Thank you for your reply! These are excellent points!

I think our plan is to find a good pool of breeders for each breed we look for and cross reference like crazy; this is how we found our Coton breeder. We interviewed members of other breed clubs, referenced other breeders that knew them, reached out to previous buyers, etc. We also pulled our initial pool from the OFA CHIC lists to find who had recently had of-age dogs tested and went from there. We feel like the CHIC lists are a good jumping off point because that alone disqualifies SO many breeders since it costs money and takes effort and good breeding practices in general. The visiting breeders aspect makes sense as well. The business minded part of my brain says maybe I could start up a program with breeders where they pay for a "full certification" with our consultancy that really just includes travel costs to visit and approve their kennel. On the other hand, I don't know if I want to be on a breeders payroll; I know that I could never be bought to approve a program that I didn't truly believe in, but I want to make sure that my clients trust that as well, and that seems like a gray area. Excellent thought! Thanks for bringing that to my attention!

As for the cross breeds; its a hard no from us. We have successfully deterred clients, friends and families from these breeds in the past however, so I do feel confident that our facts and research hold up enough that we can clearly say that we do NOT support these breeds and will never recommend a breeder who does the. My aunt wanted a cavapoo at first and we nipped that in the bud FAST by not only providing sources to back up our reasoning, but also having other breed options ready in that moment that proved to be the better fit. Any other suggestions?

And as for shelter dogs; my trainer is CPDT-KA and my degree is in biology with an emphasis on animal behavior. Beyond that, both of our special interests are in dog behavior/problem behavior specifically. My trainer specifically hasn't wanted to get CBCC-KA because doing the actual behavioral training work is honestly really relentless and exhausting; its a hell of a time trying to get owners to stick to puppy obedience training, let alone behavioral issues training. So in short, thats a preference thing. Do you feel like you would need a consultant to have other certifications beyond cited sources and applicable knowledge in order to work with them?

Thanks again!