Thinking of buying a puppy?

[Whitney168]

PLEASE have a look at this website first: www.puppylovecampaigns.org/index.shtml

If you buy a puppy without being extremely careful where you are buying it from, there is a large and increasing chance that this is the industry you are supporting. Make no mistake, bitches and puppies are living in absolute misery to produce these litters. Many of the puppies produced have had a very poor start and will suffer with physical or mental health issues, which could result in huge vet bills and often result in dead puppies too.

Please look at some of the photos and videos. If you don't care about the welfare of the adults kept to produce farmed puppies, then perhaps think about the possible financial impact to you?

Some of the breeders and dealers are very clever, and it is difficult. Look at adverts and see if one particular place is advertising lots of popular breeds.

• Google phone numbers to see if multiple adverts come up.
  
• Anyone selling several litters of puppies, particularly if of different 'popular' types is almost certainly farming and/or dealing.
  
• Ask to see health test results - this is NOT just a vet check, all pups should have that as standard too. You need to see health certificates from the KC/BVA or various DNA testing laboratories.
  
• Make sure you see a puppy with its mother and take every step possible to make sure that she is indeed their mother - how does she interact with the puppies? has she obviously been feeding? how does she look (if she's blooming, she actually probably isn't their mother, most bitches look fairly ropey when they have a litter around 8 weeks old!).
  

Buying a puppy from somewhere like this does not 'save it' - it just paves the way for more litters to be bred and more mothers to live in misery until their breeding days are over, when they are disposed of in various manners. The 'lucky' ones might go to a rescue to be rehomed (and good luck to the owners who take them on, most of them will never have seen daylight), but many don't make it this far.

The only way this will ever be stopped is if people stop buying. If you do not take all possible steps to avoid it, YOU are a large part of the problem.

[MillicentFawcett]

Thank you @Whitney168 - can you report your post to MNHQ and ask to have it pinned to the top of the Dog House.

This is what a bitch looks like who has been used as a breeding machine. You don't love dogs if you get a puppy from a puppy farm

[toboldlygo]

Great post. I would personally go one step further and urge potential puppy buyers to also consider whether the dog they are buying represents an extreme of type/appearance that may have an impact on its future health and wellbeing. Admittedly thinking mostly of the brachycephalic breeds, there.

[CornflakeHomunculus]

I'd also recommend watching these two BBC programmes:

They're harrowing viewing (especially the first one) but I think they should be watched by anyone thinking about buying a puppy.

[Nancy91]

Excellent post.

As always I would like to emphasise how amazing it is to rescue a dog. Many rescues have puppy waiting lists where you can specify a breed you want and they'll contact you if a puppy like that comes in. Puppies keep being dumped outside my local rescue lately and I have no idea why.

I wouldn't take the risk of going to a breeder. They are not always as they seem.

[TheRealBiscuitAddict]

I would go further and say that no puppy can be guaranteed not to have come from a disreputable source and that reputable breeders are not the norm.

I absolutely understand why people would want a puppy over a rescue, but the truth is that most breeders are in it purely for the money, and even the supposedly registered ones have questionable practices re e.g. Breeding certain breeds for certain traits which later prove detrimental to the dog, and that having a waiting list means nothing.

Friend recently acquired a puppy from a breeder she had done a lot of research into. Got to meet the bitch prior to conception, waited for nine months for a litter to be expected, reserved a puppy, eventually collected puppy from breeder's home after long anticipation. Got puppy home only to discover that he had Parvo virus. Reported the breeder and turned out that the house was a cover address for a puppy farm. Even though she had been there on more than one occasion, seen the bitch with puppies in a home environment etc etc.

Oh and, anything that has a designer name e.g. Cockerpoo, labradoodle/springerdor etc is a designer mongrell created for the purposes of earning money only. If you pay upwards of £1k for a mongrell you're a fool.

[Wolfiefan]

Thank fuck!
I reluctantly clicked on this thinking it would be someone who saw a cute designer cross breed and had bought on impulse or someone who found their dog off the Internet and only had a mobile number as a contact or someone who wanted a hypoallergenic dog.
Dogs are a huge bloody commitment. You need to do your research. Know what health tests the parents should have before breeding. (Heart tests etc in my breed). Meet breeders and owners and ask questions. Be realistic about what you can take on. (Never get a dog based on how it looks) Be prepared to wait. Months. Or in my case years.
Thanks for this OP. Thanks.