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.

Don't dismiss Lurchers out of hand, some have zero prey drive or no more than any other breed of dog anyway. Plenty live happily with cats and chickens and I know of a couple that happily co-exist with rabbits and guinea pigs. It might be worth speaking to the rescues and seeing what they say.

Getting a pup and introducing them young can also help.

I have two. My elder boy is a complete softie and seems oblivious to small furry things on the whole, despite never having lived with them - he doesn't bat an eyelid at cats when we're out and about. The younger one is much more game, but at 1 year old will recall instantly from chasing birds in the park.

I live in South Yorkshire, most of the dogs round here seem to be Staffies, most of the rescues I've seen mainly have Staffies or staffy cross. I don't mind a mongrel but anything that's not a staffy.
I only want quite a small to medium dog though.

Dream dog is a border terrier but I've never found one for less than £500 and it's not that I can't afford it but I don't want to pay that much.

Keep an eye on the Dogs Blog. Lots of rescues list their dogs on there and I've linked you to the 0-1 year category.

Do be careful though, as not all rescues are created equal. You want somewhere that has behavioural back up and has as part of it's requirement that the pup has to be returned to them if you ever can't keep him/her for any reason. Also fine to see pups in foster, but watch out for 'front homes' which are just a way of puppy farms selling their pups - sadly all this does go on under the false front of supposed rescue. If the 'rescue' has nothing but pups, you have to 'book an appointment' to view and they are all about the money, rather than the homecheck and suitability or don't provide the back-up mentioned above, run a mile.

Not sure what age your dcs are, but it does tend to be easier with 5+ children, although some rescues assess each home on merit, rather than having blanket age policies.

Also, find and follow local rescues on FB, as very often pups get homed before they make it onto their website, so worth keeping on top of who they have coming in, iyswim.

[melts] at Beavis. He is lovely.

www.dogpages.org.uk/forums/index.php?s=165f441288f0837b8712be461666d9c0&act=idx/ - lots of dogs in rescue all over the country listed here.

Just be aware, that many of the listings in Dogsblog are completely out of date. Look at the top, near the dog's name and note the date - often they've still got 2013 dogs up there and I believe most of them would be rehomed by now.

Best to google rescues and look directly at their websites or, even better, Facebook pages, which are usually the most up to date.

If you always go to the age range page, the most recent dogs will be the ones that appear at the top. In the link I gave the most recent dogs were added yesterday. I tend to look at the rescue's websites as well though, as there's often more or slightly different info on their own sites.

Agree FB pages of specific rescues are the best place to keep up to date with their intakes. W, hen I was looking for a rescue pup last year I found most of the puppies had already been homed via FB before they even made it onto the main sites.

Facebook is a good idea ..... would love a lurcher but have a friend whose Doberman is constantly eating children's little furries and witness the heartbreak ... wouldn't be sure until it was too late ...

Cakey if a Border Terrier is your dream dog check out Border Terrier Welfare as they regularly rehome BT's and some beauties go through their hands.

I would target some reputable rescues that have the kind of dogs you want, follow them on Facebook and keep in touch with them. When I first visited the centre I got a puppy from there were none and I actually wasn't even looking for a pup. We interviewed and for an older dog but worked out between us and the rescue that he wouldn't be a good match for our existing dog. We then had a call about five days later to ask if we wanted this little pup. They would have homed him with young children.