Editor's note, although this is not about Australian Terriers a lot of the thoughts and ideas can be applied to any breed. Reprinted with permission

    For those who think this is a test question and that the answer is obvious, here is a challenge.  If you have never bred dogs I would like you to think about the people you have known who have; what category do they fit in? And if you breed Rhodesian Ridgebacks try to categorize yourself.
    As a Rhodesian Ridgeback person, I choose to be a professional breeder, NOT a fancier, but sometimes it is very difficult to tread that path. My frustration with the other people who breed my breed stems from my failure to understand the attitudes and decision making of the fanciers, who outnumber the professionals about eight to one. I am almost never at odds with the professional breeders; even when we do not agree, we have a good deal of respect for each other as we seem to have similar goals.
    Having been involved in dog showing and obedience trialing and training for 33+ years, I have had many relationships with dog people who breed. I can state categorically that the good done in a breed, OR the damage, is directly in proportion to the number of professional breeders active in that breed.
    Contrary to what a great number of people seem to think, it is the professional dog breeder who does the best for his breed. His or her goals are long-term, not subject to whim, and not vulnerable to the temptation of shortcuts. And usually his dedication to this breed is just somewhat short of fanatical.
    So now that I have your hackles up or have you completely confused, let me define terms.
    Fancier or professional breeder; who is which?

It has nothing to do with the number of litters one has bred, or the number of champions or Best In Show winners produced, or the number of breeding bitches one owns.
     What is the difference?
    Simply this! A fancier is a person who breeds dogs for HIS fancy, and his or her own purposes, somewhat similarly to what originally occurred in Africa, when numerous people had their own Ridgeback packs, one breeding for guarding game preserves and ranches, another breeding for hunting and coursing antelopes, and another with an eye on hunting birds.
    A modern example of a fancier is that person who is always looking for that "great" dog, the Best In Show winner. You have heard the comment, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet a prince." That is very often what the fancier does; he produces LOTS of average and below average dogs in his quest for the number one. And he MAY produce an occasional "flier" who for him will justify the consistent mediocrity of the rest. Of course, the irony is that this dog will never breed true, being a prince out of two frogs.
    The fancier is much more likely to breed his bitches to the number one ranking dog in his breed knowing how easily the puppies are likely to be sold, to people who think exactly like he does, totally disregarding the poor qualities that the number one dog may have or produce, in hopes of getting the Best in Show winner.

    The fancier usually does not have plans for his second and third generation. He does not have a game plan or a goal other than the production of top WINNING DOGS, who may not necessarily be top quality specimens for their breed.
    He is likely to bore you to death with accounts of his progeny's show records and wins, often losing touch with his pets and dogs who do other things for a living, like obedience competition, tracking, therapy, coursing, or search and rescue work.
    He is likely to pooh-pooh the use of Rhodesians for obedience competition, etc. often noting the breed's lack of potential for obedience training. He may comment on how stubborn or stupid or hard to train his dogs are, as if those are Rhodesian qualities instead of faults within his line.
    The fancier seldom does in-depth research of his own breeding stock or what he is breeding to. He may not even be aware of the back-ground of the bitches he uses his stud does on. I remember the frustration of a breeder whose top-winning dog had sired deaf puppies. Months later he still was not certain where the terrible problem had come from. But I knew, and I felt it my breed responsibility to tell him even though I do not have dogs of his lines. Liking the breeder, and knowing how I would have felt in that position, I felt that the information that I had discovered was essential to him AND to my knowledge of my breed, even though my dogs do not carry those particular genes in their background.
    And that is why, the fancier, for every "Ten" he may produce, will inundate his breed with a great number of threes and fours. My question; who wants to buy those inferior specimens? It is no wonder that so many actual pet queries are from people who mistakenly feel that they have to pay show price to get a decent looking dog.

