How far did you drive to collect your new dog?

[garlicandsapphires]

Just that really, searching for a puppy that's ready to leave at a time that aligns with my big chunk of annual leave.
Is a three hour long journey too long? I'm thinking that it surely is!
Any other thoughts/ tips/ warnings for a first time puppy owner?

6 hours each way. Pup was fine in the car on the back seat with me (harnessed) and is a vulnerable pedigree breed I was been longing for many years. Thoroughly researched pedigree and we had been on the reserve list when my dog was unexpectedly returned by his first owner. Take an extra person to supervise pup, newspaper, water bowl, disinfectant and drive steady and it will be ok. A good breeder will send you off with a supply of the puppy food to get you through the first day or two

A friend had a pet courier from a Scottish island to the North of England! That was about 12 hours. My current dog, 2 hours, but that was because the dog I wanted was that distance. I'd go where it takes and do whatever necessary for the right dog. But then he picked me, not the other way around.

45 minutes. Very lucky, we got to visit 3x before collecting (once we turned up unannounced to check all was legit!) but we live rurally and loads of gundog breeders nearby we know of.

He was good as gold in the car and has been ever since

We drove 2.5 hours each way. We wanted a good pedigree Samoyed from a trusted KC breeder and they're not overly available, well they weren't a month or two ago, so did think about driving many hundreds of miles, but didn't quite need to go that far in the end. She's ADORABLE too 🥰🐾

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1hr 20 mins to collect our puppy from Battersea London , we didn’t make multiple trips as we found him on our first visit and bought him home the same day . Best £85 I’ve ever spent .

Ours was about 2 hours each way, 2 visits, the first to meet potential mum and dad and also be vetted by the owner, then long wait until pups were about 5 weeks, we wanted a bitch and she was the only one so said yes to a pic at 24 hrs old (about 7 months from first contact to picking up and she was so worth the wait.

Five hour round trip for mine. I first met him at 4 weeks old and then went down to see him every weekend until he came home with me at 8 weeks. Stopped once on the way back with him and put loads of newspapers down in case he needed a wee. He was car sick though poor thing.

5 minutes down the road for our rescue dog! Went to look at her and they asked if we'd take her straight away We were worried if we didn't take her the next people along might be awful. 6 years later she's just the best!

Abour 2.5 hours each way for our puppy. They drove about an hour in the other direction to meet us as it was during lockdown and involved crossing the Scottish border! It was fine- DD went with DH and sat in the back with her. She was quite happy.

My daughter and her partner went from West Midlands to Yorkshire for our girl, just over two years ago. So, about 3/4 hours. Little girl was fine, as others have said, she slept most of the way.

due to covid, none of us had met her before. But that didn't bother any of us. The beautiful rescue girl We had before current one, was the only rescue dog we saw. I just cannot get my head round seeing a number of dogs, and just choosing one. I know we all would want to take all of them.

In both cases, it's worked out just fine. Current girl is a little shy with strangers, by the time she'd had her jabs, we were in the second lockdown, so she didn't have the opportunity to meet very many people.

but she's lovely with people once she gets over her shyness. But then , she's a bit of a tart, and will go to whoever has a treat in their hands 😁.

We had a video call at about 2 weeks then met the pups at 4 weeks where they said they'd be happy to let us have one and we said we were happy to have one.

There were 9 pups in the litter, can't imagine they would have wanted weekly visits from each prospective owner, even if we had been closer.

