XL
How I hold up
How to Find a Reputable American Bully Breeder
Measured against the things that actually separate a real breeder from a reseller, here is where my own program sits, including where it falls short.
A breeder worth buying from will name their vet to you, put the dam on a live call, tell you plainly how many litters they run, take the dog back whenever its life goes sideways, and turn you away when a puppy would not suit you. The price, the slickness of the website and the certificate in the drawer tell you remarkably little by comparison. So rather than hand you a generic checklist, I will run my own program past each of those and let you grade it.
The things that do separate a real breeder from a reseller
- Who does the veterinary work? Mine is Bell Rock Veterinary Clinic here in Sedona, and every puppy is examined there before it travels. The number is published so you can start with the hardest check of all.
- Will they put the dam and the puppy on a live call together? The dam lives in this house, and I will show you both of them on the same call, at whatever hour works for you.
- How many litters in a year? Occasional ones, and only ever one at a time, because the raising is the piece that cannot be rushed through.
- What happens if it does not work out? I’ll take back any dog I’ve bred, at any point in its life, with no time limit and no questions asked. A high-volume seller will not put that on the table, because to them it reads as a liability rather than a line in an advert.
- Will they ever tell you no? A breeder who asks about your household and is prepared to say a puppy is wrong for it is one who cares where the dogs end up.
The things that look reassuring and prove nothing
- A high price. It signals a marketing budget at least as often as it signals a better dog.
- Registration papers. They log parentage, not health and not quality. More on that here.
- A polished website. Anyone with a card can buy the template I am sitting on.
- A health claim you cannot check for yourself. If you cannot phone someone and confirm it, treat it as marketing until you can.
So, honestly, where do I land
I clear all five of those first checks, and I have handed you the vet’s number to prove the first one. Where a stricter buyer would mark me down: I do not screen or certify the parents. No hip scoring, no genetic panel. There is a general veterinary examination and there is daily observation of the litter from birth by the one person raising it, and that is the entire extent of it.
If a certified program is what you are after, go and buy from one that genuinely runs it. That is a perfectly reasonable thing to want, and I would far sooner say so plainly than smudge the line to keep you reading.
Every puppy, the same terms
The figure on the card is the figure, with nothing bolted on at the close. Examined by Bell Rock Veterinary Clinic before it travels, sent home with a written health record and enough of its food to change over gradually, and delivered anywhere in the country, by road or by a nanny who carries the puppy in the cabin and never in a cargo hold.
I don’t screen or certify the parents and won’t claim I do. What I do is have every puppy examined by Bell Rock Veterinary Clinic before it leaves, and the dates go on the record that travels with the dog.
Ask me anything
The awkward questions included, and that goes for a puppy you are weighing up from somebody else as well.