... 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???

We took a rescue dog aged 11 months fron Heathlands in Hertfordshire - admitteley have dod experience - but they were fine rehoming a dog to a family with a 5 year old 🦮🐕

Forgot to say had 6 years and been a joy 🐩

We had our 2 from a private foster based rescue. They don’t have a blanket policy but instead match families to dogs (who have been assessed in foster) prior to rehoming.

Our girl came from Romania as a pup but kept escaping from the garden and the family gave her back. She came to us at 10m and the main criteria, understandably was a secure garden.

Our boy was handed to the rescue at 5 months as he was to much for his family. He was then fostered for a few months before coming to us at just under a year. The main criteria for him was a family With another dog as that was what he was used to.

They had no blanket ban on young children (DS was about 8 when we adopted our girl) and we could have had either of ours at the puppy stage 3-5 months had we been in the right place at the right time.

If you are trying to find local private rescues, ask in local facebook dog groups for recommendations.

Yep! We've been looking at getting a dog for a year now, and will soon be in a position where it is a good time to get one. The price of puppies has more than doubled since we started looking to such an extent we probably won't be buying now.
I keep looking at all the local rescue places but nothing ever comes up that is a suitable breed for us or they need adult only homes.

Both of our cats are rescues. For a dog, we wanted to have a breed we liked for their characteristics and we wanted a puppy which could get used to living with us and the cats. I certainly don't feel apologetic, especially as the "we have a child, we work, albeit remotely etc." would certainly disadvantage us in the eyes of many charities. Mind you, had we decided to adopt a cat from a charity, we'd have the same, plus we wanted to have indoor/outdoor cats. Luckily, we came across two cats living rough on the streets who were only too willing to become little spoilt feline brats.
While I fully support animal charities, I disagree with the adopt don't shop for everybody. People should be able to decide whether they buy a puppy from a breeder or adopt a dog without emotional blackmail.

Am I the only one wondering if the spike in puppy prices is caused not only by an increase in demand but also by lockdown closing off the normal supply lines of boxes of puppies from grim puppy farms in Central Europe and in Ireland?

And 'adopt don't shop' doesn't suit everyone. It suits some people all of the time and some people some of the time and some people never. It would have suited us when the DC were younger, but after being laughed at by one rescue for thinking I could adopt one of their dogs with children under 10, and rejected for similar reasons by others, we got a puppy. And these days we do a lot with our dogs, so it's helpful to know where they came from - temperament, health, what their likely drives and innate abilities will be - so we've had other puppies since.

Our issue with rescues is the “first come, first served” issue.

We passed all tests. Teenagers, adult at home, semi rural, secure garden, family close by with dogs.

Two years I spent trawling websites, filling in forms and arranging meets. Never got to meet a dog, as always got a phone call saying the dog had been reserved or the foster carer had decided to keep it. Several times while we were in the car having driven an hour.

I got to the point where I was at the point where i’d have taken anything I got there first with, no regard for suitability etc, as I knew the chances were I wouldn’t be offered another. So I had to step back.

If rescues matched the dog to the owner rather than letting the first person to see it take it, they’d probably have more success.

A lady in my road breeds bulldogs, they go between 4,500 to 6,500.

It's the same with cats, people are selling moggies, half breeds or unregistered breeds for more than I've just paid for my Norwegian forest kitten who is a registered pedigree from a champion line. The trouble with people selling cats is that if they aren't registered then they aren't pedigree. They may look like a ragdoll but that's it. I have pedigree ragdolls and an unregistered breed kitten will not just hinder the breed. Guaranteed they won't have the breed standard of a genuine pedigree kitten. Proper cat breeders do so to better the breed. They are also health tested but these people breeding cats don't do that. It makes me bloody sick. They don't seem to realise that breed cats are prone to so many conditions and if you aren't buying a registered cat then you need to be prepared that your cat may die of hcm. Rescues won't allow us to adopt because I have four children and no way would I buy a moggy that just encourages idiots not to spay.

I always adamantly said I would never adopt from abroad because there are enough dogs needing homes here... but I found myself spending a long while on the Hungary Hearts website this morning.