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The doghouse

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Original poster

Where do we get a dog that’s not a rescue, from a breeder or from someone asking stupid money for a jacka-cocka-girlie-poo?

37 replies

Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 15:23

I posted on here last week to say that our elderly JRT had to euthanised. We are missing her terribly as is our other dog and we have decided to get another dog as there is a huge void in all our lives.

Our other dog is a rescue and has some
issues that will need to be worked around and although we would love another rescue we think a puppy would be easier to train around him. We also think it would be a good idea to get a female to stop any dominance issues.

The thing is we’re not really fussed about breed, a small terrier-type would be ideal so I don’t really want to pay a large sum of money for a purebreed but looking at what’s available it seems that you pay just as much for a Heinz 57!

Any ideas where else I could look?

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ShotsFired · 09/04/2018 15:28

I'm not sure if you don't want rescue because you think they're asking too much; or because you don't know history?

Setting aside the obvious issues with the former, and looking only at the latter...

I know Cats Protection (bear with me) offer a home from home adoption service, where the animals are taken from the old owner directly to new, without going via CP-sponsored fosterers or catteries in the middle.

A very small rescue near me also does this for other animals, incl dogs, although that's for reasons of space. So its' more than likely that dogs trust or similar could have a similar home-from-home setup too which would give you the animal history. There are also the animals that go into care after their owners die - in those cases the organisation managing them may have some background. Or possibly Cinnamon Trust or similar?

Original poster
Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 15:34

Oh I don’t mind giving money to rescues at all, it’s about the history. Our current rescue came to us with no history and he does have some very specific issues, which is why we want a puppy but there are no puppies in any rescues near us.

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bunnygeek · 09/04/2018 15:38

Can you travel at all? If you can go a little further afield there will be more rescue options.

Puppies definitely go into rescues of all kinds of breeds but rarely make websites and often rehomed/reserved within a week so you have to make sure you have a good relationship with the rescue and visiting regularly to be front of the queue!

There's 31 dogs under 6 months across all the DT centres on their website, the majority reserved and you can bet there are even more not yet available for rehoming or already reserved without hitting the website.
www.dogstrust.org.uk/rehoming/dogs/filters/~~~0~~n~

Tika77 · 09/04/2018 15:39

Wouldn’t it be easier to sort out the issues with current dog first and then get a second?

bunnygeek · 09/04/2018 15:39

In fact, I know of some rescues which as a rule don't put puppies on their website at all. There's no point going through the effort as they'll be gone so quickly.

Original poster
Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 15:40

bunny thanks for that, yes we can travel. I’m going to ring our nearest Dogs Trust Centre.

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Original poster
Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 15:42

Tikka The issues we have are not ones which will away. We worked hard with a behaviourist and have got as far as we can with him. None of his issues are dangerous, more like little quirks you just have to work around.

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OrlandaFuriosa · 09/04/2018 15:59

Well, Dogs Trust sounds brilliant. Another option though is to look in local rural newspapers or go to a rural town ‘S pet shop. They often know who has puppies and if you explain you’re not interested in breeders they’ll understand. Our JRT came from a farm, last of litter, his mum was only ever going to have one litter. We saw farm, her, his sister. He goes on holiday there from time to time and has a lovely time. Home from home.

missbattenburg · 09/04/2018 16:05

although we would love another rescue we think a puppy would be easier to train around him

Can I ask why you think that? Not trying to persuade you either way but I would have thought brining a puppy into a house with an existing dog that has behavioural 'quirks' will be harder to train because of how likely it is that the puppy picks up and copies the older dog.

Bubble2bubble · 09/04/2018 16:50

Agree, IME sometimes bringing in a nice settled dog can have a good influence on 'quirkiness' ;)

Bubble2bubble · 09/04/2018 16:55

Though all the rescues around me are swamped with the type of pup you are looking for :(

Wolfiefan · 09/04/2018 16:55

Do contact rescues. They often don't put puppies on their websites. Also maybe consider rescues that use foster homes like Black Retriever X. (I know you don't want one of those but it's an example of one I know of!) starfish is another one but I don't know if they cover the whole country. Or The Cinnamon Trust sometimes looks for permanent foster homes.
You may also have to be prepared to wait.

Bubble2bubble · 09/04/2018 17:04

I don't know if this us anywhere near you, but Heathlands have a lot of small terrier types, including a litter of puppies born there a few weeks ago.

Original poster
Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 17:06

In my experience adult rescues (and I’ve had a few) are rarely settled dogs. A puppy can learn the quirks.

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Original poster
Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 17:10

bubble that link doesn’t work, but I looked Heathlands up, if it’s the one in Royston then it’s practically the other side of the country.

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Original poster
Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 17:11

Cross post bubble

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Bubble2bubble · 09/04/2018 17:13

Yes, Royston. Can't get the link to work but it's a litter of JRT types.

tabulahrasa · 09/04/2018 17:45

“A puppy can learn the quirks”

What sort of quirks? And how quickly would it need to learn them? Because adult dogs are way easier to train than puppies.

Original poster
Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 17:54

tabulahrasa I am an experienced dog owner and I have not found this to be the case.

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Wolfiefan · 09/04/2018 17:55

Haha. You haven't met my puppy then. She wouldn't have picked up quirks. She would have run roughshod over them and tormented the adult dog! Blush

tabulahrasa · 09/04/2018 18:18

You must have had some genius puppies then...

My current dog is a joy to train commands to, I can teach him a single step in a day, a 3 or 4 step chain of actions from one command in about 4 days.

By the time I’d had him a week he knew his name, sit and wait... so at 9 weeks old.

He was a year old before he could reliably interact with the cats because teaching him how to deal with them in a way that was safe (for him) is much more complicated than teaching a behaviour on cue.

Original poster
Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 18:22

I really don’t know why this has turned into an inquisition about why my partner have decided on a puppy rather than an adult dog.

My current dog is my 5th adult from a rescue and this time we don’t feel that this would be the right way to go.

Thank you thank the people who have made suggestions to contact the rescues, I’ve just come off the phone to our local rescue who sounded very positive.

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Dancingfairydreams · 09/04/2018 18:24

Not sure where you are in the county but four paws in South Wales have a litter of pups at the mo.

Original poster
Skarossinkplunger · 09/04/2018 18:24

We’re in the North East.

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