How is the import of foundation stock different from puppy mill imports?

Even though together the project breeders have imported more than one puppy to Finland, they're anything but puppy mill imports or even imports done to earn money in any way.

What is a puppy mill import? Nowadays there are a lot of shady imports, where the puppies are raised in suspicious circumstances abroad, often in Eastern Europe. There are whole litters of puppies brought to Finland and the profits made are considerable.

When compared to this it's easily understood that the project breeders' imports are completely different. The breeders have gone abroad to pick up their puppies themselves and the puppies are used within the project, not sold on at a profit. We've visited the breeders to see where the puppies come from and what their parents are like. The journey to do this can take several hours: in addition to the flight, often a four or six hour train ride is needed! Once all this is done and the puppy is safely in Finland it has usually cost far more than a normal puppy would have had we bought one here.

Because importing a lot of related dogs wouldn't do the project much good, we've brought one or at the most two puppies here from one litter. We will never import whole litters.

Nor are the imports done to make a profit. It would be a hugely unsuccessful business to go to England to buy a puppy, import it, have all possible health examinations done and then use it for breeding only once or twice - as you can see on the page Breeding Principles the dogs will mainly breed only once.

We've started this project to try to increase the health of the JRT breed and dog breeding in general. Our motives are anything but financial - and fortunately all of us are breeding dogs as a hobby. We've got enough on our plate in trying to improve the quality of life of the dogs.