£800 for a puppy?!

[yellowbrickroad]

I'm looking at getting a puppy. Initially I wanted a Bealge, but had no idea that they cost around £800 from a breeder! Waaaayyyy too much for me (despite how cute they are).
I've tried looking on local ads but there still seems to be a cost of around £200 attached to getting a puppy. I was under the impression I could find someone local who's dog just had puppies and I could take one home for a tenner (pretty sure that's what my mum did with our jack russell!)
I haven't had a dog before (apart from when I was a kid) and have a young family & not lots of space, so would like a small dog, but have no clue how to go about finding one that doesn't involve me paying hundreds of pounds. Can anyone help?

Dod has just eaten a jammy dodger, thanks to dd2....

Thanks, I will stop sulking but I think I may start a petion requesting sandwich hobnobs next time!

We got a puppy last weekend from a reputable breeder, a hungarian Vizsla he cost £750 inc microchipping.
I notice in your thread that you said you have young children, think v carefully about getting a pup, my ds is 4 and dd3 and this wk controlling them and the puppy has been a nightmare, so much so that we are considering returning the pup.Would reccomend on my experience so far wait until your children are 6 or over.They need to know how to act with a dog and mine just keep winding mine up.

tulip, if your puppy is just 10 - 12 weeks old and you are already having rouble then you may be right about returning him. I do not mean to sound negative but, IME, you are currently in the easy bit, the hard bit is yet to come

The hard bit is yet to come????
Oh please no.....

King's right, I'm afraid. Teeny puppies sleep eat and poo, whereas bigger ones bounce around your house and garden.

Does the puppy have a crate, which you can tell your dc's is out of bounds? Another good idea is to separate the dc and dog with a dog gate (think large stair gate).

Sorry to be the bringer of bad tidings (and don't shoot the messenger please ) the first couple of weeks are pretty easy going, the next couple they stretch you a bit more and thn they start to become confident, increasing energy, teeth start niggling and they still have puppy brain...it can be trying and it lasts a few months, depending on the breed of course.

On the upside they are fun, interesting, full of life, eager to learn and experience new things, desperate to please...

It is like having a child, the sleepless nights bring you to your knees but the daytimes whilst they learn to play, crawl, walk make it all worth while!

We have a crate but the children keep letting him out when I'm not looking,I keep trying to explain about puppy needing his rest etc but it falls on deaf ears '' but mummy he looked at me and that means he wants to play!'' as a result the puppy has bitten him.Getting a stair gate tomorrow so the crate and pup can have their own room and a dog behaviour person coming to help us with the whole puppy small child bit, he has drawn blood from 3 people this wk and not sure what to do.

Does it really get harder than this? I assumed this was the hard part.

Nipping at this age isn't usually aggressive (even if it draws blood) but tbh if your dc's keep teasing the pup then it will snap and end up having to be rehomed as not suitable with children. Very sad.

If you are going to keep the pup you really have to make sure your dc's leave the pup alone when necessary.

make way for the horse

our pest puppy was

£1000

Getting a behaviorist in is the best possible option. All pups play with their teeth, it is what they have learnt with their siblings etc. They have to adapt to a new way to play and it is a big change for them. If he is drawing blood then he is playing a bit rough IMO and needs to be taught quickly!

Bella is right, children winding a puppy up is a bad thing, simply because a puppy cannot stop when they get bored, it cannot switch off the way a child can. This ends up with the pup running around off its rocker with excitment and using its teeth to try to get anyone involved in a game (as it would with its mum etc). After a while the children just being their cause the pup to be excited and start to nip... well, you can see how it happens?

£1k (looks even more when you write it like that) is, on a £ per kg basis, fecking good value for a Bernese Mountain Dog

I'd say that works out at about £20 per kg, whereas those pugs were £240 per kg

agree about disapline - my guys KNOW that if the dog goes in his crate, that means he has had enough and wants peace and quiet

Ooh, swiss mountain dog? Yummy

I agree the children need to leave the poor pup alone, can I put the children int he crate?

I am hoping the behaviouist chap will tell us in front of the children what we shoould be doing and they might listen to a stranger more than me. I think getting a puppy when the children aren't trained was a bad idea but I just can't bear to send him back. My husband wants him to be an outside working dog but I am not sure how that will work with the children.

And my lab's only about £12 per kg - how's that for a credit crunch dog?

good point bella- will mention that to db next time he moans talks about costs of dog

he has a bed the size of a single matress

If you are after a specific breed, some of them have their own rehoming groups. I know there's a lab one, but there are probably others - an internet search might do it...

I agree with KIngCanute. I've had 2 puppies and both mine were relatively easy for the first 5 weeks I had them (toilet training excluded). After that 16/18 weeks until about 6 months old is the hard bit and any problems (snapping, chewing stuff, etc) emerge.

Vislas are not easy dogs (so beautiful though) - a good friend of mine has one and she has had to put in a lot of work with hers to overcome various problems. (She has no dcs, no dp, and the dog is her life so she can do this).

Any reputable breeder would take a dog back if he wasn't suited to a household.

Good luck!