RE: Why give away a 2 year old Lab
If there's any way you can reach the breeder, I would do so to find out why they stopped breeding him. As a small breeder of Cavaliers, that raises all kinds of red flags for me. If there is some kind of problem, you need to know about it. My concern is that a reputable breeder should have said something about why the dog was being let go.
We show our dogs in conformation and the breeding helps pay for our show habit. If we keep a puppy that grows up and is not good enough to show, we may put it up for adoption, but usually we breed it with other dogs that have strengths where the new one has weaknesses. However, if we have a puppy that has some type of congenital health problem, we will not breed that puppy and it will be put up for adoption. HOWEVER, the new family will be informed of the problem and the price will be adjusted accordingly. Most times the price is free to a good home (plus the cost of a spay/neuter) for a congenital problem. It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen.
Like Doc E said, 2 years is about the time we would START breeding our dogs. Another red flag.
huntnma, not intended to be a criticism, but we breeders can't keep everything. We have 7 dogs and are at the limit of what the City will allow for our hobby kennel license. When one of our dogs gets too old to breed or have a health problem as indicated above, we have to place it in a new home. Believe me, that is not an easy thing to do! We get attached to the puppies and have a hard time watching them go, but letting a dog go that we have had for 7 years is a hundred times harder. That's one of the things I really hate about breeding, but it has to be done; those are the ones where we really screen the potential families hard and actually put in the contract that they have to keep in touch with us. They will only go to local families, also.
Bruce
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