Just gave away a puppy (new owner did not pay)

[maggieandannie]

My shitz-zu had a beautiful litter, the puppies are shitz-zu schnauzer crosses. I have found all of them great homes, I did not advertise it was through friends and people through work. So I have a link to each and every pup!

I know a lovely lady from dog walking, and since my dog was pregnant she let me know her sister would love one.

I reserved a boy for her sister and when puppies were 4 weeks old she picked her little boy. Her sister asked was I charging and I said yes I am charging and would offer her sister a discount so pup would be £100.00; told me she would let her sister know.

Fast forward to yesterday she picked up her puppy and left me a present, a gorgeous box and inside of the box was a bottle of very expenisive gin/soda and a lemon and a card. I thought how nice what a lovely lady! I opened the card and there was no payment.

I want to send her sister a text, letting her know how grateful I am for the present (I did include a puppy pack for this lady, with blanket, teddy, vet details, groomer details, and a bottle of Prosecco), however I was charging.

Would I be unreasonable asking for my money, I feel embarrassed to have to ask her.

Please help

Arguably 'person' is short for personality and can be applied to any being.

A little boy is not something I would call a dog though unless I was having a cutesy one on one conversation with it.

Of course it doesn't 'contribute directly' to the death of a dog; it's not as if you hand over cash for a puppy at a pet shop, and they then phone up the rescue and say 'Welp, better out another one if yours down, then'. Nobody's that silly.

But yes, of course it indirectly impacts on the number of dogs who are put down every year. If 10 potential puppy-purchasers adopted 10 adult rescue dogs from shelters instead, that's 10 dogs who aren't getting put down. And supply responds to demand, so if more people take dogs out of rescues, the breeders' profits will dry up and they'll produce fewer litters.

Win/win, IMO.

So the answer should be no more breeding? No more puppies equals all the adult dogs will be rescued (hmm) and in ten years time we will have a dog free society. Win win.

I proposed that earlier, WannBe. No one took me up on it.... waiting

Of course not.

Nobody's pretending that all adult dogs in rescue are adoptable. They're not. Some of them are too damaged to ever make good pets; some of them are just undesirable breeds for which supply outstrips demand.

But it would be nice if the many, many salvageable dogs in rescue could be re-homed as an alternative to at least some of the puppies that are churned out.

We're going to be getting a puppy from a breeder later this spring.

I never have before and doubt I will again, but right now with the DC being young it seems like the right choice for us. We are looking for a specific size and hair length during to our current situation and with mixed breeds it can be hard to tell what they will be like as grown dogs.

I'm sure after this we will adopt shelter dogs, but it just wouldn't be what we need right now.

Should I tell my DC no puppy then?

Regardless of ethics, OP if you are still reading this thread at all, look for a product called suprelorin. Your vet should be able to order it in at a cost of around £140 for 2 (last time I checked if I remember correctly). It is a small implant that is placed under the dogs skin like a microchip and acts as birth control, it can be removed at a later date if the owner wishes another litter or it wears off after a set amount of time. Having seasons and not being mated can be detrimental to your bitches health, the implants will stop her seasons and it will eliminate the risk of another "Oops" litter. The info there says the implant lasts between 212 to 565 days, but as I said it can be removed at any time.

www.acc-d.org/research-innovation/products-under-development/suprelorin

but people who want a dog, any dog, would presumably go to a rescue anyway. And people who want a specific breed would go to a breeder. If breeders didn't exist those people wouldn't be more likely to get a rescue dog.

If I was in the market for a dog I wouldn't entertain the idea of a rescue dog as the history is too unknown

wannabe as it happens the history of a dog may be known. Dogs end up in rescue for many reasons other than neglect or abandonment - death, illness,emigration, housing issues,marriage breakdown to name but a few.

Some dogs are handed over with a full history. Good rescues will also place dogs in foster homes and have them thoroughly assessed before putting them up for adoption.

FWIW I have also fostered several dogs who were handed in as unmanageable but were simply unexercised and ignored, nothing more complicated than that. They were genuinely fabulous dogs without issues once placed in the right home environment.

Ok, rescue is not for everyone, but it is also not always about severely damaged dogs needing lengthy rehabilitation.

Thanks for the info on rescues and children. I drew my conclusions based on reading the info provided about the dogs they have listed online, where many say no kids, and those that will allow kids say minimum age of 10 or 12.
Also had a look at the aafa website on foreign adoptions. Is it right that you have to commit to a dog before it is brought to the UK, or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

Cardimomginger - If you're going after a rescue dog, there are a number of things you need to look at regarding the rescue (especially if adopting with children in the house):

1. Do you have back up and lifetime support from the rescue to help with behavioural issues and taking the dog back if you can't keep it.

2. Has the dog been FULLY assessed and properly, either in a foster home environment, or as is the case with "bigger" rescues, by a qualified behaviourist.

3. Have your family circumstances been taken fully into account when assessing the suitabilty of the dog - for e.g. the rescue I work with (A very well known breed specific collie rescue) they will home check, discuss the family dynamics, look at what you are able to offer the dog (exercise etc) and take it from there. They wouldn't re-home a dog scared of children, in a home which had children or grand children visiting for e.g.

My concern (and I would like to be proved wrong) with "overseas" rescues is the lack of back up once the dog has been adopted. I've seen it a number of times, adoption fails/falls through and the adopter is not given back up.

Good luck in your search.

There's also the Oldies Club (www.oldies.org.uk/) which serves as a hub to rehome older dogs, and a lot of them would make fabulous housedogs. If I had a garden I would go for one of them - you'd have the satisfaction of a loving dog (whose history and temperament is very well known as they've often been in foster homes for a long time, as everyone wants a puppy), and also you are committing maybe 5 years (if you are lucky and your dog lives long), not 10 or 15.