    The fancier never knows how much it costs him to breed, and tends to charge lower prices for his dogs than the professional breeder who KNOWS to the dime how much his dogs cost to produce.  When the fancier breeds to an expensive number one show dog, he will usually adjust the prices of the puppies higher because he bred to a famous, highly advertised dog, even if the puppies are not top quality.
    The professional, on the other hand, will price his puppies on their actual quality, and not their parents show records, or lack of them. In the professional's litter there may not be a pick-of-the-litter male at all, or there may be three totally equal, but different, pick-of-the litter bitches.
    The fancier usually lacks in-depth knowledge of his own dogs faults and good points, and is unable to pinpoint where these traits come from and how they are inherited.
    The fancier's opinion of his litter's success or failure is often based on the number of superficially good traits. Example: "I had a gorgeous litter with thirteen perfect ridges out of thirteen, and NO dermoids. Best litter I ever had." I often want to tell the fancier that perfect rides and lack of white do not define a fine specimen of a Rhodesian Ridgeback.
    The fancier's goal is short-term. He is breeding for that spectacular dog he is going to keep, and as a result, he will seldom sell his top dogs to amateurs.  He will consistently go to great lengths to put them in show homes, sometimes to the detriment of the dogs.  He will excitedly sell his top dogs to show people who will have them shown professionally or campaigned, possibly turning away the good-intentioned nobody who will make the dog first a pet,

and will show it, but perhaps not with the commitment and financing of the highly competitive show person.
    The fancier will keep a poorly temperamented dog in his breeding program solely because it is a champion, disregarding the long-term damage it can do to the breed and to his own breeding program.
    The fancier is unlikely to supply an in-depth guarantee of his dogs and will not back them with conviction. He may not take back an unwanted one, or help to place it. He may not be good at replacing unhealthy dogs, or paying vet bills that his errors have let to.  When questioned, he may consistently deny knowledge of problems, or temperament problems.  They are PERFECT.
    The fancier will choose for his bitch a famous dog from a mediocre litter before he will breed her to a good dog from an outstanding kennel. He will not understand that a dog from an outstanding litter and parents will produce better dogs. He will not realize that a nine from a litter of fours will produce "a lot of frogs", and that conversely a six from a litter of eights will produce a lot of eights.
    The fancier seldom will go to other bloodlines for the things he needs in his breeding program, and will never acknowledge the qualities of dogs or lines other than his own - UNLESS they are winning big-time.
    The fancier suffers from tunnel vision about so-called faults in his breed. In Rhodesian Ridgebacks it translates to avoiding the dogs with excessive white, excessive size, or atypical but acceptable colors. Many times it involves choosing a stud dog who is safe because he produces good ridges, good heads, or red color, rather than breeding to a dog who might produce excessive white but terrific movement or temperament which is needed by the bitch in question.

    The fancier will settle for the status quo before he will dare to try to improve his line based on long-term goals for the breed.  If his breed has become known for its problem with straight shoulders, he will accept the inevitability of straight shoulders, rather than courting the criticism of other fanciers for daring to try to change things.  So why should he settle for a straight shoulder if there is a dog in his breed that almost never produces it in HIS puppies? Why not take the risk and breed to the dog? "If it's not broken, don't fix it," is the fancier's attitude, and it further translates to, "We're winning consistently, so we must be doing it right; our breeding program must be excellent."
    The show ring should not be the ultimate arbiter of quality, but for most fanciers it is. It is their god.
    Whether you win or lose in the ring should not determine your breeding program; many inferior and very common dogs are are highly advertised and campaigned should not be bred to. But the fancier will not seek out the top producing dog who is NOT a champion, or popularly accepted within his breed, and will be mystified by professionals who do.
    A particular dog comes to mind - a Saluki, the top winning dog of his breed of all time, and incredibly sound-bodied and temperamented, a dog whose only crime was to be an outcrossed dog in an inbred breed. The collective fancy ostracized the dog for stud service until one professional breeder, a friend of mine, finally bred a bitch to him, getting an outstanding litter. At that point, a few of the fancy figured out that he was alive and condescended to use him, in spite of his large size, outcross pedigree, and not very typey silhouette. What an incredible state of affairs, that such a lovely dog should be bred to by so few, and so late in his life!

    So then, what is a professional breeder? To start with - he or she is a professional in every sense of the word, a person who takes great pride in a responsible-to-the-public breeding program.
    He's the breeder whose bottom line is a never ending struggle for quality and improvement within his own kennel, with an eye on the future of the breed.
    A professional should be very aware of dollars and cents, always opting to spend money on improving dogs and stock before spending money on vanity press advertising or campaigning a special.
    A professional will not conform his breeding program to the mediocrity of dog show judging and show ring standards. Instead, he will breed for dogs that supersede ring standards. His standards will be higher than the norm and frustrating to him because of that. But his standards will not be set in sand, they will be poured in concrete.
    The professional will take pride in his pets, knowing that it is they who create his market and guarantee the survival of the breed.  He will realize that they must be the highest quality possible so that their owners are proud to live with them and show them off.
        A professional is very picky about hips, temperament, and health, going to great lengths to improve the breed in these areas, often seeking improvement before it is needed, therefore often breeding to a ten in temperament when an eight would be acceptable, because the ten from a tremendous line of good temperament will not be very likely to produce any threes.
    The professional breeder will also make a more critical evaluation of the temperament she is breeding for, seeking out and insisting upon the breeding pair which will best incorporate the best combination of the breeds personality
traits.

