Canadian Survey of Small-Scale Dog Breeders Points to Strong Socialisation Practices, but Breeders Flag Regulatory Gaps

Researchers from the University of British Columbia's Animal Welfare Program and the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna have published a peer-reviewed survey of small-scale dog breeders across Canada, offering one of the more detailed pictures yet of how this part of the breeding sector operates day to day. The online survey, carried out between October 2024 and March 2025 and published in the journal Animals, drew 464 responses, of which 347 breeders confirmed they had purposely bred one or more litters; most were recruited through kennel clubs, breed groups and veterinary clinics.

The picture that emerged was of breeders keeping relatively few dogs each, with most breeding dogs living in the home and having free access to people, and around three-quarters regularly taken off the property for walks or outings. Breeders reported a caretaker-to-dog ratio of roughly one person per three dogs, and said they relied heavily on socialisation, exercise and training with their litters, practices they reported using more often than has been documented in previous studies of larger commercial kennels. The researchers also identified two broad groups among respondents: breeders closely tied to kennel club rules and competition, and a smaller, more independent group less engaged with formal bylaws.

Notably, it was the breeders themselves, not outside critics, who raised the sharpest concerns about the wider industry: profit-driven breeding and poor selection of breeding stock, including inadequate genetic testing, were the most commonly cited risks, alongside worries that current regulation fails to stop poor practice while adding burden to breeders already doing things properly. The authors caution that the sample is self-selected and self-reported, so the findings describe this group of engaged, largely kennel-club-connected breeders rather than the Canadian breeding sector as a whole. Even with that caveat, the study gives breeders and regulators elsewhere a useful, evidence-based starting point for discussing what good small-scale breeding practice looks like, and where oversight might better target genuine bad actors rather than the wider breeder population.