Cabela's Puppy Central - update Hi, The guy Mike who sent out the original post about Cabela's and their Puppy Central went to the event this weekend. Here is what he had to say: This weekend is one of the "Puppy Central" weekends at Cabela's so I thought I would avoid the chores on the farm and go up and see the process in person. I was actually hoping that it would be better in person than it sounded on paper. It was their tent sale weekend and it seemed like a billion people were there. I hate crowds, but I found a parking space and ventured in. Here is what I found. The Good: It was a beautiful day; 82 degrees, blue sky with big puffy clouds and a nice breeze. It would have been a perfect day for an agility trial or to be home mowing the lawn. At first I wondered if they had actually canceled it, as all the signage that had been up the week before was absent now. Then I saw some dogs being walked in the grass out in front of the grand entrance to the store. There were fewer litters than I had heard there might be. Nine different breeders with a total of about 35 pups. Breeders came from 10 to 70 miles away. Ages ranged from 5 weeks, 5 days to 17 weeks. One breeder was selling 3 different breeds; labs, 13" beagles, and Visulas. 3 more with Labs, one with Weimeraners, two with German shorthair pointers and one with english pointers. There were also a few adults dogs on hand, some of which were the dam or sire to some of the pups. I met some nice people and had some good conversations about hunting and training dogs. I spent time with each of the nine breeders, in total about 2 and a half hours. I saw lots of photos and learned a lot of history about the dogs and their linage. In all, most of the pups looked fat and healthy. I would classify most of the breeders as "backyard breeders", as in "I have a nice bitch that I hunt, and I breed her to my buddy's dog who has a lot of fancy hunting titles." One fella was clearly what I would call a "hobby breeder", who had competed in club sponsored hunt tests with good success and had carefully chosen a stud that had numerous field titles and had 9 breed points. He was the only breeder who had both OFA and CERF on both parents and had all the paper work with him. He was clearly proud of his pups. This owner was clearly screening potential buyers in the same way I would. All the pedigrees I looked at were AKC registry. Lots of questions, no urgency to sell a pup to anyone. One person was only willing to sell a pup to a hunting home and reported that he was turning away pet homes. The woman with the pups just shy of 6 weeks old, was taking deposits, but the pups had to be picked up at her home when they were 8 weeks old. I over heard 2 people telling a friend that they had had trouble selling their puppies through other avenues and thought they would "give this a try". I did overhear someone that seems to be involved in the Wiem Club or perhaps rescue doing an excellent job counseling the Wiem breeder on more appropriate means of selling pups. She was firm, but not hostile and hopeful had some success in educating this breeder. The Bad: Of the 9 breeders, one had OFA on both parents and could produce the paperwork. (another said he did, but was vague "Yeah, they all have good hips" and did not have the paperwork). 3 people had OFA on the stud, but not on their bitches. Only one had CERF on the parents, most people did not even know what that was. No one knew what Penn Hip was. No one did hearts. Only one had micro chipped his pups (guess who?) This same gentleman had also had elbows done. 3 responded with "We don't really have hip problems/eye problems in our dogs/breed, so there is not a need to do those kind of tests." One of the litters was admitted to be an "accidental" breeding of a 16 month old male with a 3 year old bitch. He used this to excuse his lack of OFA on the male, but the bitch did not have any genetic testing either. Only two asked me anything about my home or dog experience. Everyone was willing to sell me a pup. One woman admitted that her dogs did not hunt, but this was "a good place to sell pups." The Ugly. Two breeders were willing to knock down the price when I asked. Of the 9
breeders, only 4 had what I would consider adequate shelter and water for a hot, sunny day. Several had the dogs out in the open in x-pens without any shade. One had 3, 16 wk old Wiems in a metal crate with no shade or water for the 2 hours I observed him. For the 2 and a half hours I was there, only 3 gave their dogs water. Several had water sitting there, but not accessible to the pups during those 2 hours in the sun. One person fell into what I might call a "breed for profit", or small puppy mill category. He was selling 3 different breeds and his card lists 9 different breeds that are available at his kennel. He had a large banner with prices listed in bold. The pups were on elevated, wire bottom rows of pens with hinged tops for easy access. He was clearly there to sell and avoided detailed genetic hx questions. I saw 2 pups sold to homes that clearly were pet homes and had no intention to hunt. (I only mention this, because Cabela's promotes that this is a service to hunters.) As far as I could find out, Cabela's plans to continue to offer this program the 2nd weekend of each month for the summer and into fall. Summery: Cabela's may have written policys for their puppy sellers, but they clearly do not police them. They claim "We believe that overall, our standards are outstanding, and that we are committed to the welfare of the animals." Do you agree? Susan Ablon
