I think I just bought a puppy!

[CakeyCakeyCakey]

It's a gorgeous black springer x cocker spaniel. A really pretty 8 week old girl, hopefully I'll pick her up in two weeks.
I could have her tomorrow but it'll take me two weeks to get te money together, I'm slightly stressed that I'm getting her from a woman who's only had her a week but needs to pass her on as her son is allergic. She's going to keep her for me but if her little boy gets worse she says she will have to let her go to someone else.
I'll have to try and scrape the money together from somewhere quicker.
I'm a little excited but wary it's a scam or something, she'll get no money from me till I have the dog and I'll keep half back till we take her straight to the vets, she'll get the other half when she's had a clean bill of health.

What have I forgotten to fret about? What do I need to buy? Should I hold off buying anything till I have the dog in my hands?
Am I being scammed?
Am I neurotic?

Am I too excited? We've been discussing this forever and were let down twice this week with other dogs.

I would still steer clear ,there are really no reputable breeders of spaniel/cocker x and this puppy has missed its window for you socialising it .

OP get pet insurance to cover vet bills.

OP sorry but you need a reality check. What you are buying is a mongrel that someone else is struggling to rehome so they should be giving you the puppy for free rather than charging you money. Any reputable breeder would immediately take the puppy back if the new owner was having problems, so either the whole allergy thing is a lie or the breeder is as unscrupulous as she sounds.

If you want a puppy there are millions of them out there for you to chose from. Chose a breed based on your requirements, chose a responsible breeder, meet the parents, and put your name down on a waiting list for the next litter. Then you get to visit the pups at around 5wks and when they are ready to go home and you chose the right pup for you from the litter with advice from the breeder.

Whichever way you get a dog you need to be able to afford basic care:

• insurance for vets' fees and the ability to pay the excess and anything not covered for by the insurance.
• standard dog training classes and, in some cases, you may need to have 1 to 1 consultations for specific problems.
• food, worming, flea treatment for the duration of the dog's life.

Frankly the number of people on here who take on dogs, have serious problems and can't afford to get help is disturbing.

Pet insurance won't cover pre existing conditions.

Frankly the number of people on here who take on dogs, have serious problems and can't afford to get help is disturbing.

Agree with this. Not just the cost factor either.

OP - what is a 'mostly' reputable breeder? Why do you think she wanted to charge £100? Just also check what health checks the parents of the puppy have had, any breed specific conditions that your puppy has a higher than average propensity for, and, if possible, go and see the parents of the puppy and breeder. You will be able to accurately assess what kind of parentage she has and what kind of a home she has been brought up in, what early socialisation she has had.

I am not a big fan of 'breeders' of cross breeds who then sell with fancy names and charge hundreds of pounds. I can't see their motives for doing so to be honest. What's wrong with a cocker or a springer? I have one of each so am biased, both breeds are fab in themselves and I really wouldn't want to have a mix.

Then you can make a clear decision. Good luck.

'see' the breeder too, sorry, my post wasn't clear.

Any breeder worth his/her salt would have the puppy back to rehome it themselves - this should be a condition of the original sale and the fact that it isn't rings major alarm bells here.

I don't know about this Cakey. The part that is a red flag is that the puppy is making her child ill, but she wont part with the puppy until you exchange the cash.

I don't know the going rate for a spaniel x to be honest, but that does sound like quite a lot of money to pay for a cross breed. Has she had her first two sets of vaccinations yet?

Just to cover yourself, do a bit of a googling on her name, including the breeders.

If you do decide to take her (or if you don't then you will need this for a any new puppy):

You need to find out what food she is eating even if you don't plan on feeding the same brand, you cannot just change to a new food just like that. You will need to give her what she is used to and over a 7 days period add the new food to her existing brand. We are giving our pup probiotics which is recommended due to pups getting worms easily.

You must find out about her vaccinations and deworming.

You will need the usual bed, crate (if you plan to use one), toys to chew.

You should ask about her parents. If the breeder is local then go and see them. This is quite important so you can see if they are good natured, if mum looks healthy etc.

Best of luck.

Sorry Cakey, really sorry, but I agree with Floralnomad. A "mostly reputable" breeder wouldn't be breeding mongrels, and would have taken the puppy straight back as soon as the owner knew there was a problem.

290 for a Mutt is ridiculous - I have a Mutt, collie/springer cross that I rescued, as an 8 week old pup, from Many Tears Animal Rescue MTAR They currently have 31 dogs under a year old looking for homes. We paid a 150 donation for her (I think the price is now 170).

MTAR will definately home to families with children. DD was 4 when we got the mutt.

I really don't think you should have this dog, you don't know its history, it hasn't been vet checked and you could find yourself in difficulty if there are problems. At least if you go to a rescue then you have back-up if there are issues.

Sorry again.

I'd only pay that for a springer x cocker if it came from absolutely cracking working parents, and even then that would be considered very steep, £150-£200 would be more realistic.

Still stay away i think. There are rescues for family's or find a decent breeder of a dog u want. The story I told was for a cocker x on both occasions ending in huge vet bills one pup went back to breeder as he was poorly the later was adopted by a charity. A good breeder would take pup back and the fact they want money to do so is not indicative of a dog that's been well breed and socialised etc. Get a dog of course just not this one.

Walk away. Any reputable breeder makes it a condition of sale that they have a puppy back free of charge should the new owners encounter issues or difficulties.

The fact that puppy woman has mild learning difficulties could be why she is being used / abused by a back-yard breeder.

You take this puppy and in a few weeks she will need to rehome another one with the exact same sob story, and another, and another... This is how back yard breeders operate.

Walk away and put your money and goodwill into the thousands of homeless dogs in rescue centres all over the country, please...

