To ask honestly where you got your dog from

[wowowwow]

Ours came from an ad on Pets4homes. Had no idea this wasn’t good. Dog has been fine though.

First and second dogs were from a breed specific rescue, pure pedigree, fabulous dogs who are sadly no longer here they were young dogs but not puppies.
Third dog cross breed from a local rescue, she's gorgeous and good with children and cats.
Cats and chickens are from rescues too.

Rainbow - please do check with the breeders vet before you pay for the puppy . Also don’t pay with cash .
A lot of breeders/ back yard breeders are in it to make money and cash transactions make it relatively easy for them to do so . A good breeder won’t object to a bank transfer or another kind of paper trail . After all if they’re making money , they should be paying tax .
My friend had to perform a cs on a French bulldog . The puppies are now for sale, she still hasn’t received payment for the cs. Cheeky feckers went to another vet to get the puppies wormed etc .

From a lovely lady off gumtree.

Breeder. We wanted a specific breed. But we researched well.

From a farm. Pretty sure whichever didn't get taken didn't get sent to a happy place/rescue centre but I couldn't take them all.

For those PPs querying it, "responsible" breeders are those who:

1. Care more about the future of the breed than making a profit from a litter
2. Get parents health tested and don't breed from any dog or bitch who turns out to be a carrier or high risk for any of the breed-specific genetic health conditions, no matter how rare or well-bred the lines
3. Socialise their puppies as much as possible - to children, other people, the hoover, other animals etc
4. Vets potential puppy owners thoroughly
5. Gives a lifetime commitment to new owners to take any of their dogs back at any stage for any reason

Generally speaking, the dogs who end up in rescue are not those bred by truly responsible breeders - obviously it can happen, but in that case it's usually either because the owner has lost the breeder's contact details or they're too embarrassed to tell the breeder they can no longer keep the dog. Dogs in rescue are often those who were bought on impulse by people who didn't research either the breed or the reality of puppy ownership - unlikely with a responsibly-bred puppy since it's not uncommon to have to wait upwards of a year for your puppy - or who develop behavioural traits that the owner can't cope with which again are often caused by the puppy having been bred in less than ideal conditions by people who skimp on the socialising. (Obviously there are also those dogs whose owners' circumstances have changed or, increasingly, have been imported from Europe - so many UK rescues are now overrun with dogs from Greece, Romania etc.)

I've volunteered at two separate rescues for a period of several years so I have far more experience than I ever wanted about how and why dogs end up there and where they originated from.

Previous mdog- KC reg health tested breeder.
Previous fdog- dodgy KC reg breeder.
Current mdog- KC reg, health tested breeder. She took ages to find and mdogs litter was her final one, we still speak.
Current fdog- KC reg, health tested breeder, got her details from mdogs breeder.
Both dogs breeders are well known in the breed community. We had to wait 2 years for fdog's breeder to have another litter. Next dogs will be from health tested breeders.

Random post on Facebook from a stranger who was divorcing and wanted to rehome him.

Eight years later he is snoozing happily beside me as I type. He is an absolute joy

Gumtree. Because charities make you jump through hoops when you want to adopt. I got my dog from an older man who is too ill to look after her, also he was living in a small flat. Now, she is very happy, we have a garden and a park opposite our house.

@VivaVivienne

Can I just ask, if someone bought a pup from you, but then decided at a later date to sell it, how could you stop it once it had been sold? How would you even know?
Genuine question.

First dog was from a squat in SE London. 2nd was acquired from a traveller site, 3rd was given to me by the owner who I got talking to in a pet shop. Subsequent dogs from all over really. I work with animals and farmers so never have a problem being offered any animal!

KC registered health testing breeder I found in a Facebook group

@DogbertDogglesworth

Well to be honest that’s a difficult one. They couldn’t register the pup as belonging to anyone else; but if they did it under the radar I would struggle to track them.

It’s one of he beauties of social media, and only breeding so few dogs; I can follow them their whole lives.

I never quite know how enforceable it is, and in part the very fact people are happy to sign it is step one: anyone who wouldn’t sign it, doesn’t have the same ethos as I do and therefore wouldn’t be the right person for our puppies.

The vast majority of our pups go to people we already know, we have a wait list.

2 dogs, 2 separate rescue centres in Ireland where we live.

Everything that is wrong with dog breeding in this country in the vets this morning, man walks in with this bull breed (this is not anti bull breeds btw) this dog was very fat it couldn’t get up the stairs. It was a puppy, mans like it’s puppy fat! Most pups are skinny as they are growing like mad. It’s had its ears clipped to make it look hard, he says it’s an American bully one of those really wide breeds and you should see his Dad.

He’s probably paid £2-4000 (they are all over Gumtree) and he’ll need that again for the vet bills, they are a medical abomination, breeders are just seeing pound signs.

Dogs Trust.

His parents had been rescued from an abusive situation and their litter of puppies were born at the centre, so we brought him home when he was 8 weeks old.

A breeder that dabbles.
Not a full time breeder if that makes any sense?
From a house. Mum was there etc.....
She's lovely and the vet says she's very healthy etc.....
I found her on pets4homes as well.

@StoorieHoose
Me too!

From a KC registered, assured breeder.

I got 1 from the local kennel and the other was given by my partners family when he was 5 weeks old as the mother was rejecting feeding them

Dogs trust
Dogs trust
Dogs trust

Local gypsies

a breeder

I wouldn't consider anything other than a puppy with kids around.
The breeder is lovely, and takes the dogs when we go on holiday and I know they are treated well there.

Once the kids are grown up, I would use rescues again.

Can you not get puppies in rescue centres where you are? My first was a 2 month old pup removed from a puppy farm before it was shut down.

A breeder that dabbles.
Not a full time breeder if that makes any sense?
From a house. Mum was there etc.....
She's lovely and the vet says she's very healthy etc.....
I found her on pets4homes as well

Puppy farms are wise now and will use “stunt homes”.

Pay the nice old lady or the friendly couple a cut to have the dogs in her home for viewings. Not always the puppy’s mum- most people won’t question the dog with the puppies isn’t mum.

If any breeder has puppies available immediately it’s a red flag. Most responsible breeders will have a list of homes before the dog is even pregnant.

Friend of mine got his pug from a “lovely family, pups raised in the house, they only had one litter as they thought they should before spaying”

Front for a puppy farm. They found out as they were unlucky, the dog has serious health problems. When they went back the “breeder” had “moved away” with no forwarding details. 5k vet bills in the first year, and they are paying over £100/month insurance.

@bluebluezoo
We are still in contact on Whatsapp.
They like getting regular pics and updates from me.
They also gave us a huge bag of goodies. Food, toys, bowls, treats, puppy pads, etc....
I hope that means something but if not then there's nothing I can do now.
But thankful I definitely have a healthy puppy.