>>We found information from one breeder that sounded good, however we sent them an e-mail as was requested and have not heard anything since. My question to you fine folks, can anyone suggest a reputable breeder(s) in the eastern PA area? We are about an hour outside of Philadelphia near Allentown, PA. Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Andrew, There's nothing like personal references for breeders, particularly references from folks who had problems with their dog and received support from their breeders. Using the Berner-l with discretion for references is a good idea. Here's a story you might find interesting. A woman bought a dog from me several years ago and let me two and a half years later she wanted another. I told her I would not have pups available until later in the year. She came across a woman with a BMD pup in her community who was happy with her puppy. She contacted the breeder of that puppy and bought one. She was having some trouble with her first Berner and depression when the new pup entered the picture so she contacted me. Turns out she bought her second Berner from one of the most notorious puppy producers in her region of the country, a breeder about whom a number of reports of non-support including not supplying registration papers, have been reported to the BMDCA. So please be careful. In my experience, personal recommendations from someone I don't know whose research skills I don't know, are most valuable when they come from folks who had trouble with their dog and received support from their dog's breeder. In short while, the BMDCA will have available a Breed Stewards List which will include folks in our club who are breeders and/or owners who volunteer to help educate the public about the breed and availabilty of their pups. At this time however the list is not yet available and we encourage inquirers to network through regional BMD clubs to find breeders in their area of the country. Please recognize conscientious breeders are scarce in some parts of the country and it may be necessary, due to demand, to travel away from home several hundred miles to find the right dog for you. To contact the BMD clubs in your region of the country, find links and contacts for them at www.bmdca.org in the InfoSeries link within the article titled Clubs Resources and More. Memberships of each regional BMD club include conscientious breeders through whom you can network to locate pups which will be available in the next six months typically. Plan to send inquiries to a dozen breeders in order to find one or two who meet your own criteria of conscientiousness and availability within the timeframe you wish to work. There's more information to help inquirers identify conscientious breeders in the article titled Tips on Buying a Berner which is also found in the Info Series at the BMDCA.org website. Most inquirers want a list of "reputable" breeders, thinking they will have a better chance of getting a good quality dog from someone "approved" or licensed. While that might be true, in reality, dog clubs cannot police their memberships per se. So it's quite possible a breeder we "think" is reputable, actually is not. We won't find that out for some time. Meanwhile the buyers who placed trust in the less than reputable breeder's false "reputation" are mislead. It's preferable for inquirers to be provided with names of persons who breed who are members of clubs AND to be provided with a means to know and identify those things that distinguish conscientious breeders from others. I hope you'll find we've addressed these issues in the materials to which inquirers are directed at our website. Good luck in your search for the right dog for you! Ruth Reynolds public education co-chair, BMDCA