I was in a similar situation to this a fair few years ago. We bought a GR puppy. Breeder seemed fab, saw parents, everything checked out. Our DD was 2 at the time, within a week she was seriously ill and diagnosed with asthma, then hospitalised with pneumonia. The drs were fairly sure the cause was the puppy. Did the breeder want to help us out? Did she hell!! We begged her to take back the puppy for a bit so we could find it a new home (family and friends couldn't help). She refused so I had to move out with DD whilst we frantically advertised and called shelters. By now it was just a few weeks before Xmas and I was terrified puppy would go to somebody who only wanted it as a Xmas present. Finally breeder got in touch and said she had found a home for the puppy but would only give us 25% back of what we paid for it. We didn't have a choice.

So sometimes this situation does happen. It may be a con but it might not!!

Just an observation: there are many rescue centres with puppies in need of homes. Why are you paying for a puppy when you say you will be using a charity to afford its upkeep? Why don't you pay less for a pet and fund the rest yourself? Or don't have a pet if you can't afford its bills? Then charities like the pdsa can use its funds to help people and animals that need it. Instead, what you are doing is expecting a charity to meet the costs of a pet you can't afford. So don't buy the pet to begin with?

I have a good vets practice already where I used to take my cat before he died, I'd only use pdsa in an emergency.

Op has an under-5 so lots of rescues would not rehome to her.

Also, there is nothing wrong with not taking on a rescue dog, especially if you have a child.

Also, whilst the story sounds likely to be puppy farming front, it is not certain it is. It could be true.

Also, we paid £250 for a "mongrel", a lurcher, and I think giving away puppies for free ( as suggested by some) would not be good practice, as in a way asking for a sum like this ensures a person thinks a bit more about whether to take a pup on or not, as OP is doing.

It is wonderful and amazing most people on MN have a rescue dog, but that is not for everyone, especially first time dog owners with small children.

Also, there is nothing wrong with not taking on a rescue dog, especially if you have a child

Of course not, but there is no difference between an 8 week old Rescue Puppy and an 8 week old Puppy Farmed Puppy, child or not. In fact I'd say the Rescue Puppy was safer because it will have been socialised whilst in Rescue whereas many Puppy Farms leave the pups continuously crated. The Rescue I volunteer at often uses me and DD as 'test subjects' for puppies/younger dogs.

However, I will never be persuaded that it is a good thing to charge for Mutts. It just means that it's an easy quick buck for irresponsible people - pimping their dog out for cold hard cash. If people refused to pay, maybe less would breed.

But what about responsible breeders? Those who make a profit but also put the money into taking care of their dogs and vaccinate/chip etc and have all the paperwork you need. There's a reason some dogs are the price they are because they have been cared for and had all necessary checks and the studs are well researched

I agree with ^^ what LtEve said

I completely understand that some people do not want to take on a rescue dog and will feel more comfortable with a puppy bought in the correct way - health tested parents who you have met and that have been carefully selected on temperament as well as looks, brought up in a home environment, carefully socialised by a responsible breeder.

However, if you are willing to buy a puppy whose parents you have no idea about (other than breed - and that often turns out to be lies as well) and whose socialisation you have no idea about, there is no difference between that pup and one in rescue. In fact, I knew more about my rescue puppy (9 weeks) than OP does about this puppy. A rescue I volunteer for has a litter in now from an accidental mating so we know Mum, Dad and the family. Obviously I believe that they were irresponsible to allow the pregnancy, but they have done well by the pups since they arrived.

The recent thread about the cross-breed that has snapped twice is an excellent demonstration of why I believe many families would do better with an older rescue dog that has been assessed in a foster home by a good rescue as suitable for a home with young children. It's very hard to convince people of this as they are so sure all dogs in rescue have problems. Of course some do, but many don't and you will have a much better chance of a good family dog than with a puppy farmed or backyard bred pup from the internet! What people don't realise is the number of these in homes that have identical problems to many rescue dogs.

TBH Giles, right now I am against ALL breeding, less those dogs whose breed is dying out.

With the RSPCA alone killing 32 dogs every single day, council pounds applying to reduce the 7 days to destruction period, NI killing strays after 3 days and every single Rescue I know being full to bursting point, I cannot contain my revulsion of anyone who thinks it is more important to breed yet another litter of Labs/Springers/Huskies/Collies/Westies et al.

I'm sure there are "nice" people out there, people that look after their dogs, vaccinate, chip, hip score and vet check and so on. But it doesn't matter how nice they are - by breeding their dogs they are putting a death sentence to another dog/5 dogs/7 dogs/9 dogs (in a litter) sitting in Rescue begging for a chance.

People will always want 'pedigree' dogs - for what reason I cannot fathom, unless they are going to show them/take them to crufts (why Joe Bloggs needs a pure bred, from a line of champions Golden Retriever in their 3 bed semi I'll never know), but to take two 'pedigree' dogs and splice them, well, that's just daft. And if you have to have a pure breed, well look at a breed specific rescue - plenty of them about too.

Just last night I have persuaded DH to have a look at the litter of JRTs being shown at MTAR - they were tied up in a plastic bag and put in the bin . We got our MuttDog under almost identical circumstances which is why these pups have pulled at my heart strings. When wankers are doing stuff like that, we (royal we) shouldn't be bringing more dogs into the world.

Do you think that making it illegal to own or breed a dog unless you have a license/home check text would help.

Something would need to be done about policing it obviously. But I agree sonething needs to be done because the amount of dogs in rescues is too high, and some dogs are so mis treated they don't stand a chance of a normal loving home, and I'm always saddened to hear cruelty stories or how animals become victims of abusuve house holds, no one reports then for fear of what happens to other people, it's awful, truly awfu!!

But I honestly don't know how you can stop that happening whilst still allowing for those who would give a dog a wonderful home and live a long happy life.

Text? Etc