Lockdown puppies! Here we go again..

[Prancingponies]

Except we don't, sort of. Totally not an AIBU, but posting here for traffic.

Yesterday I did a rare thing and shared a post put out by our local police force - County Durham as it happens. It was a post suggesting that people who had gotten lockdown puppies and had realised they could 'no longer cope' (my apostrophes, not theirs) could contact the force and they would look at training them to be police dogs, in all sorts of roles.

Pups of up to 2 years considered, working type dogs preferred, but not necessary.

I think it's an absolutely brilliant idea. Shame most of the people who bought them 'want their money back'. Lets just hope when they don't get it they might consider this.

@UhtredRagnarson

My dog was possibly a lockdown puppy. I got her 6 weeks ago from the pound after she had been found as a stray. She is around 10 months old. I worry that people think I’m a lockdown puppy idiot but I had my previous boy 10 years when he died at Xmas and wouldn’t have been getting another dog had he been still around. I don’t have new dog due to lockdown or anything relating to it. It’s just the timing of when my old dog died. And my house is just soulless without a dog.

Definitely not. Lots of people who are good owners will have got a new dog over the past 15 months. People who thought beyond the next couple of months.

I’ve just checked Gumtree countrywide and it isn’t full of older puppies being rehomed. There is two or three. I think some people like to think this is a bigger problem than it actually is confused

Set your location to London, and put in 'dog'. I'm now sure how you only saw 2 or 3 nationwide.. There are more than you can count.

Rehoming due to 'change in circumstances'. Far more of the adds mention 'first come first served', 'no time wasters' and 'price not negotiable' than 'looking for a good home', or home vetting. It's clear that money is the main motivation in rehoming, rather than caring about the welfare of the poor dog. I wonder how many of them are stolen as well..

They haven't hit the rescue sites YET because the massively inflated prices puppies were and are still going for means that the resale price for second hand untrained adolescent designer breeds is STILL enormous and people are STILL paying it.

It'll happen but it's going to take a while for prices to drop, when prices DO drop.. thats when the shit and the fan will meet.

Pre covid, I was taking on one or two clients a month for general separation anxiety/puppy hand holding.

I am now turning AWAY five to ten a month, have taken on a second person and I have a 3 month waiting list on top of that, of those who want me/my colleague and will wait.

This is because so many people took lockdown as an opportunity to get a dog and are now finding its hard work, and these are of course, the responsible people who will seek help and put in that hard work.. so the very tip of the iceberg in terms of people struggling with puppies purchased in lockdown.

On FB today advert for an 8 mo female bulldog, bought for £4000, will accept £2,500 due to change in circumstances. I know these idiots, the change is a baby, who was on the way when they bought the puppy, saw pound signs from breeding then decided it was too much work and want some of their cash back. £4000 for a pup poor thing will probably be bought by another idiot and used as a breeding machine

Looking at the ‘new’ dogs recently at the park, they’re all poo crosses. I don’t know if they’d be suitable, they are feral, frankly. The cocker types might be handy, but I don’t know if the poodle aspect would be ideal.

Rescue centres often have vetted waiting lists for certain breeds.

They also don’t always put them on the website as they don’t want to be overwhelmed with applications to have to spend time and money going through when they have owners in the queue.

For example: A Yorkshire terrier puppy near me got over 400 applications pre-covid, whereas some other dogs had been in the centre for months.

Until there are more cockerpoos on Dogs Trust than Staffies I think I’ll assume that while there are some arseholes most dog owners are actually OK human beings. It's not rescue centres being used at the moment. Many are trying to sell the puppy to recoup some of the often exhorbitant price they paid.

A quick look on Pets4Homes for a dog 4 - 12 months old and they all have a version of "unforseen circumstances" on them! £2K for a cocker who, at 4 months old, is apparently lovely and mostly toilet trained

"I don't have time for hm" for a 6 month old Malinois with a £12K price tag - and is not the most expensive dog on there!