Have I gone mad?
I'm afraid so. You're entirely Bonkers.
But I will tell you a secret,
All the best people are.
So you wanna do dog stuff?
First question, who hurt you? Why does this seem like a good idea? Do you need a list of less painful and expensive hobbies to try?
I'm joking, I'm joking... but also, have you thought this through?
Because for every wonderful day where you're thrilled with life and the choices you've made, there's about a week where you will have averaged 2 hours of sleep per night, had to clean up some kind of excretion from some part of your dogs body, and every time you check your bank account it's $200 lower than the last time... but you haven't even bought anything.
Still sounds fine? Are you already living that life as it is?
Alrighty then... let's continue.
Do we sell on Main Register?
The short answer is yes.
The long answer is... sometimes *asterisk-question mark?
Due to agreements with other breeders/stud owners, there are some litters where we simply cannot sell puppies on Main Register. Period.
Sometimes we can... with the approval of all involved.
And other times it's solely at our own discretion.
For arguments sake, lets just say in this hypothetical scenario it's up to us. So now you might wonder...
What are the terms?
Two things influence this:
- who are the dogs involved?
- who are you?
For some litters, the terms will be so strict it'll sound like a Backstreet Boys song (I don't care who you are, where you're from, what you did, you're getting a co-own) regardless of what your experience level is.
Other times, your time in the breed and your references will be the primary deciding factor in what kind of terms would be included in the agreement.
If you're brand new, metaphorical umbilical cord still attached, there's a 99% chance a co-ownership agreement will be required unless you strictly want to show, and the dogs pedigree will be marked as not-for-breeding as such. If you're local to us and we can give you advice and assistance that's fine, but if you're interstate or more than a few hours away we will also want you to engage with another breeder who can give you in-person advice and mentorship. Even if it's not a Border Collie breeder, just someone with substantial experience in a comparable breed is essential.
If you've been competing and/or breeding with your dogs for a while, but there's a pretty substantial gap between the quality of dogs you're already producing and the dog you're wanting to buy from us, a co-ownership agreement will still be required.
The very simple--and brutally honest--reason for this is that until we can see demonstrated proof that we do truly have a compatible vision for the breed, we won't be giving free-rein to others for them to potentially take the dog they've gotten from us and breed it to dogs that will produce embarrassingly poor quality offspring.
The progeny of the dogs we produced are a reflection on our breeding program too, not just whoever's prefix the litter is under. For that reason we may maintain the right to approve or deny breeding plans involving Tiek dogs.
If you've been around the block a couple of times, or maybe more, and we can see consistently demonstrated quality in your breeding program and the dogs you've kept back and/or sold to other show homes, there's a fairly high chance we won't require any formal agreement.
This "level" is not based on calendar years of involvement in the breed, rather, it's based on our personal impression of you and your knowledge level, based on our own evaluation and discernment.
"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training."
There are some who have been breeding and exhibiting for 20+ years and have not progressed past the level of a novice, despite the decades passing by. And there are others who have been very active over just a handful of years, and have far surpassed many of the other "veteran dog people" because they seek knowledge, opportunities for experiences, and in some instances there are people who are just innately gifted in the art aspect of dogs.
We always ask for the basic respect of being consulted about the plans you have that involve the dog/s from us, and what the outcome of the litters were and where progeny are intended to be going, but there is a point where we don't impose restrictions if we're given enough reason to have faith.
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Odds are you'll know roughly where you fall in the grand scheme of things without needing to be told, but we are never backwards about coming forwards, so after a few interactions feel free to ask if you like.
FAQ's
Do we charge more for Main Register puppies?
Generally no.
Under some circumstances, most commonly if using frozen or imported semen, Main Register puppies may be at a higher price. In these scenarios pet puppies will still be at normal market value, but if another breeder wants to benefit from our investment and success in their own program we have no shame in placing a suitable price on those puppies.
After all, you're not forced to buy one from that litter. If you want those puppies specifically it's likely due to the "special" circumstances.
What if the dog doesn't "turn out"?
We cannot ever guarantee that a puppy will meet your expections or dreams. We can assess them from birth to 9-12 weeks old and give you the puppy we (and our collection of extremely experienced mentors) feel is likely going to grow into a dog worthy of being exhibited and bred from, but so much can happen that is outside our control.
Certain environmental factors like diet and exercise play a key part in how well a puppy will mature into an adult dog. We give advice based on what we have had the most success with, and if that advice is followed and the puppy still goes off the blueprint we will happily replace the dog with another prospect when a suitable litter is born (terms apply of course).
However if our advice is disregarded (to one degree or another) and the puppy matures differently to what we predicted, we will not make the offer of a replacement puppy. The same way your car isn't covered by warranty if you put the wrong fuel type in it and drift it around a race track until the engine dies, the dog isn't under warranty if it's not maintained within specifications either.