... Or is the price of puppies absolutely insane??

[Tootletum]

I've been looking to get a dog for about a year, and now that I know I'll be at home for good, had started looking at prices for a spaniel or a viszla. The average asking price for a non KC registered purebred seems to be £2500, and even the lady advertising some accidental mongrel whippets wanted over £1000!!! Who is paying these insane prices???

Those puppies up for big money ARE the puppy farmed dogs. Proper kc reg breeders who care about their breed probably aren't breeding at the moment.

Oh and if you bought a puppy off Gumtree you're part of the problem

Lots of puppies advertised on gumtree and the like are not from a nice local family who just happened to breed their much beloved pet but are from puppy farms in Europe, brought in and sold online - sometimes from people posing in a nice house like the puppies were born there.

If you have toddlers, yes, a rescue may be reluctant but if they are over 5, some rescues will consider you for some dogs.

Adopt a dog then. It boggles my mind that people don’t go to shelters. There are hundreds all over the UK. Many are breed specific if you’re after a certain breed. I can’t stand animal breeders and I think it should be legislated.

* Outrageously expensive. I bought our gorgeous girl for 300 pounds on gumtree. Not KC reg, but pure bred from a nice family home local to us.*

@Cherryhill22

Genuine questions
How did you know a “nice family”
Doesn’t suggest “nice” if they put a puppy on gumtree and don’t bother to KC register.

@eatyourcake there’s really not. People have gone crazy getting dogs during lockdown, not just buying but taking out of rescue centres. I help coordinate transportation for rescue dogs from foreign countries. The rescues have never been so empty. We’ve got 6 dogs travelling from Alicante to the U.K. tonight. The shelter they’re coming from normally has 80 plus dogs at all time. Right now they’ve literally got 4

Over the last 30 odd years I’ve had 5 rescue dogs and they’ve been great. However my circumstances at those times would not allow me to rehome a rescue, (children, childminder), today.
When my lovely 10 year old staffie rescue passes away I would like a puppy.
I won’t pay stupid prices and probably will end up with another rescue but as an experienced owner who has done her bit for rescues why shouldn’t I have a puppy who I would look after forever?

Also - have you seen vets fees? If you can't afford to buy a puppy, you can't afford vets fees.

Sad but true. Sorry.

@Crankley and @eatyourcake that. Who buys a dog/cat nowadays?

@Tootletum whoever said not to "risk" a rescue needs to get a grip. There is no difference between a pure-bred and a rescue. Your experience with dogs determines what the dog-family relationship will be in both cases.

Get a dog that is good with kids your age and that you can manage, i.e. not something you will dump at the end of an extendable leash on a harness and will be a danger to everyone, yourself included.

Rescues are the best animals you could wish for. You will save a life.

zoo there is no way a rescue centre will rehome to a woman with a 5 year old, you might as well tell her to go to the moon. I hate this guilt tripping!

Wait for the prices to come down, OP and be really careful who you buy from. I tried to adopt eight years ago but I had children under the age of 12, pet ferrets and despite two adults working from home, experienced dog owners with a 100ft secure garden and living next to a park, no one would let us adopt. I got fed up and bought a puppy from a KC registered breeder, he has been a joy from day one and the breeder is a good sort who really cares about his animals. I had to provide references from my vet and answer a LOT of questions before they were happy for me to come and see the puppies. I was also able to do a lot of research on the breeder. Good breeders and good owners are not the reason why dogs end up in rescue shelters. Just do your research, make sure your breeder cares and has a good rep and be prepared to go on a waiting list.

Adopting isn’t an option for everyone. When I looked into it they wouldn’t consider us as DS was 5 and I worked part time.

@ZooKeeper19 Given my youngest is two, I assume they were commenting on the shelters' likely policy. Our last dog (well before kids) was a border collie we bought from a sheep farm as a puppy. I still miss him and his amazing herding

@FrankieChips

Adopt a dog then. It boggles my mind that people don’t go to shelters. There are hundreds all over the UK. Many are breed specific if you’re after a certain breed. I can’t stand animal breeders and I think it should be legislated.

