Last night my daughter was telling me about someone she works with who's getting their new Boxer puppy today. It turns out they are buying it from a pet shop!

When my daughter said they really should see a pup with it's mother, they told her they'd seen a photo of the bitch in the shop. When she told them how many hoops people have to jump through before they even get to visit my dogs and perhaps get accepted on my puppy list, they were amazed.

Do you think we will ever get the message over to people about where they should get puppies from or are we fighting a lost cause?

I would like to think the message to not buy a puppy from a pet shop was getting through but unfortunately whether people are ill informed, just plain ignorant or do not care providng they get what they want (or think they want) here and now, credit/debit card in  hand and the puppy sold at the right price they will buy. Not questioning at any lenghth the person who is selling the puppy, believing all they are told or not looking any further than the cute puppy in front of them.  That is until they get the puppy home, the puppy is sick taken to the vets cost them dearly in vets bills and sadly sometimes the puppy is too ill to be saved and is pts.  Then and only then will they start to ask questions, sometimes rant and rave sometimes extremely upset but it is too late then the harm is done.

The seller is not too bothered they may reimburse the cost of the puppy and buy in another from a puppy farm to take its place, puppies from dealers are cheap to buy there is a high mark up for the seller and they can present the puppy for sale looking cute.

Puppies should never ever be sold from third party sellers and purchasers of puppies need to think before they enter into a transaction with a third party seller whether a pet shop or dealer selling puppies from home bought in from puppy farms in Wales or Ireland.  They should also remember the breeding bitches churning out litter after litter to replace the ones that are sold in a pet shop suffer a terrible life.

Watch BBC Inside Out NE this comming Monday at 7.30 if you cannot receive this it will be on iplayer your friend would be advised to watch and then question her own lack of integrity. 

In this day and age its quite alarming to know this is still permitted- given all the overhauling of dog welfare legislation etc
and who on earth would dream of selling their beloved puppies to a shop to end up god knows where!

Sadly a certain TV programme won't have helped!  If they'd done it properly they would of advised not to go to places like this and what kind of breeders to go to, but unfortunately they didn't.

That is one of my major criticisms of "that programme" - that it didn't take just a couple of minutes to say that there are breeders who do care and who do their utmost to breed healthy and typical puppies, and to advise people how to find them :(

I have come on here to update and remind people about the pet shop protest that I am organising tomorrow. All of these protests and especially the campaign against Harrods are gradually spreading the word but it is a slow process. The more publicity that we get then the more people might realise that a pet shop puppy might be an easy option to buy but not the right one.

I have come to conculsion that many people really do not care about the background of the pup. They are convinced that what the shop says is true and its almost like there is a class system at work Those that are slightly "dotty" about their dogs and get involved with breeders, health tests,travelling around to find the right breeder and the good breeders expecting certain standards from their prospective owners and theresthe rest  of the world apparently the "normal" people who are dog lovers? but kind of see them a bit like shopping in sainsburys ie you go to a shop that sells what you want and buy one that looks good and is the right price so there you have your nice ittle puppy.  Like most of us I have tried and tried with people but still hit a wall The people I work with just think I am a bit of a mad dog women, why would I put all that effort into buying and keeping a dog??or the oh child substitute comment. All I can say is whatever !

>I have come to conculsion that many people really do not care about the background of the pup

I wonder if it's more to do with the fact that they don't realise that 'background' has a huge impact on the emotional and physical development and overall wellbeing of a dog.  It's not just that they don't care; but that they don't know it matters.

Good point dogs a babe perhaps they see dogs as more a commodity than a real life creature that like humans genes and background means a lot.

>Good point dogs a babe perhaps they see dogs as more a commodity than a real life creature that like humans genes and background means a lot.

In the nature v's nurture debate many dog owners will assume that they can shape their dog to suit their circumstances.  It seems that they do not realise how much the breed can make a difference to that - let alone the early life experiences the dog may have been subjected to, or how the mating was chosen.

I remember most clearly a new beagle owner moaning that her dog spent all it's time sniffing the floor !!   Seriously though it's important to get the message about choosing the right breed as well as the right breeder...  although of course a good breeder would not sell a specialised breed to just any one. 

If you were to search 'buy a puppy' the very first sites you see are the sales sites - good advice is much further down the page.  The KC could do some work to ensure that they are top of the list for search engines.  The KC site actually looks a bit outdated now and finding articles once you are on their site takes more effort than many will have time for...

