a lister posted that Backyard breeders and puppy mills have made our breed worse...have they?...well I for one am not sure I agree with this statement...as a matter of fact I disagree with it....BYBs and puppy mills no doubt do not produce AKC Champions, but does that automatically mean they are producing "bad" dogs...define bad!...perhaps I am producing bad dogs...in the over 30 litters I have produced in my life time I have never breed a champion...were these all bad dogs...did I all by my lonesome make the breed worse?...define "worse"...I strongly agree with the rights of BYBs and Puppy Mills to continue producing dogs..I won't get into the reasons why in this post, but if you think about it or care to, you should be able to figure it out...and how accessible do we "Qualified Quality" breeders make our dogs to the general public...it is my opinion that we "quality breeders" do more to KEEP the BYBs and puppy mills in business!....look at all the terms and conditions many put on the contracts to buy their dogs....and heaven forbid if a pet person wants to buy a show dog but not show him, and these co-owner terms, might as well sign a pre-nup...and some folks have background checks that ask more questions than the federal government...I am not saying any of these things are bad but I'll bet the folks selling out of the mills don't put folks through all the extra red tape dogs....not trying to get anyone to change how they do business....but make sure you look at the big picture....to steal a phrase from my good friend Kathaleen Strong..."but what the hell do I know".....Ed Hill ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2005. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://www.showgsd.org ============================================================================