Try finding a shiba inu in a rescue where that rescue is willing to rehome to someone with a child under 12.

I’m the biggest advocate of adopt don’t shop but have any of you actually tried to get a rescue dog recently? We lost our rescue in Feb and have unfortunately coincided with the world wanting rescue dogs.

Dogs Trust are rehoming only small numbers, and they will not hold an application form on file - you have to keep checking the website, but the problem is that new dogs go on and are simultaneously marked as reserved. Our last dog never went on the website because they phoned us to say they thought they had a match, but they are so overwhelmed they aren’t doing this at the moment.

RSPCA and Blue Cross - not interested in rehoming to anyone who works, even if you have planned and considered this.

Forever Hounds Trust - been on their list for months. Seem to only be rehoming to people who already foster for them, I’ve been on their list for weeks if not months.

Smaller rescues - don’t reply to messages (yes I know they are volunteers) or if they do they pick up on one tiny detail (like the one where I said it would be nice if the dog was ok in the car but not essential as our old one got used to it but the rescue said they don’t test any dogs in cars so none would be suitable) and close down the conversation.

Battersea - actually did read the application and keep them on file but said they didn’t have anything suitable at that time.

It’s doubley frustrating when you get patronising replies about a dog being for life not just for lockdown, when you’ve always had rescue dogs, have written about them and it’s not your fault that the timing just coincided.

So yes, I can see why people are paying, and that in turn pushes the prices up. I will still wait for the right rescue, but you can see why some people don’t, and it’s not that easy to just get a rescue dog at the moment.

It's very difficult if you have cats - I posted this the other day; on Dogs' Trust there were over 400 dogs listed, but only a handful could live with a cat - the nearest to me being 200 miles away.

I understand why - of course the Rescues don't want people's cats being harmed, but it does make it difficult. Whereas a pup can be introduced to cats with minimal fuss - in my experience cat/dog introductions are far easier than cat/cat introductions, and I've done them both ways round.

But I'm not funding a puppy farm to the tune of £2500 - apart from anything else, if I have to buy a dog I want one that has been bred with health as a primary consideration. That's the route we took last time and we were rewarded by our dog having an exceptionally long and healthy life.

I came on to say exactly what Falullah said.

I work from home, we have a small courtyard (and a public dog park a 2 minute walk away) and am not know to local shelters.

So, after banging my head against many brick walls I bought a posh dog, from a home breeder, having done my homework, met the families, bitch and dog, and visited during the 8 weeks before I brought him.home

Rescue seems to be nigh on impossible!

new dogs go on and are simultaneously marked as reserved.

Yes - I keep seeing this. It's really frustrating.

Is breeding dogs for profit ever ok? Even proper breeders. Not to mention the thousands of DIY breeders that advertise on gumtree. It’s hideous.

@eatyourcake

What is insane here is not the price, it is the fact people are still buying puppies, where there are countless abandoned dogs in shelters, desperate for a loving home, including fancy breeds of all ages.

100% agree

@Cherryhill22

While I'm glad everything seems to have worked out for you, buying puppies of gumtree isn't advisable and should be discouraged. Not encouraged.

HeckyPeck and eatyourcake have you actually looked at rescue availability at the moment? What you are saying may be true in normal times but it really isn't at the moment.

Like Fallulah our beloved dog passed away during lockdown and unfortunately this means in looking for another, we are caught in the lockdown dog frenzy simply because of timing.

The demand for puppies has skyrocketed in lockdown. It's all about supply and demand, unfortunately.

@Crankley

eatyourcake What is insane here is not the price, it is the fact people are still buying puppies, where there are countless abandoned dogs in shelters, desperate for a loving home, including fancy breeds of all ages.

This. It can't be said often enough.

It really can. It’s said ad nauseum on MN. I’m sick to death of it.

Yeah, we can't get a dog from a shelter though. We have a cat, and children, and walls that are lower than 2m surrounding the house. So every rescue I've ever applied for they've turned us down. The rules are so ridiculous that I'm not really surprised people give up trying to rehome a rescue.

We've been looking for a rescue. We have a secure garden, 2 adults at home and youngest is 15. But we are dog novices.

Zilch.