What to look for when getting a new puppy

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When we had our last dog he was quite an unusual breed and we didn't have much choice. We dropped lucky really, saw an ad in the paper, went to see him, he chose us and he turned out to be a beautiful dog with a lovely temperament.

We lost him around 6 weeks ago and dh and the children are trying to persuade me to get another. I am keen to get a responsibly bred dog but not bothered about kc registered.

Dh called three places today.

1. Family pets bred puppy 4 weeks old needs to be gone in 3 weeks as family are going on holiday. we discounted this one due to the young age and the fact that dh will be away in 3 weeks time and I have a lot on that weekend.

1. Breeder specialising in the breed, does not breed other breeds. Called and puppies all gone but have another litter whch will be ready next weekend. Talked about puppy care packs and info sheets/money back guarantee on the ad. However two litters within a week, must be a lot of dogs. Supposedly reared in hone alongside children. The most expensive. Woman said they had lots of enquiries.

1. Picture of dog being held up background was normal house. Called and they asked which dogs we were interested in as they have two litters at the moment (different breeds) dog being vet checked mid week, told to call back then.

Any obvious warning signs. And what shoudl we look for when we go to view. We discounted no 1 due to the dog only being 7 weeks and it being bad timing, we would want a calm settling in with dh and I both available. to be honest this week would be ideal as he is not at work until next Tuesday.

Avoid at all cost.. gumtree, petz4homes, epupz, preloved and all similar style sites. That is not to say reputable breeders don't sell there as some do, on principal that if they don't show a presence on these sites the public won't know of them and how to buy a dog correctly. Online have a look at champdogs, join the forum and ask for information there as you will get expert advice. The KC accredited breeder scheme is another place to look, again undesirables will sell through here trying to legitimise what they do but if you careful and spend some time sorting through you will find good breeders.

Your first contact point as mentioned here has to be the breed clubs who will have breeders they can recommend to you and be prepared, in fact be sure that you will have a wait.. and you can save all the money for the newest member of your family while you are waiting!

Personally I wouldnt be buying from any of the 3 'breeders'

Back Yard Breeders are only encouraged by people feeling sorry for the pups and buying them.

Please try ALL of the Bichon Rescues around. Others have given you some good links to try.
I understand how hard it is when you lose a beloved pet, but trying to fill the gap with another dog regardless of where it came from usually leads to heartache further down the line. Whether that is vet fees or having a poorly bred puppy with bad joints, dodgy eyes etc.

Take your time and find the right dog for your family.

I'm going to tell dh and the kids its a no go.

Will be bad mummy for a while I reckon.

I understand what everyone is saying but cannot pay over £600 for a dog,

I think you are making the right decision, 6 weeks isn't that a long of time after losing your last dog :( Give them all some time to heal from the last guy before they put all their emotions on the new puppy who won't be the same as the last one iyswim

oh :(

Could you not keep looking and save up in the meantime, so by the time you find a responsible breeder and they have a litter you'd have the difference in price? You could keep an eye out for a suitable rescue one as well in case there's one in the meantime.

Now see, this is more like it! Pleasant, knowledgeable and useful advice given about sourcing a puppy.

You have had some really good advice on here. Why not make yourself known to some of the rescue organisations mentioned here? - I am sure there will be at least one rescue group under the auspices of the breed society - as you never know when a puppy or young dog will become available - and meanwhile, as tabulahrasa suggests, save the difference in purchase price? As was said above, KC registration does not guarantee a well bred puppy, but you can pretty much guarantee that a deliberately bred puppy without KC registration will not have had any other care taken with its breeding either, such as health checks. That leaves you the options of saving for a registered puppy or going via the rescue organisations. Or, as someone else often says, you might be lucky and find a slightly older puppy available via a breeder who has kept it to show but needs to rehome it because it doesn't turn out to be good enough. The breed society may be able to help you with this. Does it have to be a puppy? Many breeders will look for excellent pet homes for young bitches who have maybe had one litter and had problems, so they can't be bred from again; small scale show/breeders often retire relatively young dogs into loving pet homes. There are lots of possibilities, as long as you are happy to wait a little while for things to work out - good luck.

Reputable breeders will have a waiting list, and not registering puppies suggests that perhaps the bitch has had more than her fair share of litters that year and they can't register the puppies, not that they don't want to because they want to sell to pet homes. BYB stands for back yard breeders - in it for the profit, not for the good of the puppy. Good breeders will give you lifetime care advice and really good ones will take the dog back if you're ever unable to care for it. If it was me, I'd go without a dog rather than lining the pockets of unscrupulous breeders. If you find a breeder you like and know the name of the sire and dam of the pup you can go on the kennel club website (or search google for kennel club health checks) and put the dogs names in and it will tell you the results for the health checks its had done.

OP, why not get the insurance claim sorted out fully on your last dog? You might find then that you'll get some money back from the insurance company, which will allow you to get a head start on saving up. In the meantime, you can be keeping an eye on Bichon rescue sites for a dog that is near you.

I can sort of understand the arguments against buying from people who aren't specialised breeders, but I just wanted to share the story about my dog.

Now, I'll hold my hands up at the start, and say we didn't know enough when we went looking. We suffered the common first-timer problem of thinking we knew more than we did. We both know a hell of a lot more now, and would go about getting our second pup differently.

We'd scheduled a trip out to two places, and the first one was a bit horrific. Hell of a lot of dogs, the pups were a bit old, with no house-training, and the whole setup was very much the BYB I'm imagining from this thread. We weren't impressed. These were essentially a mongrel cross.
The other pups we were looking at were border collies, something that I'd quite liked the idea of. We came out of the first lot, and sat in the car, and decided that we had to be careful looking at the second lot, as they would likely look good compared to the first.

The second lot were produced by a family who owned both the parents, and had an unfortunate accident. They'd owned the dogs for years, and been good about keeping them apart, but failed this time round. They'd produced nine incredibly cute border collie pups, of which only two were left. We fell in love with the bitch of the two, and decided we had to have her. (Note the utter lack of response carefully weighed in my previous paragraph.)
They'd done a good job, and had obviously done their reading, with all the pups cared for. But it would have been reasonable to expect the dog to not be great.
A year and a bit on, that's not true. She's not perfect, usually in response to her recall when there's a more exciting dog about, which she lost when she hit teenage, but we're slowly building back up. But she's a dog that does nicely at the obedience, and the agility and so on, and I would like to think part of that comes from the way she was raised as much as from her parentage.

If tl:dr, then let me say: don't automatically discount family breeders, because they can sometimes have the best of intentions and stay good friends with you afterwards.

I agree with everything alice15 says - my own dog is both a retired show girl and a sort of rescue dog, in that she was returned to her breeder when her owner became ill, and was up for rehoming, aged three. I went to look at a litter of (scheduled, KC registered, health checked!) puppies, met her, and fell in love. Best thing I ever did. She's beautiful, calm and well-mannered, and we 'clicked' as soon as we met, as if she'd been waiting for me to come and get her.

Do speak to the breed club and see if they know of any older puppies or dogs in need of rehoming - good breeders are more focused on finding good homes for their older dogs than on making money, and might be flexible about the price for a just-past-the-puppy-cuteness-stage Bischon.