Finds Challenge in Business of Breeding : Ex-Rolling Stones Aide Goes to the Dogs

Tibor Lepes figures his life went to the dogs five years ago, when he gave up the helter-skelter world of rock ‘n’ roll and began working at Centurion Kennels as a trainer and boarder of guard dogs.

Lepes, a 34-year-old Yugoslav immigrant who formerly was a touring assistant for the Rolling Stones, bought the El Cajon kennel last year, becoming one of about 100 San Diego County professional dog breeders.

Though most of Lepes’ income continues to come from training and boarding dogs, most of his energy now goes into breeding--which he maintains is the most enjoyable aspect of the dog business.

“You feel like a creator, an artist,” said Lepes, who expects to realize an annual average of five litters, or about 30 pups, of Rottweilers and Jack Russell Terriers. “It’s almost like playing God.”

Financially, though, breeding dogs is a bust, Lepes said. Unlike the notorious “puppy mills” of the Midwest, which produce as many as 30 litters each year, his kennel and most of the other breeders in San Diego County seem more interested in quality than in quantity.

On average, local breeders produce less than half a dozen litters each a year, said Jimmy Frank, president of the Silver Bay Kennel Club. Silver Bay is one of five local organizations that are either chapters of, or licensed by, the American Kennel Club, the largest dog-breeding association in the country.

‘Labor of Love’

As a result, Frank added, most local dog breeders either maintain outside jobs or, like Lepes, supplement their meager breeding incomes by running training and boarding kennels.

“It’s a labor of love,” Frank said. “Last year, the most successful dog breeder in the county told me he did better than he’s ever done--and he was about $10,000 in the hole.”

“There’s really no money to be made in breeding dogs. You start with a particular breed and sooner or later you fall in love with it,” Frank said. “So you keep on trying to improve it, litter after litter, and pretty soon you forget the cost.”

Vic Monteleon, who breeds two litters a year of Dobermans at Montwood Kennels in El Cajon as a hobby while working full time as a physicist, said expenses far outweigh the income “at least in the breeds we’re in.”

“Stud fees, if you breed champion dogs, range from $500 to $1,000. Then you have the expense of shipping the female to the stud you think will produce the best pups, and then flying her back home once she’s pregnant.

“Within a couple of days after she gives birth, you need to get the pups’ tails cut and their extra front toes removed, which runs about $10 per dog. A few weeks later, you need to spend an additional $70 per animal to get their ears cropped,” Monteleon said.

“By the time the pups are 7 to 9 weeks old and ready to be sold, you will have shelled out hundreds of dollars more for food and shots. And to that you have to add any medical costs for the bitch, as well as advertising expenses to sell the litter.”

A typical litter of eight Dobermans, Monteleon added, will yield three or four show-quality dogs he can sell for $500 to $700 apiece, with the rest priced at $200 to $400.

It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that the profit margin, if any, is pretty slim.

“The only people who can make money breeding dogs are the puppy mills,” Monteleon said. “They ship their litters off to pet stores at four or five weeks, so they don’t have much money invested in them.”

Out to Make Money

“But when that happens, the dogs often have problems. They haven’t been around their litter mates for the proper length of time, so you don’t have the normal socialization.”

“And because puppy mills are out to produce as many litters as they can, the breeding is not done scientifically. They’re not out to improve the breed--they’re out to make money,” Monteleon said.

To many local breeders, however, breeding dogs is more an avocation than a vocation, Monteleon said. “We spend money on breeding dogs the way other people spend money on sailboats. We love it; it’s our hobby.”

Other breeders agree.

“The satisfaction doesn’t come from making money; it comes from breeding good dogs,” said Shirley Hayes, who breeds one litter of Dalmatians and whippets each year at Coachmaster Kennels in Harbison Canyon east of El Cajon.

“Over the 27 years that we have been breeding dogs, we’ve had a number of top champions. And that makes you feel sort of proud.”

Teresa Howser, who raises two litters of German shepherds each year at Stiles German Shepherds in Alpine, said her goal is to “preserve the breed.”

“At best, we cover the cost of our dogs--but not always. Last month, for example, I had a thousand bucks in medical bills, but no litter in six months. So that money had to come out of my pocket.”

“We figured out that by the time we breed a litter, raise them, and then turn around and sell them, we make a profit of about 20%--which isn’t a hell of a lot,” said Dale Hughes, who owns Candy Kennels, also in El Cajon.

