Hold it guys! Nobody questions whether IAMS is making a profit. They are a "commercial" client because their advertising generates revenue. Period.

Breeders advertise to sell their puppies. That isn't a pejorative term. You breed for a lot of purposes but one of them is to sell them into great homes. That generates revenue/income. I am certainly not saying that I've ever make a profit on a litter. On the contrary, I've lost between $1,000 and $5,000 on every litter we've bred. But whether I make a profit isn't the issue. If I advertise to sell the puppies, that is a commercial ad.

When you think about stud services, it becomes more clear. What are the costs involved in marketing a stud dog? Except for the advertising, almost none. If the dog is still viable, he's producing the semen. If you do live breedings (and that's getting almost as rare as an honest exhibitor), the bitch comes to you, you manage the breedings and the owner of the bitch pays you to keep her, feed her and give her the meds.

If you do AI, the owner of the bitch pays for the collection and shipment and the costs of the AI. Plus the stud fee. A point of reference: we just bred Cassidy to a very nice boy who lives in Wisconsin. Last week, I drove 2 hours a day for 5 days for progesterone tests, ordered the fresh-chilled collection and shipment, had her surgically implanted and at this point, I have spent over $5,000 and I have no idea whether or not she's pregnant.

My point is that the marketing of a stud dog is unquestionably a commercial venture. And it's probably profitable. Breeding puppies is also IMHO a commercial venture but if you do it the right way, there's no way it's profitable. As a breeder, you have to breed for yourself and for the improvement of the breed because unless you breed "too much" you can't make any money at it.

I'm with David. It it makes money, it's commercial. If it's simply to build awareness of a dog for national ranking, it's not.

Jim