got to know as she once had springers. She was thinking of getting a westie , as her next door neighbours have one and the conversation turned to spaying . She told me that the westie, like her springers would have a litter first, because her vet recommended that. In her case, I assumed that she was refering to the vet she had when she had the springers, some twenty years ago, but you never know.

She was only a youngish woman & said they'd spoken to her dogs vet ( the dog is around 18 months)

It is just pathetic that there are still vets giving this sort of 'advice' (you can bet it ISN'T a vet tasked with going into the local pound each week to lethally inject dozens of healthy young 'surplus' dogs that come from these casual litters from backyard breeders ).

I would like to see these same vets actively taking in, sheltering and rehoming *every single unwanted dog and stray* given to them.I find in Ireland it is mostly old vets or old country vets (in particular) that still think this is good advice.

Sadly there will always be people ready to damage a breed through casual breeding. Everyone says it is 'just one litter, for a few pets, for friends and family' but those casually bred dogs and their genetic issues -- most of them likely still locked into the genes waiting for the next generation or two -- are every likely to be themselves bred for 'just one litter, for pets, for family and friends' and before long, you have mitral valve disease so endemic in a breed that there will be no way ever to fully eradicate it -- the sad situation with cavaliers.

All you can do is try to be helpful and informative but as the woman has the support of a vet like that there's probably little chance they will change their mind. With any luck maybe they won't find a stud.