Buying a puppy. Breeder applying pressure for payment.

[fandangored]

Breeder applying pressure for payment and asking for transfer or cash payment BEFORE viewing day with puppy at 4 weeks..?

Already paid a £200 pre reserve fee!!!

Should I continue or red flag and run?!

Check again - it’s normal to get 4 weeks free insurance which the kennel club give for free. Then you arrange your own.

Edit - just saw it’s a cavapoo so no KC insurance. Have there been any health test on the parents - dna tests for common diseases, hips, elbows, eyes? Id never buy a designer cross with no health tests but it doesn’t stop half the country doing it.

We took £600 in cash when we bought our dog… it’s not that unusual

I wouldn’t be taking a new pup to a vet straight away either to be honest.
If there was any sign of lethargy, anorexia, loose stools, bloated tummy or runny eyes of course I would but I’d be looking for that before I took the pup home and would seriously reconsider if I saw any of those concerns.

Most dog adoption centres will not allow anyone to adopt a dog if they have younger children. It's an absolute piss take and why so many people choose a puppy over an older dog.
If you want people to adopt not shop, please campaign for rescue centres etc to allow families with children to adopt dogs as that is where the issue lies, with the rescue centres themselves obstructing adoption, not with families.
Place the blame in the right place please

Please stop funding puppy breeders! If you truly cared about animals you would adopt a dog.

Rubbish.

As a cavalier owner, cross breeds with them are SO fucking irresponsible.

they are beautful dogs, i've had 4 of them, the current one is 10, but they can have SO many problems, even if you do all your research. The one we have now has a perfect heart and knees as their breeder worked hard to try and fix that, but has the issue with the skull being too small.

Crossing a breed with so many congenital defects and then asking for that much money is daylight robbery.

If you want calm/gentle, get a Cavalier, good insurance and be prepared for health issues after age 9, if you want hypoallergenic, get a poodle, but do not pay some backyard mutt breeder for a MUTT.

We visited our breeder when the pups were three weeks old. We were very happy with everything so we chose a puppy. We collected our puppy when she was nine weeks and paid by bank transfer whilst we were there.

Surely this is how it should be? Personally I would not part with any money until I was certain I was taking the pup.

But surely if there were no dog breeders, in 15 years time dogs would be almost extinct.

The snotty, gaslighting, exasperated tone would be enough to make me walk away from doing business with them. I'm not even a dog person, but the No Vet(!) advice seems bonkers.

Sorry, Op. 😔

Mine was a crossbreed (cockapoo) and I have his parents history going back a long way! I also have hip scores etc

I’d say lots of small scale breeders are creative with their tax arrangements.

At the end of the day if you're not comfortable don't go ahead.

But from all I can see from her message, she is simply being straight with you and to the point, probably because she's had time wasters in the past.

If you sent her a pissy email at 2am I'm not sure what kind of response you expected, and it seems like you simply misunderstood about the payment.

To me she seems knowledgeable and professional.

But you should never go ahead with buying a pet if you don't feel comfortable, for whatever reason.

I make it a principle not to give money to anyone who is rude to me.
So for that reason alone I’d be out.

This all sounds like a red flag to me . Cavapoos are not calm dogs at all , my friend has two and they are totally chaotic . Too much for me and not a breed I'd ever have

also, if one of the parents is a pedigree Cavalier, please ask to see their documents. You need a heart score of the parent, and at LEAST both of their parents.

There are KC ordered breeding protocols around KCCS that limit how often and when the Bitches are allowed to breed, look those up and if the mom of this pup is the Cavalier, make sure they've been followed.

Absolutely. We have done this with both our dogs. The first was a border terrier puppy bought from a registered KC breeder. No problems whatsoever. The second was a cockerpoo bought from someone online. Everything looked great when we visited and then collected. Took to the vet next day and vet gave us worming tablets - poor dog was riddled with worms, what came out of her almost made me heave - foot long worms out of a tiny puppy. If we had waited, the puppy would have been gravely ill!

Well said. I don’t understand the vilification of breeders. No breeders no dogs. Just make sure it’s a reputable breeder who does health tests.

The pre-reserve fee should have been your first sign to run a mile. There are vanishingly few good breeders of these crosses, and this certainly doesn't sound like one.

I would definitely warn anyone not to get anything crossed with a poodle. These aren’t breeders, @fandangored they are money grabbers.

We have a perfect dog. She’s a miniature poodle. They have all the traits you are after. Forget getting a cross, you don’t know whether it will be healthy. Cavaliers have a big problem with heart conditions.

The kennel club has online lists of reputable breeders and you are protected by their standards. It's probably too late now but I put a deposit down after viewing and did a bank transfer for the full amount on the day I picked my dog up. I'm not sure if it's dodgy or not but if you decide not to proceed I suggest you take a look at the kennel club website

Totally agree. My sister has a cavapoo and whilst absolutely adorable, she is nuts. The dog is now 3 years old and still behaving like a puppy. Hardly sleeps. My sister tried to crate train her so she slept downstairs at night and she kept the whole street awake! She now sleeps on her bed.

Also, big difference in size depending on the size of poodle bred from. My sister's was bred with a miniature poodle and she is around 7kg. My friend has a cavapoo bred from a standard poodle and they are around 20kg!

I'd recommend a Lhasa Apso.
As a breed they are relatively free of health issues, also none shedding.
More robust than a shit zhu or a cavalier.
Very long lived which is important if you don't want a broken hearted teenager.
Enough energy to run around on long walks but happy to spend all day by the fire if that's what the day brings.
Fairly clever.
We got ours as a rescue when the DC were all at primary school and our eldest child is now 27.

For whatever reason It sounds like things have badly broken down with this breeder. I would look elsewhere.

When we tried to adopt a dog most rescue centres would not let people adopt if they had childreb under 8, for really neglected dogs children had to be over 16. We also found many of the breeds were staffies/ collies, nothing wrong with that but they needed 90 mins off lead exercise a day. They also preferred you have a dog at home as many had come from puppy farms and needed another dog to show them how to be a dog. When we found two little cuties we liked with no child age limit the adoption centre never for back to us. Adopting a dog is not as easy as made out, we tried!

I am not sure what email you sent to the breeder but you’ve definitely irritated them. However emails can often be misinterpreted.

I paid cash for all of my dogs but one..which I did via bank transfer as I wasn’t 100% sure we’d buy him stupid really as there was no way I wasn’t going to I think I was just being an idiot

Saying that last year was the 1st year I’d purchased a dog for 8/9 years so maybe bank transfer is the preferred way now. I’ve never paid an upfront reservation fee, only a deposit after viewing the dog.

Personally I’d never buy any form of cross breed, they have been used to make a quick profit from unscrupulous people and from friends experiences can have health issues.