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.

A breeder, but a licensed one.

This was 12 years ago, I’d prob go to a trust it rescue for my next pet.

A KC registered breeder.

So sad the number of pets4homes replies :(

Glad people can see how much suffering they promote now though.

Current dog, backstreet breeder out of their depth, one pup nearly died. I took to hand rear and kept
Previous dog, dumped on me a few days before xmas by a friend who's friends had said if she didnt have a home by new year she would be PTS.

Prev dog dumped on me to 'look after for a bit while they moved house'. Never came back.

Over the years, I have had dogs from breeders, rescues, neighbours and relatives - My current dog was rehomed from an ad on gumtree when he was 6 months old.

Paws and Claws Adopt Foster and Rescue.
A lot of their dogs come over from Romania, but not all. I had 2 children aged 6 and 2 at the time and they paired us with the perfect dog - a 6 month old cross breed who was used to children.
None of the other rescues would entertain us - we were on the waiting list for a puppy with a breeder, but then he came along and he's brilliant.

A breed specific rescue. Same as my last one.

Gumtree!!! People are such arses when I say this but she was a doggy who needed a home and I gave her one! She’s lovely

Honestly, we've always bought from "backyard breeders" (because we wanted puppies of a specific breed that is fairly uncommon in our area, and we didn't want to pay the excessive amount many professional breeders charge). We've seen the homes they come from, as well as the rest of the litter and the parent dogs, and they've always definitely been normal homes and not nightmarish puppy mills. We kept in touch with the latest family and sent them photos as our puppy grew.

On the whole, they've all been perfectly wonderful, healthy, happy dogs. (One of our dogs unfortunately did later develop a health problem that shortened her life, but that can happen with even the most careful breeding, as it does all living things, including people.)

Adopting a dog from a rescue is wonderful, but there are plenty of reasons someone may not choose to do so, and the judgmentalism around where people get their pets is frankly ridiculous.

First dog as a puppy from a friend (he had bred them specifically to sell though)

Second from a small dog rescue charity, she was 3 and a half when we got her and she's a delight.

There's a year in age between my two and they are almost the same breed (my older dog is a cross breed, rescue is pure bred)

Funny story.
Out first dog was a beautiful boy. He died aged 9 of a disease that seemingly was becoming more common in the breed. He'd come from a local breeder.
When he died there was no doubt we wanted the same breed, so we researched breeders heavily within breed groups deciding that a local dog might carry the illness. Finally settled on a breeder hundreds of miles away.

The day came to collect, we crossed the country. Breeder happened to mention in conversation she'd recently moved from our area so it was all a bit pointless really. He's healthy and as far as we know doesn't carry the illness.

Can't help but feel the hate towards pets4homes is thinly disguised classism. Of course there's potential for puppy farming but in our case we met mum and dad, she had the puppies microchipped and vaccinated (with proof) and was a lovely mum of 2. Surely the professional breeders who get rid of pups who aren't 'breed standard' are worse.

I wanted a puppy so that I could learn with it. I'd never owned a dog before so it seemed foolish to adopt a rescue with separation anxiety and ingrained behaviour issues. Plus we couldn't adopt anyway because we have cats and do occasionally have to leave the house to go to work.

Both of mine came from normal families who allowed their dogs to have one litter. Both are complete mixes and incredibly healthy.

SSPCA rehoming centre.

DDog1 - adopted from EGLR. He is a lurcher that was bred by travellers for coursing and was handed in at 6 months when it was apparent that he would get beaten up by rabbits.

DDog2 - also adopted from EGLR. He was born in rescue after his mum was dumped 3 days before she had her litter.

We now foster pups for EGLR, and they rehome to people with small children, cats, who work, rent, live in houseboats etc etc. No solid rules apart from the dog must live as part of a family, not be raced/worked, and has to come back to the rescue if the adopter can't keep them

A family home. They bred their springer bitch with their friends cross spaniel. Saw where the puppies had been reared, in the kitchen of the home. Nice big house and garden where the puppies had free rein. We were given a care package with the pup including a blanket from the puppies bed where their mother had slept with them, an info sheet and a bag of food the dogs had been weaned on. We were the first to pick up a puppy, so got to see them all. The were healthy, happy and obviously well cared for and well socialised, as was mum.

MyNeighboursAreWeird

I also found mine on gumtree.

pets 4 homes here too!.She was being rehomed due to family issues ,Super sweet no trouble at all!

the judgmentalism around where people get their pets is frankly ridiculous

I think it's because a lot of people have worked with dog rescues and see the darker side - the puppy mill bitches bred to the point of exhaustion and dumped, the spur of the moment puppy purchase that the owner can't cope with because they didn't do their research beforehand who gets handed over completely untrained, the reactive dog terrified of others that the backyard breeder didn't bother to socialise during the socialisation window because they were only in it for the money...we've seen them all, and more. A purchase via Gumtree or Pets4Homes risks fuelling the trade in puppy farms, in those who cut corners and skimp on health tests because they see breeding as a money making exercise and are happy to maximise their profit at the expense of a healthy puppy, those who use 'fronts' to hide a puppy mill, simply because they make up a big proportion of the vendors on these sales platforms.

Plus we couldn't adopt anyway because we have cats

Don't know who told you that Noonemourns but many rescues are cat tested. My last two dogs were both rescues (gundog breeds) and we had pre-existing cats at both points the dogs joined us. Obviously some aren't cat safe so it does depend on the individual but it's far from impossible, if you ever consider a rescue again in the future.

RSPCA
We met dog, they checked our home, did a check again a few months after to make sure all was well. They were totally upfront about her personality, had given basic training etc.

My DD has additional needs and this dog was 4yrs old and had been passed from pillar to post by time we met with her so initially we thought, “no,just have a look to get anidea of process” BUT..... Brilliant dog, amazing with DD, can’t believe our luck

Oh just saw about cats.

We had a cat when we adopted our dog from RSPCA. Big dog, got some lurcher mixed in there, strong chase instinct. Our cat used to rule that dog with an iron paw. Once, our cat was being nosey next door and next doors cat got into a fight with her. Our dog went mad trying to get under the fence, scared the other cat enough to allow our cat to hop back over, dog was all kisses and concerns over our cat and walked her back into the house and onto sofa. It is the only time our cat deigned to groom our dog😂

Every dog we were interested in stated No cats iceberg. We did look at rescuing first but there were so many barriers from the fact we had cats, to the fact we rent, to the fact we work full time, to the fact our garden was small. (the country park across road wasn't good enough)
Our small dog has a busier social life than we do and fits perfectly in our home but we couldn't find a rescue that matched.

Oh now that we have had a puppy and know what we are doing (a bit) we will look at rescuing again in the future. Probably when the cats have crossed the rainbow bridge.

We looked for a dog to rehome for over a year and walked the dogs in the local dogs home most weekends. We struggled to adopt though as the children were too young and we also had a cat.

I found out about a dog on a fb specific breed page. The owner had taken her to be spayed after her first season - but found her to be already pregnant.

When I went to visit her - the owner already had 4 children, piles of washing everywhere, 2 cats, hamster, mice etc etc plus the dog and all the puppies. She was lovely and just kept saying - I can't believe I have all these puppies but clearly loved them all.

Our dog is beyond wonderful and we all love her.

We are still in contact with the owner 2 years later.