Happy Mother's Day to your dog's mum!

With Mother's Day this coming Sunday, families across the UK are once again making plans to treat their mums and thank them for the time and care she provided to her loved ones throughout the year. But have you ever thought about your dog's mum, who she is or was and where she lived when she had your puppy?

If you purchased your puppy from a reputable breeder answering these questions will be easy. You probably met her when you visited your puppy in their home for the first time. You saw her home environment, where the puppy was born. You met the humans who cared for her and her babies from way before they were born.

If, like me, you live with a rescue dog however, you probably know very little about your dog's mum. Sometimes, puppies are born into rescue when their mothers were picked up as strays, discarded or rescued already pregnant. In this case you know who their mother is but very little about what happened to her before she had her puppies. On rare occasions litters of unplanned puppies are handed over to rescues for rehoming but this is rare because most people see the opportunity to make money rather than prioritise the welfare of the puppies.

It is a sad truth that the majority of dogs that come into rescue were born in a low-welfare environment because all reputable breeders take the dogs who they bred back at any time if anything happens and the dog's family can no longer care for the dog. Even if for whatever reason the breeder can't care for the dog themselves they will do anything they can and use their contacts and networks to prevent the returned dog from ending up in rescue kennels. Of course, over the years there may no longer be any contact between the dog's humans and the breeder and in this case the dog's humans may not think of or be reluctant or too embarrassed to contact the breeder. However, with current UK microchipping laws, if chipped correctly, all dogs can be traced back to their breeder and the breeder contacted by rescues or vets if necessary. That's why it is so important (as well as the law) as a breeder to microchip AND register your puppies on the database before you hand them over to their (hopefully) forever families. Too many dogs enter pounds with microchips that contain no data. Whether that is deliberate or not is hard to say.

So, if you live with a rescue dog like I do, most likely their mum had her puppies while she lived with a backyard/inexperienced occasional breeder or on a puppy farm. It means when they came into rescue their mum's humans could not be contacted or, if they were, they were not prepared to take your dog back. There are many fantastic rescues out there that soften the blow but cannot take away the fact that most need to use a kennel environment rather than a home to house the dog until they can be rehomed. The best rescues operate with a network of foster carers who take the dogs into their homes but there are too few of these kindhearted and selfless people out there to make the transition easier for the dog. If you are in a position to foster a rescue dog, please do.

It's so easy to purchase a dog nowadays that a mouse click is sufficient. While most experienced dog guardians will agree that this is not the way to obtain a dog, it is easy to see how inexperienced first-time dog guardians may struggle to find the right information, fall prey of the impulse buy, click-of-a-button culture and buy a cute puppy much like they would buy anything else. Online. The widespread advertisement of puppies on the internet doesn't help either. As with much information online, accountability can be zero. Posters can say about the puppies what they want, traceability is difficult and it's easy to put up a smokescreen to hide some ugly truths. Some puppy dealers even rent homes to trick buyers into believing that the puppies were raised there and use random female dogs as mothers who are not even related to the pups.

That's why it is so important to purchase a puppy from a reputable breeder. Most prospective dog guardians recognise the Kennel Club as a seal of approval but sadly a puppy that is Kennel Club registered is not necessarily one that is well-bred and has been raised in a caring home environment. While this may come as a shock to some I know from my own breed, Old English Sheepdogs, that the majority of puppies registered with the Kennel Club are born on a big puppy farm in Wales. Now that the Kennel Club has also dropped its Assured Breeder Scheme, a premium membership for breeders that included inspections, it has become even more difficult to find a reputable breeder.

While Kennel Club registration should be the minimum for a puppy, a good start to look for a well-bred puppy is the breed clubs. All dog breeds in the UK (and elsewhere) have breeders and other representatives that have come together to form clubs that devote themselves to preserving the future of the respective breed. They include responsible breeders who not only health test but also often show their dogs to ensure that their dogs are not only physically sound but also have the right body conformation to ensure that when they are bred from the puppies are as healthy as possible. Breed clubs can be found on the Kennel Club website, with a searchable drop-down menu to find the desired breed. There is usually a website and a contact for each club.

If you have set your eyes on a Kennel Club registered puppy, ask the breeder for the puppy's pedigree name. With this name, it is possible to research the parents, the family tree and how healthy they all are. Again, the Kennel Club website offers an invaluable resource for this and I would urge all current and prospective dog guardians to make use of it to gain a deeper understanding of who their dog is and how healthy they are. I first started to explore this database after the untimely death of my previous dog Molly, when I began to research her pedigree that had been filed away for years before her death. That's when I found out it was fake and that she was most likely born on a Welsh puppy farm.

This database is a fantastic tool and should include a complete overview of all relevant health tests carried out for the respective dog, such as DNA tests (e.g. for eye disease) and screening schemes (for hips and elbows to avoid dysplasia). It also includes the inbreeding coefficient, which may sound alarming, but merely tells us how much the breeding dogs are related. It is important to remember that ALL pedigree dogs are inbred (related) by their very nature and that small population (rare) breeds have smaller gene pools.

Speaking of genes, let's not forget about the fathers! Most prospective dog guardians know they should meet the mother together with her puppies. But all puppies have 50% of their genes from their father, not just their mother. Hence it is advisable to meet not just the mother but also the father of your puppies to get a complete picture of the personalities of the puppies, meet the people behind the father dog and have another contact in the breed if needed. All reputable breeders will be more than happy to put you in touch with the father dog's humans.

However, it is not just nature but also nurture that makes a puppy and that is why the environment in which they are born and raised for the first few weeks is so important. No puppy is a clean slate. Yet this is something many people think and often the reason why they decide to buy a puppy instead of adopting an adult rescue dog who they assume has a lot of baggage. Poor living conditions on a puppy farm affect the mother dog not just physically but also mentally. Consistently heightened stress levels increase stress hormones in her body which are then passed on to the puppies in the womb. The puppies are stressed even before they are born. Once born, poor diet for the mother affects the baby's growth and lack of stimulation and fear of rough handling do not make for a well-socialised puppy. The mother dogs are often physically exhausted from being bred at every opportunity from their first heat until they are no longer productive. They are not health tested, nor are the dads, because that's too expensive. They are also not seldom mentally shut down, having usually been born on the puppy farm themselves. Even if they want to, many just cannot be good mothers. It is not their fault.

So this Mother's Day think of your dog's mum too. Do your research and don't be fooled by the puppy farmers and dealers who put on a show and mask the truth with glossy images of a cosy home and fake love and care. Think of the dads too. Stud dogs on puppy farms are condemned to a lifetime of isolation and neglect. They are only brought out when needed and then shut away again until next time. While ex-breeding mums are sometimes rehomed through rescues the dads rarely make it out alive. If you need any help or advice with buying a puppy or adopting a rescue dog please get in touch. Your dog's mum deserves it!