“And since we breed maybe one litter of Irish setters and three of beagles each year, we support ourselves primarily by boarding dogs,” Hughes said. “But still, breeding is the most fun. It’s a hobby and a very good one.”

Mating a good bitch with a good stud to produce a litter of perfect pedigreed pups isn’t easy, local breeders say. Aside from breeding expenses, it requires an extensive amount of research--and a thorough understanding of genetics.

“You have to know the background of your dog, and understand what its strengths and its weaknesses are,” said Vic Monteleon. “Then you look for a dog, usually by attending dog shows around the country, that complements yours by examining its pedigree, which generally goes back four or five generations.”

“So when you mate your dog, you want to combine the best of both dogs’ traits, behavioral as well as physical, to optimize the breed--and at the same time produce future breeding prospects to carry on the line.”

Teresa Howser said that while some dog breeders place more emphasis on physical rather than behavioral traits, she’s more concerned with a prospective stud’s temperament.

“To me, temperament is of No. 1 importance,” she said. “You can breed a mellow dog with a more aggressive one to balance things out, but if you find a dog with a truly bad temperament, you should stay away.”

The American Kennel Club recognizes 134 breeds of pedigreed dogs, classed into seven groups:

- Sporting dogs that flush and retrieve birds, like Labradors, Irish setters, pointers and cocker spaniels.

- Hound dogs that hunt game and foxes, like basset hounds, dachshunds and Afghans.

- Working dogs that do everything from pull sleds to offer protection, like boxers, Siberian huskies, Dobermans and Alaskan malamutes.

- Terrier dogs that are primarily used to control vermin, like Scottish terriers and Airedales.

- Herding dogs used to herd cattle and sheep, like German shepherds, collies and Old English sheep dogs.

- Toy dogs that are bred mostly as pets, like Chihuahuas, Maltese, Pomeranians and toy poodles.

- Non-sporting dogs, also raised as pets, like poodles, Dalmatians, Old English bulldogs, and chow chows.

Other breeds of dogs, like Chinese Shar-Peis and the infamous pit bulls, are not recognized by the American Kennel Club because their national numbers are less than the 180 required for classification, or because their pedigree is uncertain, said the Silver Bay Kennel Club’s Jimmy Frank.

Frank said most local breeders specialize in only one or two types of purebred dogs “either because they like the breed, or they see a market for them.”

Like fashion and pop music, Frank said, what’s in one year is very often out the next.

“Right now, we’re seeing a national trend toward smaller dogs,” Frank said. “That’s probably because more people are living in condos and apartments, and don’t have room for the big ones.”

For the second year in a row, Frank added, cocker spaniels have been the most popular breed of dog in the country, replacing the larger poodles that had topped the list, compiled each year by the American Kennel Club, for nearly 20 years.

But in San Diego County, Frank said, big dogs are still among the biggest sellers, largely “because there are a lot more people with land out here than in the major population centers of the East.”

Vic Monteleon maintains that, of the big dogs, Rottweilers are fast becoming the most popular breed in the county.

“Rottweilers are the yuppie dog of the 1980s,” Monteleon said. “With the increasing crime rate, everyone wants one--Rottweilers are docile, but also very big and very good protectors.”

A few years ago, Rottweilers were in 100th place on the American Kennel Club list of preferred breeds. Now they’re ranked 15th, Monteleon said.

Market Unpredictable

Still, Monteleon has no plans to drop Dobermans and start breeding Rottweilers instead.

“The dog market is very unpredictable,” he said. “Years ago, German shepherds were right up there, but now they’ve dropped way down.”

“What often happens is that when a breed gets popular real fast, too many people move in because they want to make a fast buck. They start breeding bad ones, and when they start selling bad ones to the public, the public simply goes on to another breed.”

“And eventually, the bottom drops out of that market and the other breed moves into its place--until the same thing happens all over again,” Monteleon said.

One local breeder is hoping to break that cycle by crossbreeding two varieties of purebred dogs--a longstanding taboo among dog purists.

Lepes of Centurion Kennels currently is breeding greyhounds with Russian wolfhounds to produce lurchers, a hunting dog he thinks will soon catapult into national prominence--and stay there.

And if the American Kennel Club frowns on such crossbreeding, Lepes said, that’s too bad.