[oley]

Dear Madam,

Thanks for your message.
Please find our answer between your lines below..


Dear gentlemen, Nicolas Serac and Michel Boissard,

in the light of an escalating conflict on Russian Poodle Forum, which started with the advertisement you posted with the help of your interpreter Luba in search of a red apricot dwarf poodle puppy, I am writing you this letter in order to clarify the situation and, hopefully, resolve the conflict.



All this story is very senseless.




Let me introduce myself first. My name is Olga Bobrova, I am a great poodle fancier and an active member of the Forum since 2005. My nickname on the Forum is "oley".


Are you a breeder?

Back to our story: in early spring of 2008 Luba posted a message about your kennel looking to buy a red poodle puppy, and a link to your site. Immediately a question arose among the participants of the forum, and it was repeated several times: why us? Why look for a puppy in the far-away Russia, where the majority of breeding population is not Optigen-tested (due to the lack of testing facilities), We send the blood of our dogs to the States, can't they do that in Russia? when you have the entire EU and Scandinavia closely at hand with very decent show quality dogs to choose from? It's a well-known fact that poodle puppies in Russia cost just a fraction of the price of such puppies in Europe. Average price in France and Germany for a puppy is Euros 750, how much is a puppy in Russia? Unfortunately, your interpreter did not see the importance of this question and replied with the version of her own: "The Swiss breeder addressed me not because he wants to buy a cheap puppy, but simply because in Switzerland and in France there are no or almost no red toy and dwarf poodles, while demand for puppies is increasingly growing". No comments...

As you certainly know, red has been recently recognized as an official colour. Therefore in Europe and Scandinavia, there are not so many red breeders. Red were considered as apricot till last year and not very much liked. Furthermore the few reds we could find in EU have a genotype BB or Bb as they were selected to have a black nose according to the official standard where black nose is preferred for apricot. We want to breed this red with a brown partner in order to try to betterize the brown colour. That is why we asked for a red with brown nose (genotype bb) in order to have no black puppies out of this matching. Reds are seldom and reds with brown nose even more. And we are looking all around the world, not only in Russia. The price of the dog is definitely not our concern.

As an experienced breeder you have surely heard about many cases of cruel puppy businesses all over the World, with puppy mills being discovered even in civilized countries like Canada, USA and Spain. This has taught responsible breeders all over the World to be very cautious when somebody from another country approaches them expressing interest in their puppies, and it is only commendable that Russian breeders wanted to know more about a potential buyer in the distant and unknown Switzerland.

I must be honest and admit that it was me and not Natasha, who first made a conclusion that the kennel in the advertisement was very likely to be a puppy mill. I was basing my judgment solely on the information that you made available on your public website. And here's how it looked to a casual visitor:

We are here in Switzerland official breeders recognized by the Swiss Kennel Club. As you certainly know, Switzerland has probably the most restrictive regulations regarding animals in the world. And the Swiss Kennel Club has even more restrictive regulations than the swiss laws. There are no puppy mill among official breeders in Switzerland

One thing I noted was the fact that you have systematically bred your bitches on consecutive heats. One bitch, Maia, was bred at least 3 times in a row, producing puppies on 29/10/2001, 04/08/2002 and 13/04/2003. Every caring breeder knows that such practice harms the health of a bitch, and this fact contradicted your statement that health of your dogs is of utmost importance to you.

About Maia, the bitch with the 3 litters in a "short" period. The 3rd litter was not planned. It was an accident and when we found out she was going to have puppies, it was too late to have her abort. Black-brown matching are not allowed without a special authorisation in Switzerland and we got a sanction for this litter from the Swiss Kennel Club. Beside that, the Swiss kennel Club regulations allow two litters in two calendar years, five litters for a bitch in all her life and 9 years as a limit for being matched. This happened just once and by accident and you can't deduct from it and say we have systematically bred our bitches on consecutive heats.

On your website you have also stated that you breed for longevity. This statement can hardly be confirmed since your kennel is only 10 years old, which made it sound too much like an advertisement trick.

