Pets4homes - yay or nay

[SurreyisSunny]

What are your experiences of pets4homes. I’m looking for a miniature poodle and lots are advertised on there. Some seem legit with kennel names I can research. I’m only interested in KC registered. But equally it’s likely some are puppy farmed (albeit seems less possible with poodles as it seems the cross breeds such as cavapoos that are badly farmed)

My preference is a litter though Champdogs but there aren’t many!

I got my 2 youngest cats on there and they're lovely, not pedigree tho. Not sure about dogs. A phone call would be my first step to see how the person engages. I know someone selling a dachund puppy if you're interested lol! Good luck

Absolutely not a chance. Poodles need to have specialist tests done on parents before breeding. Contact the breed club. KC reg doesn’t mean good breeder. And any breed can be puppy farmed.

Champdogs is a much better bet than pets4homes , but I would suggest contacting breed clubs and ask for details of good breeders.
Be prepared to wait for the right puppy, but it will be worth it.

I got my dog from there, he's a cross breed so not the same as you want. Cant say I had any issues. The people we bought him from answered any questions we had and let us go and see him and showed us his parents, which was all lovely. I think this is all you can do and use your own judgement. I no that if when we had gone to see the puppies if I got a bad feeling about the people who were selling them I wouldn't had bought him.

No. Go to the kennel club website and contact registered breeders through that. Never pets4homes and never anyone who's magically got a puppy available immediately

We got rookiedog through there, before I knew of its bad reputation.

However we did do all the research you need to to before getting a dog. We visited the Mum in her home - very clearly a house dog and surrounded by the litter. Numerous video's before we picked up rookiepup of all the puppies interacting. All puppies were vet checked and had clean bill of health and when we took him away we were given a blanket he'd used to reduce anxiety about new surroundings.

Facebook page set up that's still active and has occasional meet ups - we live over an hour away, so have only been to one.one puppy was returned and the breeder took her back and sold her on again. The breeding dog only carried two litters as that's all the owner felt was good for her.

You could say we were lucky, but there were a couple of other pups we didn't go for. Breeder was reticent about providing vets certificate and a couple of other of things. It's reasonably easy to spot a rogue breeder.

@GoodChat I’ve found puppy farmed dogs on the KC website and scary COIs. But yes also looking on there

I used it for our crossbreed. Again hadn't planned to due to reputation but was looking one evening and a dog popped up locally. It was exactly what we were looking for, visited dog with mum several times before we got her. Still in touch and do meet ups. It can work but do your research and I would only go locally so I could do several visits etc.

Please report any puppy farms you come across

@Soxford1 really struggling to find a way to contact the breed club; I’ve tried!

I rehomed my cocker spaniel on there. The previous family weren't coping with him and were very genuine. I'm still in touch with them and I have never regretted taking him for a moment. He would have ended up in a rescue center.

You need to follow your instincts. There are genuine people out there but you do need to make sure you have the relevant health checks and certificates.

Got our dog from there with no issue, we specifically didn't want a Kennel Club dog as I find the show version of our breed isn't healthy.

As long as you're cautious and aware of puppy farms then it's fine.

I did get my pedigree from there.

I also made sure he had the parents dna tests that I was concerned about (saw the documentation and also checked it was listed on the KC site for the parents).

The puppy was expensive compared to other adverts but that was because many didn't have the parents tested and quite a few breeders had never even heard of the generic conditions you could test for.

Therefore I would say you have to do your research and also question the breeders thoroughly.

Where are you based OP?

@BiteyShark yes there’s some listed as “cheap” in the ad titles or about half the market price, definitely ones to keep clear of!

@GoodChat Surrey

Crufts is next month, I think, in Birmingham. Just wondering if it's worth you venturing out to speak to some proper breeders?

We got our dog on there. She was the result of an accidental one off litter. We saw both parents, she had been beautifully trained and prepared for a forever home. We have stayed in touch and send her pupdates from time to time as she genuinely wanted a loving home. No problems here at all.

Our dog came through word of mouth in the gun dog world. Kc reg etc and breeder doesn’t have a waiting list as she’s only had 3 litters (one every 18 months) and doesn’t want to get people’s hopes up. First litter was only 4 pups so she had a few of us lined up for second litter but nothing confirmed until they arrived, but then her girl had 8 puppies. She ended up using pets4homes to advertise the last 2.

before finding that breeder I called one from there too and honestly I got bad vibes so walked away. Do thorough checks and if it’s not feeling tight be prepared to walk.

We had a good experience on there l, we met the family and kept in touch after for about a year. We spoke a lot beforehand also. She added me on FB also which was good as you can get a good feel for someone. There were some I saw that I recognised the photos on other sites and they were clearly scammers. Some really dodgy ones but they are pretty obvious IMO.

We did find one breeder who offered us a pup, she took a long time to reply to me, she also then didn't respond for about 2 weeks (she had covid but I thought it was odd to just not to reply when we were mid conversation) I just got a bad vibe and didnt feel she wanted to know much about us. I may have been wrong but you can't be too careful.

@PugInTheHouse good to head your experience and yes agreed incredibly important to be careful

@TeenLifeMum yes some I see listed they’ve sold most the litter but 1 or 2 remaining, I guess the never know how many pups they’ll get. I’m in touch with a really good breeder (via champ dogs) who has already vetted 6 for her upcoming litter and won’t see anyone else but if she has 7 pups I maybe in with a chance! A bit more worrying when they haven’t sold any and they pups are already 8 weeks old.

No worries at all. One of the things that made us decide that the breeders were the right ones for us was that they had the mum, grandma and auntie at home. They were all in excellent health and the oldest at the older end for the breed.

You're not going to get anywhere near 7 pups in a miniature poodle litter. She's already pretty much sold her next two litters if there's 6 people waiting.