> perhaps they see dogs as more a commodity than a real life creature that like humans genes and background means a lot.

I don't think that's what dogs a babe meant.

Buster is my first pure-bred dog. Dogs before him were either from a rescue home or a local accidental litter. We were going to get a lab as our first pure-bred dog and automatically started looking through the local paper to find the cheapest pup (I'm horrified at that now!). Then decided it would be nice to get a rescue lab instead.
That didn't work out so I started to research what other breeds there are.
That is when I came accross the Mastiff. Due to the size & power of this breed, temperment was of the highest prioritory (I have kids and don't want my dog posing a danger to society), so I put an awfull lot of research in and only then did it become apparent that a good breeder was the best place to get ANY dog from. I ended up paying 3 times the price of what I could have got a Mastiff pup for from local free ads.
I've never seen a shop that sells pups so never new they were still about, but if we had one locally, prior to my research, I may well have ended up with a lab pup from a pet shop. Not from lack of care, but from lack of knowledge.

When you don't know that the breeding of a dog can effect it's health/temperment etc. (and the unsavory conditions of puppy farms) you don't see anything wrong with getting a bargain puppy from the first place you find.

I know that mastifflover, it is what I thought about some of the people I speak too sadly lol
You are probably right too lack of knowledge causes a lot of the problems

> it is what I thought about some of the people I speak too sadly lol

:(

Many many years ago I replied to an ad in our local pet shop for someone to look after an OES puppy while his owners were at work, he was about the same age as my GSD so thought it would be nice for Louie to to have a chum during the day. Couple turned up at my house with this totally out of control 6 m old pup, the story that unfolded made my jaw drop. They had bought Gardi from an ad in the paper, and the seller had very kindly offered to bring the pup to them as he had other pup's coming to the same area ( by this time the couple must have sussed there was something up by the expression on my face ) they met up with the man who opened his boot to reveal 11 OES puppies, the couple were told to pick which ever one they wanted. To give them their due once I'd told them the sort of life the pups would have had and the life their mother would have they were shocked, they were even more worried when I told them of the likely problems they would have with Gardi in the future. There is a positive outcome though, the seller hadn't bargained on the couple becoming so angry at the way he kept his dogs that they set up a "sting" with the help of their vet, in Scotland it's illegal to sell animals in the street, which is exactly what he was doing by selling puppies from the back of his car, so they phoned him up and said they'd love another OES. This time though the police, sspca and the vet were waiting round the corner when the deal was done and he was nabbed, all the puppies in the boot were seized ( eventually re-homed ) and the puppy farmer given a £2000 fine.
I think a lot of people do care but sadly don't do any research before buying, it always amazes me that people put more time into choosing a washing machine than they do a puppy that they will hopefully live with for a lot longer than they will with the washing machine. Depressingly just as many people couldn't give a hoot, they have the money to spend , they want a puppy now, and they'll dump it just as quickly when they discover dog's can't be shoved away in a corner when the owner tires of it.

I think a lot of people do care but sadly don't do any research before buying, it always amazes me that people put more time into choosing a washing machine than they do a puppy that they will hopefully live with for a lot longer than they will with the washing machine.

I agree :-) It is usually a lack of knowledge that gets people buying dogs from any source and the general public are not aware of the pitfalls. For many it's like buying any pet -  when the children were small we had a fair few pets and I have never got a rabbit or a guinea pig from a knowledgeable breeder and it would never have crossed my mind to do so, all our small pets have come from a friend of a friend or an advert seen locally - and many unsuspecting, kind, caring people do the same when choosing a dog. If they are not well versed in canine matters the only time they realise that buying in that way is not the best way is when they come across a problem and search on the internet for an answer thus coming across forums such as this where the majority of posters are more than happy to share their knowledge and experience and thus re-educate those who have made that mistake.

I found this site by accident a good few years ago and my horizons have been broadened considerably since doing so :-)

i was taken to a garden centre that sold puppies at the beggining of the year by my brother. Who ws convinced thet came from good breeders as the shop said the come from breeders, they even tryed to get me to get one! no thank you i want a well bred pup. Finaly got them to think what sort of breeder would sell pups to a shop or deler.

I am not sure if this has been posted on here before but there are leaflets available to print and distribute from Puppy Love to help spread the word about pet shop puppies and puppy farms. I normally take them to pet shops, garden centres and my vets but anywhere that will reach people and get the message out there.

http://www.puppylovecampaigns.org/posters.shtml