Health is our main concern. We were among the first breeders in Europe to test our dogs for PRA genetically and to publish all the results. We have been testing patella luxation long before this was an obligation. Longevity is our goal and we select healthy dogs for our breeding program. We have been breeding in our own name since 1997 but Nicolas Serac has been involved in poodles since he was teenager.

Furthermore, several Forum participants have noted that the majority of your breeding stock not only do not have any show titles, but are also built too differently from the existing breed standard.

In Switzerland, before breeding with a dog, the dog must be selected for it. The dog is examined by two official judges of the breed. Almost all our dogs have been selected by Mrs Mach. You can be therefore assured that all our dogs match the official standard. And the dog is not only selected regarding his outside appearance but also for his temperament and health. And we don't have the best relations with Mrs Mach as most people already know.

If this is not show quality breeding, then what is it? These and other observations had led me to the conclusion which I voiced on the Forum. My sole intention was to help Russian breeders make informed decision, since not all of them speak or understand foreign languages.

Our breeding philosophy is to produce healthy and confident dogs. We are building a line and not producing champions out of champions just to satisfy our ego in a ring. Our main concern is to have our clients satisfied. This doesn't mean that beauty is not our concern. We only prefer to spend our money for our dogs than to give it out in exhibitions. Nevertheless all our dogs have always got an excellent when they have been exhibited. And this without being dyed(colored)! And just if you don't know it, the father of the dwarf who got the RCACIB in Lyon (french championship, the standard of poodle belongs to France) last week end is Sem'antique Brown Prince des Cerbois de la Cheneveyre, a grand son of Maïa.

Here again, your interpreter could have asked you to shed some light on the issue, but she did not. Instead, she asked the forum members a question as "an ordinary buyer" (how she called herself): "What are you talking about? Explain it to me, your ordinary buyer, who are millions in count, what you mean by saying that [the dogs there] are not superb and nothing good would grow out of them", thus deliberately provoking the increasing amount of details of what particularly people disliked in what they saw on your site.

To make the matter worse, the bad reputation of this lady on Russian Poodle Forum has brought additional spice to the discussion. Over the time this lady has gained the reputation of an ignorant person, who knows nothing about breeding, health or other kynological issues, who doesn't listen to the voice of reason and on top of it has a habit of bluffing and bringing people to fight.

Several weeks prior to your advertisement there was another heated discussion, in which several members of the Forum were trying to explain to Luba, your interpreter, the harm of pet shops and of impulsive decisions to buy puppies there (which she thought was a noble thing to do!). No matter how we tried and how many informed arguments we brought in, we could not convince her. Now imagine, a few weeks later we see an advertisement posted by her, where some Swiss kennel is looking for a presumably cheap Russian puppy...

Regarding Luba, we can't agree with what you write. Luba knows a lot about poodle. She is straight, don't accept any compromises and fight against poodle merchants. She is definitely very disturbing for those.

oley добавил(а) [date]1213302236[/date]:
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All that said, I do not understand why you accuse Natasha of badmouthing you, and even worse, say all these bad words about her publicly. She is too well-mannered and polite to redirect your anger to me or other members of the Forum, who participated in the discussion. With due respect I would like to say that nobody on this forum had any intention to stipulate you, harm your reputation or the name of your kennel. The assumptions were based on the information you published on your website plus the information (or the lack of it) provided to us by your interpreter.

Please be assured that it is in the best interest of all poodle fanciers on our Forum and outside of it that this gross misunderstanding be resolved in a civilized manner. Maintaining mutual understanding in inter-cultural communications can be difficult at times... Let us do our best to overcome these difficulties!

We would highly appreciate the publication of your message together with our answer but we would appreciate even more if Natascha could publish a rectification of her words.

Sincerely yours,
Olga Bobrova

Best regards
Michel Boissard - Nicolas Serac

PS: Moderators of the Russian Poodles Forum have temporarily closed the topic with your advertisement and another related topic on the Forum, because the discussion went totally out of hands. Should you decide to reply publicly to this message, I would ask the moderators to reopen the topic to publish both my message with a complete translation of it into Russian and your reply to it. If your reply would be in English, I guarantee to translate it into Russian accurately and fully.