Our mission is to produce premium family pets that are genetically healthy & structurally sound, fun to train, easy to live with, and last but not least, athletic & beautiful.
We want our dogs to have it all--beauty and brains! And we want them to live long lives, but more importantly, live with a very high quality of life.
We accomplish this by following a tried and true process that changes a little bit from time to time based on current research in the pet health industry.
What is Responsible Breeding?
We feel that responsible breeding prioritizes healthy, well-matched parents and excellent care for both dogs and puppies.
It's really as simple as that. Every responsible breeder has their own ways of doing what is right for their animals and customers.
But at the end of the day, being responsible means prioritizing our pets.
This means ensuring that we only breed healthy dogs with good temperaments, raising puppies in clean, loving environments, and placing them in responsible homes.
First, We Raise Our Own Breeding Dogs & Invest In Health Testing
We network with like-minded breeders across the United States to purchase puppies as "breeding prospects." We also keep puppies from our own litters sometimes to become future moms & dads.
A "breeding prospect" is a puppy or dog that we feel might make a good mom or dad based on their pedigree and current temperament. However, they remain a "prospect" until further evaluation and testing are done.
This means that when we invest in a new breeding prospect, there is no promise that our investment will result in future litters of pups.
Raising our breeding dogs from pups inside our home allows us to experience what our families will experience when they raise future puppies.
Once we decide that a dog is fit to breed based on temperament, it's time to begin health testing.
Sometimes, we start a dog's health testing early or as a younger pup, but we often wait to let the pup mature so that we can watch its temperament develop.
The term "fully health tested" means something different to every breeder & every pet buyer.
Rebecca Creek Retrievers designates an adult breeding dog as "fully health tested" if they have the following clearances:
DNA testing, meaning a full genetic profile of the dog's risk factors for passing on an inheritable disease
Hip clearances by either PennHIP or OFA
Elbow & Patella clearances by OFA
Cardiac clearance by OFA
Eye clearance by CAER (OFA)
You cannot take a dog to the vet and receive a "clean bill of health" or physical examination and compare this to "health testing." It is not the same. Proper health testing involves a qualified veterinarian taking radiographs of joints and doing thorough cardiac exams or eye exams. These radiographs and exam notes are then sent off to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, where a board of veterinarians then score these results and issue certificates.
Please do not mistake a breeder as ethical because they are claiming that their dogs are "fully health tested" because they've been examined by a vet. "Health testing" refers to the process of properly obtaining the certificates mentioned above. This is a costly and time-consuming process that must be done for every single adult dog intended for breeding.
We make all of our dogs' health testing certificates available to potential customers as we feel it is impossible to decide which breeder to support without viewing this real documentation. Health certifications are often forged and faked. Please verify health testing certificates from any breeder with the lab or organization that issued them!
Not all dogs pass their health testing! We have retired many breeding prospects before ever having a litter because their health testing does not meet our standards. Like retiring a breeding prospect due to temperament, this process is challenging and painful for us as breeders. We are attached to these dogs, and at this stage in the process, we have even more time, money, and unconditional love invested in these dogs.
Next, We Carefully Pair Our Breeding Dogs Together & Provide Ultra-Hands-On Prenatal Care
We match each breeding pair (sire & dam) based on which dogs will best complement each other in temperament, health, and structure, in that order.
Temperament is paramount when purchasing a family pet.
Many families can handle minor health issues that could arise over time, as these are often easily diagnosed and treated by a veterinarian. Temperament and behavior go deeper, we feel. Families looking for a household pet need a dog that has a reliable, predictable, safe, and easygoing temperament. So this is our number one priority.
Considering our attention to temperament, we indeed do not find it good practice to breed dogs with known health issues.
Health and structure go hand in hand and closely follow temperament when we choose breeding pairs. We pair dogs together with the highest chance of producing puppies with genetics equal to or superior to their parents. This is the only way we can secure a future for our pets and the future pets of all of our customers.
Prenatal care is paramount in creating the ultimate family companion.
Many of our breeding dogs are in Guardian Homes, and each pregnancy is a unique experience. Sometimes the female will stay with her Guardian Home during the pregnancy and then come to our home to whelp and raise puppies. And sometimes, we will take the female in to care for her throughout her pregnancy. Each female must be cared for following strict exercise, diet, & stress management guidelines.
Finally, We Rear Every Single Litter Inside Our Home Among the Beautiful Chaos of a Normal Family Household
It is important to us that each litter is raised inside our home. We are not opposed to properly using a well-designed kennel; however, rearing puppies inside our home works best for us & our families!
We like to be close to our litters at all times, so they are born and reared in our spare bedroom right across the hall from our bedroom.
We can accomplish a few things more easily by rearing puppies inside our home. First, we can maintain superior cleanliness standards. We don't want our home to smell like puppy poop, and puppies poop a lot! So, waste is cleaned up as soon as it hits the ground. Puppy laundry is washed at least two times a day, and their play area is deep cleaned & disinfected at least once daily.
Puppies that are raised in a clean environment are easier to potty train!
Second, we can observe the puppies' behavior more effectively inside our home. So many families say to us, "I don't know how you get anything done at home; I would be watching those puppies all day long!" Well, we do watch them all day long. It's so much fun! But we also observe on a deeper level and take notes daily to best match puppies to families.
Finally, we raise our puppies inside our home because we love the process!
We have often considered moving litters to a well-designed kennel because of the simplicity it could bring to our home life. However, we can't ever bring ourselves to do it. We would live inside the kennel to be close to the pups!
We love what we do, and even though having a litter of puppies inside our home can be a huge disturbance, we wouldn't change it for anything.
Our process of choosing, raising, testing, and managing our breeding dogs comes from over a decade of trial and error, education, and discovery.
And you get to reap these rewards when you bring home your Rebecca Creek Retriever!
