In my experience, it's almost impossible to "educate"
friends or dog people you meet when you try doing it
on purpose. I meet people on walks frequently who, when
I compliment their dog, always want to talk about how
they're thinking about breeding her when they don’t
really know what is involved in breeding a dog.
This is my personal approach to handling these people-
it has worked well with my way of interacting with people.
I don’t come across friendly when I try to educate,
but if I try to approach a person on their level I have
much better results.
When someone says they are thinking about breeding
their dog, I get wide eyed and say "Really?! I
heard it was so expensive!"
Their response is usually quizzical and I respond with
something like:
"Yeah, a friend of mine tried to breed her dog
and they barely broke even! - Actually, they lost money
on it because two of the puppies got infections and
they ended up with a several hundred dollar vet bill"
The response is usually surprise, but I keep talking.
"So, you've had her checked and her hips are okay?"
Usually they answer "what check?" or "no."
"Oh no! I heard that if you don't pay to have
the tests and get the papers to prove their hips are
healthy you can't even charge very much for the puppies."
To which I get a concerned look.
But... I mean, if you don't have a job and can get
the tests and everything... Oh, you have a job? Really?!
I heard that it’s really common for the mom to
reject a puppy and you have to spend days feeding it
around the clock. Sheesh- can you imagine that much
trouble? Ugh!
And then I add "I thought about breeding Annie
(a lie, of course) but then I found out about how many
more medical problems unspayed dogs have-- I just decided
it was better to spay her and not have to deal with
heats and hormones and stuff.
And then before I walk away I mention to be sure to
read up on breeding if they do decide to do it because
if you don't know the signs of a problem with the mother
you could lose all the puppies or, end up with a mother
requiring an emergency spay and several hundred dollars
of vet bills for her.
Basically I just try to turn it into a conversation
where it doesn't seem like I'm educating them- and try
to make it a scare job, I guess. Giving people the worst
case scenario works- I think. I just try to boil it
down to money (because, sadly, that's usually what it's
about for them) and If it's a common breed, a lab or
something I usually add either that there are lots of
breeders around and it's hard to compete with them,
or tell them that the markets been flooded and they
might get stuck with a bunch of puppies.
