Suki is Retiring! Is It Bad to Rehome Her?

We often get asked if we have adult dogs available. My answer is normally, “No." But, every once in a while we decide to retire one of our breeding dogs and release them to a qualified home to live out the rest of their days in the best way possible - as a family dog. 

That's the case for Miss Suki. At just 5 years old, Suki has been a wonderful, reliable mom for us and has blessed many families with her beautiful puppies. Now it's time for her to retire and enjoy the good life with one special family. She will be spayed on 2/5/26 and will need a few weeks to recover in our home. Once she's recovered she'll be ready to go.
We aren't asking a rehoming fee for Suki. She's provided us with more than enough. We just want to know that she'll be spoiled and loved every day of the rest of her life.
Suki is trained to come, sit, walk on the leash, and go potty outside. We stopped using a crate with her when she was a puppy, but she could probably re-learn quickly. 

We would love for her to go to a home in Illinois. If you're interested, please email me at rebekah@joleyaire.com

Is it mean to rehome retired dogs?

In the past, when we've rehomed retired dogs, we've gotten some messages that go like this: “So you just breed them and then throw them away when you're done?" 

That's not how we see it. 

We are professional dog breeders. Some people think that's a bad thing, but all that means is that we are both able to work full time in our breeding operation rather than trying to raise puppies on the side while working “real jobs”. Our dogs and customers benefit from us being 100% dedicated and available to them. 

That being said, we run a relatively small “operation”. We only keep 5 breeding females at a time plus our two studs. We might have a few extra dogs here or there if we are raising puppies to become breeding dogs or have a retired dog here before finding a new home. Keeping the number of dogs here low means we can spend more time with each dog and give them the love and care they require. 

We always retire our moms at a young age - usually around 5 or 6 (most vets recommend retiring at 6-8). We expect our dogs to live to be at least 10 years old which means we would have retired females here for 5 extra years. Keeping retired dogs until they pass away would mean doubling our dog population long-term. That would reduce the time, attention, and individualized care we can give each dog — and that’s not the kind of life we want for them. 

The objection is that they must get attached to us and will be sad if we rehome them. I don't think that's the case. I think dogs are usually pretty content as long as their basic needs are met: food, water, shelter, and social. Even if they are attached to us, I believe they forget pretty quickly. We've had four moms go on to retirement since we started breeding and they are all happy and thriving in their new homes. 

The ideal situation is when one of our retired dogs goes on to live in a family home where they can be spoiled and loved on all the rest of the days of their lives. That doesn't seem like a disservice to me, that seems like an amazing gift for our dogs and for the people that take them.
As you can see, rehoming our dogs when they retire is what's best for everyone involved - especially the dogs.