If somebody isn’t willing to pay $150 to learn how to breed correctly, how will they pay $30 for one class in a show to get points for their dog, and how will they pay for all the Vet Bills, Stud Fees, and a quality food.

Unresponible people breed for money, so the classes are low because only the responible breeders go.

I think there are plenty of experienced breeders out there already. We don’t need any more…..that’s just MY opinion though.

I do think that a seminar would be very beneficial to people who are absolutely set on breeding. You can’t teach ethics however so there will always be BYB’s unfortunately.

No, I wouldn’t even attend one for free, because I will never be a dog breeder.

I am not interested in breeding for several reasons – health risks to the dogs, the time and money needed to do it right, and overpopulation chief among them.

I CAN almost see myself going just for the sake of gaining knowledge though. Learning new things about the dog world is always interesting. But I would not take what I learned and put it into practice, because I will never breed any animal in my care, no matter how much I know about breeding.

Personally, I don’t think I would ever get into breeding. I would be too worried about the possibility of injury and death to the b*tch.

I think it would be interesting to go anyways though, and $150 is not at all unreasonable. The attendance is probably going to be low because wanna-be breeders already think they know it all. I know you read what these people write on this site… unbelievable the things they spew out of their mouths. They have no idea, and don’t care for anyone to correct them.

These people are ignorant, and most likely, don’t even know that such a seminar is going to happen since they don’t bother TRYING to learn. They don’t belong to breed clubs, and they don’t have mentors. They go about it in all the wrong ways, and there is no way they will be “told what to do” by a seminar.

I saw a talk given by her at our Nationals a couple of years ago. It was excellent, and if she was appearing anywhere near me for $150 (for two days yet! wow!) I’d be there for sure. I’d say that’s a heck of a deal.

$150 is really reasonable for a 2-day seminar.

I’d definitely pay to learn from Pat Trotter! She’s one of the greats of dog breeding.

I wonder if she’s got anything to offer to cat, horse, etc. breeders? I bet she has. Maybe you could ask her and advertise to them, as well.

When I first saw your question, I thought “Hmmm… probably not much, since I can read books and have some really knowledgeable friends I can consult–all for free.” I wouldn’t pay hundreds of dollars to learn from some random person about breeding, but I would definitely pay $150 to hear from Pat Trotter.

It is very simple to breed dogs.
Just Google it and you can read all you need about it in 10-15 minutes.
I bred tiny, long haired Poms for 5 years and was very successful at it.
Mailnly, you just have to know when to inbreed and which dogs to use.
The rest is common sense, ie, picking only the best looking dogs if you buy from the outside snd checking the size, color, hair lengths, etc. of the line they came from.
If the breeders don’t have that info, they are just hobby breeders and you shouldn’t mess with them.

It would depend on who was teaching it, what their credentials were, and what their level of knowledge and experience was as compared to mine.

Yeah…I think the attendance is low because of people like redriverfollow who think breeding is something they can learn about in 15 minutes off Google.

Most people don’t realise how much dog breeding entails. Look at redriverfollow’s answer. It epitomises my point so well that I’m not even sure if he was being sarcastic. People think it’s just about picking pretty colours and putting two dogs together, so why should they pay $150 for that?

It’s a shame, really.

The last seminar I went was a grooming and handling seminar for shelties. It was two day seminar for $150. I don’t mind to pay the price to attend these seminars, including breeding. I would love to go one of these seminars.
Honestly, bybs will not attend any of these seminars because for them, they don’t need these money wasting classes. Their goal is to maximize the profits.

If I truly wanted to get into breeding responsibly, definitely! It’s definitely worth it because GOOD breeders CARE about their dogs and WANT to help breed the best (unlike BYBs who really don’t care about anyone but themselves).

$150 for a seminar is pretty much a going rate for most of what I have seen. I’m doing a herding seminar in April for that price, for the novice handler and dog, and my trainer is doing advanced for $200.

I think the price is very reasonable considering what you can learn from it. Tho, I will say that with a good breeder as your mentor, and if you are looking to breed their lines some day, you are likely going to find a lot of the same info, as well as things specific to your breed of choice.

But for a general knowledge and understanding, I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to spend that to learn more. The reason you won’t get much of a turn out is simply because the BYB don’t run in dog circles and so, frankly, they won’t know it’s going on… not that it’s likely they would care if they did.

And to the poster who thinks that you can learn it all from the internet, that’s just crazy talk. There is a world of information you won’t find on the net and it’s a bad idea to think the internet is a sufficient place to learn something that requires such extensive knowledge. You might have gotten lucky and didn’t have any pups die, but not all go that way.

$150 is CHEAP!!!

Seriously, I don’t even want to think about the thousands of dollars I’ve put into training seminars (sometimes including a flight and hotel when I really NEEDED the information being presented).

You can learn a lot by reading everything you can get your hands on… but sometimes face to face learning and hands on practice really are the best way… (A Puppy Puzzle seminar by Pat Hastings being a good example.. or a Reproductive Seminar by Dr. Hutch being another one).

I’m not a breeder and don’t intend to ever breed. However, if this seminar were available in my town, I’d go — if nothing else than to be able to offer advice and resources to those who do choose to breed.

$150 for two days is beyond reasonable. I’m sure several people spent that much on Christmas gifts for one person on their list.

I find it difficult to believe attendance would be low…I wonder if it’s a time thing (8 hours for 2 days), a timing thing (right after Christmas), or a money thing (come on, a dog’s pregnancy would be 61 more days than the time this seminar took)

I think the real reason is that people really DO think they already “know it all”