Are people still buying dogs

[Blueberrymuffin40]

Interested in anyone who is still buying puppies and if the stats for them has decreased since everything is going back to normal.

Thread just for my interest only.

I do not know the definitive answer to this but I have noticed a sudden increase in the appearance of new puppies in my outer London suburb in the last 3 weeks or so (just as I was thinking it would be over). Whether these are puppies that were (deposit) paid for ages ago from proper breeders and are part of a litter just becoming available or not, I have no idea.

I think there's still quite a bit of pent up demand - from people who were always going to get a puppy around this time but aren't willing to pay inflated prices, and from people who have struggled to find an available puppy that meets their criteria.

To be honest I think there has been a long term shortage of properly bred puppies - hence the waiting lists pre-COVID for puppies from good breeders - and that shortage has invariably been met by puppy farmers etc.

There's a part of me that thinks the breed clubs etc. should be actively encouraging suitable people to breed suitable dogs (e.g. dogs suitable for breeding that have gone into pet homes) with mentoring programmes and support to meet this gap in the market and increase the supply of well bred dogs, in the hope that it suppresses demand for puppy farmed pups.

Likewise there's a long term shortage of "nice" rescue dogs that are cat / kid / dog friendly / small and that shortage has been filled by a combination of imported foreign rescues and puppies.