She will consider hereditary traits such as good mothering instincts, ability to get along with other dogs, obedience trainability, showmanship, quietness rather than barkiness, lack of stubbornness as an asset, easiness to correct, etc.
    I have owned and shown "slugs" and "deadheads" in the obedience and conformation rings, and I think it is more likely that the professional will eliminate those uncooperative personality traits from his or her breeding stock.
    I have an acquaintance in Canada who just finished a male dog, and loving him dearly, would never give him up, but who would never again consider showing a dog with that bored, uncooperative attitude. Yet he is a good-tempered and stable dog who would not disobey her. He is good with other dogs, and trustworthy off-leash. She wants more in the area of temperament and she has the right to demand it.
    I was taught 25 to 30 years ago to critique litters on the basis of attitude, stubbornness, passiveness, etc. I am very grateful for that because it gave me a tremendous understanding of performance, both in a house pet, and in a show, field, or obedience dog. My puppies with a stubborn passive attitude are almost never put in show homes no matter what their other qualities may be. I also will not put two of those personalities together for a litter. And indeed, I prefer to breed cooperative and willing to please, if I have the choice, as the latter is an improvement in personality. Dogs who love obedience training and enjoy people and dog shows produce just as good a pet if not better than ordinary personalities, but as show dogs and obedience dogs they tend to like what they are doing and working with and for their handlers or trainers.
    The professional is always extremely critical of his own dogs, being his own harshest critic.

And the criticism is made with an eye on the future. He is ready to correct lack of underjaw when he sees a ten percent decrease in one litter. He doesn't wait until the third generation when he will have to deal with a serious overbite problem.
    The professional does not tolerate testicles that re not apparent until ten weeks of age, knowing that the earlier the better is a better route, and realizing through his research of genetics that monorchids do not just appear. Problems start with late-descending testicles generations earlier.
    The professional evaluates soundness and type of breeding prospect as a primary consideration, and the cosmetics or prettiness as a secondary. You can say, yes, you want a perfect ridge, but a perfect ridge isn't everything. white creates hysteria in some people's minds and they will automatically dismiss for breeding a dog with borderline or excessive white, without realizing that the attributes of the dog in question might outweigh the effect of the white markings on their breeding program.
    The professional in this case actually is more likely to be flexible in decision making for breeding, realizing that a breeding program is not always black and white, and that the gray in a breeding program in GIVING A LITTLE. In some litters the goal is a stronger front and more crested neck, and to get that you may have to accept a poorer quality ridge. In the next litter you may be breeding for better feet and side gait, and the stud dog who can give you those will also give you white stomach markings. Since in 33 1/2 years of showing I have only seen two judges get down onto the floor to look at a dog's stomach markings, pardon me if I don't get really concerned about that "fault" in a Rhodesian Ridgeback.
    Ultimately, it is the professional breeder who will never consider breeding to the pretty dog who has nothing wrong with him but no outstanding good traits. The uncontroversial dogs in their breeds have probably done more damage to those breeds when bred to than the outstanding dogs who have an obvious flaw.

    It is the professional breeder who is looking at his breeding program three generations down the road, who will see everything come together. And if he started with good dogs with some strong points and made some sound decisions along the way, he may be looking at an outstanding third and fourth generation.
    That is where the professional breeder looks - to the FUTURE. The fancier most often has his eyes fixed on now - and the immediate gratification of a litter that satisfies his usually mediocre standards, a litter with no dermoids, no white, perfect ridges, tolerable temperaments, and five champions at ten months of age.
    The professional breeder knows how to produce champions and does it on a regular basis, but he also looks for champion producers - producers that produce champions. He is concerned that his dogs produce better than they are.
    And he knows what to keep from a litter that does not meet expectations, and how to improve it. He never "throws out the baby with the bath water". On the other hand, if he has a "throwaway" litter, he knows enough to cut his losses and go on without a look back. He is careful NOT to replicate faults and also aware of replicating similar faults, which might mask the more serious ones of the future, the ones just around the bend - if he is not careful.