IMO, despite all the show ribbons, all the trial wins, all the titles, all the health testing - a truly ethical breeder does not kennel their dogs as a primary method of containment. Show mills and working mills do. Regardless of all the other hoopla and whatnot, if you don't value your dogs as individual family members, then you aren't a "good" breeder or owner at all in my book.
A note on real working dogs: In her younger days, Haluna (one of my retirees) raced in the midwest US, eastern US, Canada, Alaska and Italy. She was an exceptional sled dog (a leader, at that) and has a great pedigree. Keeping her in the house and treating her the way she deserves to be treated didn't diminish ("soften") her drive at all (a major excuse of working kennels for not keeping dogs in the house). If you have too many dogs to keep them inside as part of the family, then you have too many dogs.
I don't know a dang thing about sled dogs. Nothing, zilch. They are big, hairy, and gorgeous, and that is the extent of my knowledge. But I do know hounds. I've never been into them like my father, but I know them, I could hardly avoid it.
I can not concieve of keeping a pack of beagles in the house. Let alone a pack of fox hounds. You couldn't do it, not unless those dogs would be the focus of your life, and my father, like the rest of us, has to earn a living. Working hounds are independent, willful, single-minded and frankly, make lousy house pets. My mother would never have allowed him to keep them in the house even if he had been crazy enough to try. The reason the hounds that can't hunt are given away as house pets is because they are the ones who actually MAKE good house pets: they are people focused and laid back. The traits of the working hounds has nothing to do with living in a kennel to toughen them up . . . its what they are bred for, they are very, very good at it. They are also happy doing it . . . these dogs LOVE to hunt.
Maybe you have missed the fact that until recently, for thousands, and thousands, and thousands of years, most dogs lived outside, unless they were toy breeds. Now, there are many things people have done for thousands of years that we now know better than to do, but it strikes me as absurd that
an animal should HAVE to be kept in the house. In the kennel the hounds have a clean enviroment, food, water, daily excercise, vet care, the company of each other, the company of my father and his kennel assistant, and heat lamps when it gets cold. These are not outdoor dogs in the sense that they are put out there an ignored. My father's pack of beagles is not a mill, he has one or two litters a year, enough to keep up with deaths and retirement. And yes, retired animals are cared for until age either kills them or necessitates them being PTS. Almost none of his hounds are sold except those that can't hunt and those that are traded to other working packs for blood stock.
I disapprove, strongly, of pet dogs being placed out in a kennel and kept there. What kind of pet is that? If you are going to lock your dog away, why have one? If you have just a couple of dogs, why not bring them inside? But that's not the situation we have, and to match your desired result, everyone engaged in beagling or fox hunting would either have to live in a kennel themselves, or give up the sport. Perhaps you don't approve of hunting . . . but that is another arguement.
I am almost militant about animal welfare, but having grown up with working animals, including dogs, horses and barn cats, I find myself very annoyed when people suggest that animals can not live healthy, happy lives outside. Do I keep my cats inside? yes, I live in a city, and they are not allowed outside, because it is far too dangerous. Do I lecture my mom on the cats that are there to keep the mice out of the barn? No. They are feed, petted, spayed and neutered, taken to the vet regularly and given access to a climate controlled area in the attic when it gets cold. They live far from the road. They catch mice, and that is what cats were domesticated to do. Note, I'm not advocating people letting their cats wander around the suburbs and the city . . . that's dangerous. But the idea that no cat should ever be an outdoor cat strikes me as silly. Just as silly as saying anyone who keeps their dogs in a kennel is running a mill.