I may have posted this before but here goes.
Anyone visiting this site who has a dog to rehome please bear these things in mind:
A lot of owners of pedigree dogs which are needing to rehome them advertise free to good home or comparively cheap in free ads papers or local papers think they are doing their best for the dog wrong!! puppy farmers trawl these type of papers they will go along sometimes with a family in tow and promise quite faithfully that their dog will be loved and cherished even provide photos of the home/garden etc..
Dogs especially female dogs can and do end up in puppy farms so therefore go from maybe sleeping in a nice bed with children and family to love to locked up in large sheds or buildings with many other bitches sometimes with little human contact and bred continually till of no further use then who knows.
But can you imagine a loving pets ending up in such a place?
I remember many an occasion going to pick up dogs from a breeding establishment glorified puppy farm they were not suitable for breeding they take weeks to trust me and my husband and develope a personallity they become like farm arnimals with no character but with kindeness and love eventually nearly always learn a new life.
I have to watch what I say on a public forum but beleive me after 22 years of owning labs and 14 years with rescue I do know what Im saying and I have seen terrible things in my time and pcked up the peices of some poor dog needing help.
So my advise is this anyone wanting to rehome a dog here are some optoins available.
1)approach breed rescue 2) advertise but with no papers available and ask a sensible price to deter the wrong people 3: always check where the family live,do a vet reference if they havent had a dog before then be careful. If in doubt of a person visiting your home to look at the dog then say no !! ask can you come to their home to bring the dog if they seem ok.
Dont forget once the dog is in their hands your ownership ends regardless of KC docs etc.. if you accept money or give dog away your rights end and your dog cannot tell you if they are shipped off then to other people.
Sorry this sounds dramatic but its important that if just one dog is saved from a puppy farmer then its worth it.

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Glenys

I have an ex puppy farm stud dog.  He will never fully recover mentally.  The place where he came from is now closed down but the proprieter used to do exactly what you have described Glenys.  Some of her dogs ended up with the RSPCA and because of a long drawn out court case they could not be rehomed as they still belonged to her.  A breeder was absolutely distraught to find out that one of these poor mites was her dog, one that she thought she had homed with a dear old lady who had tearfully told her about how her old dog had recently died and how much she missed her etc etc.  I expect she got a lot of her breeding stock like that.  I sometimes wonder if my 'Hovis' was ever someone's loved pet before.
Sally

that is the trouble sally, true puppy farmers are not the grubby dishevelled evil looking people some imagine them to be..like cruella de ville from 101 dalmations.....they are all too often very respectable looking charming people who are quick witted and always have a very believable story ready. i doubt if advertising would help much as there are always people who buy a dog then decide to rehome it often free of charge because they are fed uop with it it chews, it barks it wees on the floor the excuses are endless. for people to be wary of advertising these dogs to the wrong sort of people they would have to actually CARE about the dog they are wanting rid of and all too often they dont they just want shot of it to the first person who comes along, regardless of money etc

I just wish something like this could be placed on notice boards in shops like Pets at Home etc..it might make "sellers" more aware & hopefully scare off the puppy farmers.

It goes to show what a sad world we live in, when we have to worry about such things when trying to do the best for our animals :(
Very good advice though Glenys and hopefully will make those that did not realise, more aware

Mat, most of know this but it is still a though that is hard to accept, we are hauled over the coals for caring too much, but who can blame us?

It Can!!

Print it off and put it up yourself - I imagine we cover most of the country between us and could easily do something like this

we try to  watch the loot and see if any labs are in . Why cant we have a network of people all watching these papers etc.. and at the very least warn the advertisers.
Im going to run a large ad in loot  and keep on top of it something which happened this week has fired  me up again :(

          
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Ive borrowed these figures from another web page pretty scary dont you think? its the KC reg figures for dogs bear in mind these do not even reflect at all the unregistered or DLREG dogs

The top 20 breeds for 2003 are:-
Labradors - 41,306
GSD - 14,892
Cockers - 14,892
English Springer's - 13,877
Staffies - 11,325
Goldies - 10,710
Cavi's - 10,614
Westies - 9,823
Boxers - 9,542
Border Terriers - 6,447
Rotties - 6,369
Yorkies - 4,073
Lhasa's - 3,344
Shih Tzu's - 3,343
Dobes - 3,171
Weimers - 2,978
Bull terriers - 2,924
Mini Schnauzers - 2,873
Bulldogs - 2,270
Dalmation - 2,253

The top 20 breeds for 2002 are:-
Labradors - 35,996
GSD - 14,177
Cockers - 13,417
English Springer's - 12,431
Staffie's - 10,711
Goldie's - 10,526
Westie's - 10,015
Cavi's - 9,984
Boxer's - 8,916
Rottie's - 5,802
Border Terrier's - 5,339
Yorkie's - 4,222
Shih Tzu's - 3,113
Lhasa's - 3,065
Dobes - 2,706
Bull Terriers - 2,665
Mini Schnauzers - 2,607
Weimers - 2,473
Bichon's - 2,225
Border Collies - 2,113

Glenys this happens all the time :(   I think that the only way to stop it is to have the dog/bitch speyed before finding a new home.
Debbie.

