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A Day in The Life of a Breeder: Grief in the Whelping Box

Writer's picture: Linda PietarinenLinda Pietarinen

August 1st, 2024 by Sisko Linduska


Yesterday a tiny puppy died. He’d already been named Mickey because he looked like a mouse. There were a few times I thought the mother was going to eat him. She probably had the right instinct, but I intervened. With help, he struggled to nurse on her mother so I began giving formula with a syringe every two to three hours. He managed to take in enough to keep him alive but in hindsight, he was frail, extremely underdeveloped and was weak. 

I wonder if there was anything I could have done differently. Tube feeding was suggested but I was afraid to shove a tube down the throat of something so fragile. I wondered if I should have separated the neonate from it’s mother and siblings but could see the value of physical contact and the stimulation from them. I felt he needed to be with his womb-mates and mother, to keep that connection. If anything, it was only real thing he had in his short life of two days. 

So I cried. And my eyes still well as I write this. People prayed, gave suggestions and were there for me as I hoped Mickey would thrive. When it was time, I asked my husband to return him to nature so that whatever was left of him would go back to life. 

There were other puppies that needed care, including a three week old litter whose dam was the sister of the litter that just lost the tiny puppy. This was my community, held together by love. Being sleep deprived and emotional, I forced myself to tend to the needs of the mother’s and their broods. They settled well that evening and I recharged my mental battery. 

It wasn’t my first time losing a dog or puppy but it was the first time I’d dealt with a puppy that extremely small. My first conversations about him included, “He might not survive, he’s so tiny.” It was different from having my first standard poodle, at six month of age, die at the vet’s office because of an undiagnosed autoimmune disease. It was different than when a beautiful puppy was accidentally dropped and the vets couldn’t save him. If I don’t experience this as a breeder, how can I know my client’s pain when their dog dies? The fact that I do know, and allow my passion to imbed what I do, means I now know what ethical breeding means. 

The death of my first standard poodle was reeling. After nearly two years of grief, I mustered the fortitude to find my next poodle. Armed with a sad story, I began contacting breeders. Phone call after phone call I had my list of things I wanted in a “show dog” that I would eventually breed. I did everything as prescribed by the breeder. Low and behold producing my first litter. 

It sounds like a pretty picture. My female had her championship, all health clearances, and was bred to a stud with the same. It was a recipe for success! The same formula used by all the breeders that had gone before me. Who was I to question their expertise? 

In time and in each successive litter came the out of the blue phone calls of bloat, Addison’s, sebaceous adenitis, and other problems, some resulting in sudden death. The standard two year health guarantee usually protected me from having to replace a puppy and the vagueness of the burden of proof on the how the dog died were all designed to serve the breeder, not the client. Using wording like, “testable diseases”, “proved by necropsy”, and “before two years of age” were standard language in the written health guarantee. If the buyer of a dog cannot prove a dog died of a genetic disease or disorder, they have no arguable means of getting a refund or replacement puppy from the breeder. But that’s really not the worst part of it. 

There is something seriously wrong with a tradition of breeders passing down a system of breeding dogs that does nothing to improve their gene pool and change the fact that diseases have become fixed in purebred dogs. Testing isn’t enough because the disease that are the problem do not have a test for them. Pretty champions are not enough because almost any dog can be made to look pretty if it’s in good condition and in the case of poodles, quaffed to the nines!

A breed like the standard poodle variety needs diversity to dig out of the mid-century bottleneck inherently created by inbreeding to produce show type. I got off of that ferris wheel about fifteen years ago and learn something new with each litter, with each life that crosses my path. I am supporting other breeders who choose a path of conscious choice and want my clients to know that a lot of thought, consideration, and truth goes into every puppy that carries the name Finnesse.

The new litter born on July 29th was formally named "The Virtues" on August 1st, one day after the passing of Mickey Mouse. His surviving siblings are Justice, Faith, Hope, & Charity.


With Love,

Linda Pietarinen

Your Breeder at Finnesse Poodles

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