You can even do a "good with kids" search on their website: www.oldies.org.uk/?cat=1,2,3,8&tdo_tag=good-with-kids . (There's plenty of smaller dogs on that site, too.)

Also, although there's plenty of bouncy, active older dogs on that site, I have a special weakness for sweet-faced old plodders.

Quiet - thanks for the info. My question about kids and rescues was not so much to do with how to make sure that my family and I are indeed ready to give a dog a home, more to do with the fact that, as far as I was able to determine from dog profile information available on several websites, that families with young children are never going to be allowed to give a rescue a home as 'suitable for a home with young children' never features.

I wonder why that is? In the case of an older dog, I suppose that no matter how well they assess a dog, they cannot give a guarantee that they will be OK and as smaller children may be less likely to be 'sensible' with a dog and are more vulnerable due to smaller physical size, it is a risk they are not prepared to take. But why does it seem to be the same with all puppies?

Possible lack of back up in the case of a failed overseas adoption is something I hadn't thought of - thanks for that.

The "children suitable" dogs go very quickly and are in very high demand - which is why they rarely feature on rescue websites.

I know with my rescue, the "easy family friendly" dogs never usually make it as far as the website because they are gone very quickly.

Puppies as a rule are often more vulnerable to the effects of children, plus you need to train them through their formative years (both the puppies and the children). Puppies are also BLOODY HARD WORK. Take for e.g. a "medium sized dog" puppy. (the following is pulled straight from the rescue website that I work with).

^Puppies leave "presents" that your toddler always seems to find before you do. Puppies wake your children during the night. After all, a puppy is a baby too – why should it be any different for them? A night is a long time – why should a puppy alone be expected to go throughout the night without crying for ‘Mum’. You wouldn’t expect a young human baby too. A puppy doesn’t know the difference between his stuffed toy and Little Sophie’s Teddy that she really MUST have to fall asleep.

Suppose you get a puppy when little Jack is 2. In six months, Jack will be about 1 inch taller and 3 pounds heavier. However, the 8-month-old puppy will now be as tall as Jack and outweigh him by 20 pounds. And those baby teeth will have been replaced by big snappers that need to chew.
Of course, puppies and small children do successfully co-habitate, if you have the time, the patience and the understanding to put the work in.

In our experience, your child will go through far less Asprin and Plasters with a calmer 4+ year old dog who has been fully assessed with children.^

All I can suggest is that you start speaking to some rescues and see what they say. :)

Just eyeing up the 'golden oldies' sites myself at the moment as DD is frankly desperate for a dog after looking after the neighbour's mutt for the past couple of months.

I don't think the aged cats would ever forgive me though.

There's a tag for "good with cats", too, Kitties! My DS, too, is desperate for a dog, and turns like a flower into the sun every time we spot one in the street. We dogsit from time to time, and the dogs we dogsit must think christmas is come, with all the (careful) attention they get from him.

Searching both 'kids' and 'cats' comes up with the rather lovely Donald, but he might be a bit too big to fit in the car with the camping gear seriously contemplates leaving a child behind

I would love an older dog to give a loving home to - my children are 11 and 17 and very sensible. We have a reasonable garden and live near fields and love walking. The only downside is that I work 24 hours a week although it is flexible in terms of days and times and I have a neighbour happy to help with walking etc - do you reckon it is doable and most importantly could the dog be happy with this? Sorry for hijack!

Overslept, (genuine question) Why is having a season and not being mated detrimental to the dogs health?
Another point to make re rescue dogs - sadly owners often lie about dogs history!! Also if history is not known, no amount of assessments would make me feel secure about adopting a rescue dog if I had children. In general a reputable show dog breeder has a all the health tests in situ, the pups they sell are generally the ones that aren't quite up to show quality, but are nevertheless tested, healthy pedigree pups. The breed will have the characteristics, coat etc that you would expect and so generally there will be few surprises later on!

landrover It hugely increases the risk of cancer. This is why spaying is so important and the earlier it is done the better! There is no need to even wait for a first season in dogs, if possible early neutering is best. Most good breeders who want to wait between litters avoid leaving their dogs "empty" for too many seasons, so use suprelorin.

Some info here veterinarynews.dvm360.com/prognosis-treatment-canine-mammary-tumors

There are also minor health benefits to not having seasons such as much less stress for the dog and they tend to put a bit of weight on with suprelorin (only a the same amount as a spay would) and that is a good thing when recovering from feeding a litter of 9.

Oh, Kitties, Donald is exactly the kind of dog I could fall in love with!

landrover we only had rescue dogs as I was growing up, and there was never any problem. But an occasional babysitter of mine had to send her lovely dog (don't know the breed name, but like a big heraldic dog - gorgeous) "off to live on a farm" when he bit one of her charges, and she'd had him from a puppy, trained him, loved him to death, and he'd never shown any aggression until this point. (The girl wasn't seriously hurt, but he was a very big dog, so she couldn't risk it.) It cut her heart into pieces, sending him away.

Dogs are living creatures, so while it's true that you help by choosing breeds for temperament, etc, and not getting an obviously messed-up dog, there are no guarantees either way.

Awww, Donald is gorgeous. We don't have room for another dog but he does look lovely.

Thankyou overslept, i agree with you about spaying xx And yes Archery, there are no guarantees either way. I do get a bit irritated when people suggest mongrels/ crossbreeds are healthier, they could still inherit from their parents. However buying from a reputable breeder that tests the parents etc is surely a safer bet. One thing I don't understand is, the breeders of labradoodles and designer pets are selling for the same price as pedigrees. Do the buyers not realise that these deigned dogs are mongrels?

Designer dogs are mongrels, sorry not deigned!!!!