And include that information in the advert

bearing in mind that the dog/bitch may be too young at the time of rehoming but it would certainly help with older animals

hi Glenys
This exact thing has happened to a friend of mine just recently.she asked me to put an ad on the net to rehome her choc lab male and was bombarded by people wanting to know if he had been used at stud etc.one particular person got in touch allegedly for a "friend" but wanted to know his hip scores, weight etc, bear in mind he was meant to be wanting him for a pet.There were altogether too many questions asked, that lead us to believe he was going to be exploited for puppy farming, and not kept as a family pet.
It's a hard enough time looking for a new home for your dog, without having to worry about this sort of thing.This person has since constantly bombarded my friend with nasty emails because she isn't willing to give him to her.I have given her your number glenys and hope she will contact you asap as she just wants a good home for him, and thought she would get this by advertising him free...

sorry to nit-pick but surely even someone who wants a "pet dog" would want to know EVERYTHING there is to know about the dog before commiting to buying him? I agree that to ask about the dog being used as a stud would be suspicious but surely to ask about size, weight, hip scores etc is a GOOD thing? maybe the potential purchaser just wanted to make sure they knew exactly what theyd be getting rather than rush into it? If I were buying a pedigree adult dog from a complete stranger I think Id be asking loads of questions including about hereditary tests. If someone rang me about buying a puppy and didnt ask any questions id be very suspicious, even more so if it were an adult dog (we dont sell adult dogs though). asking questions in my opinion is a good thing it shows the person is genuine and is really thinking about the decision not just rushing into it...how much is that dog? where are you? what colour is it? ok ill take that one......that is the kind of people who have a dog for five minutes then get rid of it because they bought it without really thinking it through

There are even worse fates for dogs advertised free to good homes, like being used in illegal dog fighting. I had a nasty case of this in West Lothian and had to listen to taped evidence with the SSPCA inspector. Needless to say I cried and threw up. DONT put a dog in the paper, get the breed rescue or Dogs Trust to take him/her in.

When the printer is working - again, if ever!  :(  I amend what Mattie has written and ask PAH in Perth & Dundee to display.    Hopefully others can do likewise?

There is ads on a site called www.findit.co.uk that look very sus to me, lots of pedigree pups with the same address. These people should not be allowed to use sites like this.

Your right of course, it does scare you though doesn't it that even if you breed a litter and try to do your best it's sometimes not good enough. The trouble is most people don't realise there are "people" out there who see dogs as money not a living breathing animal. That is the trouble.

I will print it out, and ask at my vets and  Pet's at Home to display it.

Karen

Hi what a coincidence,i  pm'd  Gwen earlier as some of you may know she found a beautiful black AM cocker spaniel for my MIL,well i was approached by a woman who was enthusing over Max (as well she might ,he is drop dead gorgeous) ,but was very keen for her English Cocker to have pups ......so she could keep one for herself !!! i was worried about what to do when you have a "fiesty" young man and a woman following us with her bitch ??, Gwen let us have Max after many weeks of pm one another & also "knowing " me from this forum ,but after reading the original posts here ,it must be very difficult to know who to trust & who (like us )just want a pet  &those with hidden agendas !!! its almost as though there are those out there who are tracking these dogs down (those that can be used !!if you know what i mean !) anyway we have decided to have him neutered ,maybe like rescue homes they could either be "done " before they are re homed &the cost be added to the price of the dog ,or the new owners agree to take them to the vets themselves  & then prove to the original breeders that this has been done ,hope this makes sense ,until we get him neutered ,what is the best way to "protect his honour "!!!!!!! i swear this woman with the English Cocker is stalking us !! Bye Sue ,Lola & Max  xx

Hi Mattie

Can I please cross post this, I have posted  something along these lines  to my own Breeds message board, but it is always worth jogging people's memmory - and even more so when coming from another breed.

There was a group called HOUND who wrote about this. Does anyone know what became of them? I think they even questioned that NOT all rescue's were to be taken at face value.  Something about what happens to the older dogs when rescues state they NEVER put older dog to sleep.
I think someone came forward and said she saw older dogs coming off the van and then they were destroyed, she never said how though! 

Thanks
Coleen

IMO some of the rescue centres (not all) are only in it for the money one very famous centre put down more dogs than they rehome and do no home checks in one of their main centres unless the breed is a staffie, gsd, dobe rottweiler or similar guarding breed. i have spoken to people who have been there and it seems to be mostly puppies they rehome and why not as they are better business than older dogs with problems! rescues are supposed to be against so-called "puppy farmers" but some of them when you look behind the scenes are only interested in the money and pts any dogs which will not make them money this is the same motivation which drives the "puppy farmer"

yyes of course no problem

Mattie,

Very good idea to put something like this message up in various places.. vets etc

Some of the " Loot like" websites are also as bad So so sad.

I will ask at a few of the local vets to see if I can stick something up on their boards also.

The numbers on the register are quite shocking.

Pam