@garlicandsapphires - our latest dog is our third - the first we went twice - once to see him and then to collect him - we were "interviewed" by breeder so she thought we were OK. 2nd Dog - we took Dog 1 same breed same breeder and she looked at him Dog 1 and we had been in touch with her so she was happy to let us have DDog2 because she could see Ddog 1 was healthy and happy. . 3rd dog was during lockdown so we did a few zoom calls so she could see our other two ( which were from her and she is kennel club registered / there are crufts champions in our dogs lines - ha ha - not our dogs 😊 ) - we will not show these dogs but know she is such a responsible breeder. and she knew us as we had has 2 dogs before . So last dog was over zoom but she looked carefully at the other two - but this one was more of a just zoom calls and phone calls and collecting him. I am sure we could have got a dog of his breed closer but the elder two are fabulous , breeder trusts us and we trust her so worth a huge round trip. I would rather travel further for a dog who comes from a lovely breeder and we know all their dogs are lovely than skimp on getting an unknown quantity from nearer.

I did post once that we chose the littlest puppy & she would not let us have him because he had a heart murmur and even going to her local vet caused him some distress. So I would go to the best most reliable breeder you can & sometimes that is a big drive there and back. All best of luck to you

2 hours to get our lovely boy. Came back cuddling him all the way, even when he was sick on me 🤣🐾

My husband did a 12 hour round trip last week and my lord was she worth it!!!! ❤️

The fact you want a puppy at a particular time is a real concern. Bitches tend to have a couple of seasons a year. So for someone to be able to guarantee a pup when you want suggests they have too many breeding dogs and too many litters at once.
We travelled three hours for one. But also took over two years to find a puppy from a decent breeder. We couldn’t pick the week we wanted the pup.

I’m in Scotland and picked up dog from a farm in Northern Ireland. A proper working farm not a puppy farm. Parents were working dogs.

The right dog is worth travelling for. My dog is 3 now and is a fab family dog. Fit as a fiddle too not spent a penny on vet fees beyond standard vaccinations/ working/ flea stuff.

Over 4 hours to get mine. I was very particular about having one from a reputable breeder so the journey was worth it.

1.5 hours

Glad to see a rescue or two on here! We drove from the north of scotland to beyond edinburgh to meet and then collect our wee rescue girl from a breed specific rescue! She was worth the travel!!

The fact you want a puppy at a particular time is a real concern. Bitches tend to have a couple of seasons a year. So for someone to be able to guarantee a pup when you want suggests they have too many breeding dogs and too many litters at once.

Where has the op said anything about a breeder guaranteeing a litter at a certain time of year? I've read it that the op is looking at travelling further so that they can find a litter that will fall into place with their plans.

We did similar, having been on a waiting list for a long time, knowing the bitch had been mated, having been told we were likely to get a pup as a big litter confirmed we lined things up ready. Then there only ended up being a single female pup with the rest being boys. So we looked at other litters that had just been born. We were fully prepared to cancel things completely if we couldn't find the right pup. And out of about 80 litters on champdogs there were only 3 I would have considered. Spoke to the breeders, chose to meet the one I felt we had the best rapport with and ended up with our pup.

Plenty of people will say that good breeders should have a waiting list a mile long but I actually wanted to avoid licensed breeders, who have continual waiting lists. The breeders I was interested in are the people with working dogs who want to continue their lines and maybe have a litter to keep a dog for themselves every four years or so. Our pup was one of ten so the fact that the breeder had only had 7 people on her waiting list so had pups 'going spare' was not something that worried me.

Breeder dropped her off for us.

12 miles, which on the route in question takes 25 - 30 minutes.

45 minutes (luck, we would have travelled further). Breeder says that she has had owners from other end of country, Scottish Islands, occasionally abroad.

We had a phone 'interview', then one visit of probably 90 mins where we took the whole family and breeder suggested which of the pups she thought would suit us best (having got to know us a little and observed us) and we chose from those. We are first time owners, and found the process v helpful.

10 minutes to our local rescue home. Walked him every day for 5 days then took him home. Best thing we ever did. Giving an unwanted dog a home is really heartwarming. Wherever possible adopt don't shop !

3 hours and a ferry each way for my current dog, he vomited the whole way home and still hates car journeys
My mum got one of hers transported from Scotland to the south coast about 8 years ago
My previous dog was a 30 minute drive away by shear luck