Went to training tonight with Frankie(puppy class) and met a lady with 2 sons and an elkhound pup.Got talking and she proudly said she had bought him from ....dogsrus!! She was amazed that he would grow as big as Frankie(only 6 months old) cos she'd never seen an adult before.She was also suprised that her pup was so vocal and was not happy when I explained that they can be unpredictable off lead and are a typical hound with hound instincts! In other words she knew NOTHING about elkies and had just bought the pup cos he was cute.She also said that they are going to breed from him when he is older!! Felt like giving her the breed rescue number there and then....poor puppy!
Archer

Its infuriating and sad when that happens. I get really irritated by folks ignorance.

Sorry to hear that Archer. Maybe there should be a test to take before buying a dog such as What does an adult look like? :(

Karen

I was on my way to the common, and saw a young couple walking a Dalmation pup. My pup saw her and as we got close they picked the puppy up, I said that my pup is very friendly. To which he replied She hasn't had her injections and must not go near other dogs, I was truly amazed and said She shouldn't be anywhere that other dogs have been. He just shrugged his shoulders and carried on his way, poor puppy :(

At least she was at training though :-)

Makes my skin creep, try to get them to join the club, at least they will get some help which you and I know they will need and they will hopefully not sell him on when they find they can't manage him any more, but allow the club to help, particularly if they try using him at stud. Wonder if they intend Elkie bitches or just any bitch :( Can't see any bitch owner wanting to use a dog from that source with all the problems that intails. Do you know if it is from the Irish breeder as I have grave concerns with a breeder in my part of the country who's last litter must be ready for disposal about now.

Is that the one who bred on consecutive seasons last year, or the one who had a litter from a bitch too young.  I know that there has been a poster on here with skin problems with their bitch, and in correspondence with them it turned out to be from the person in your area who sells with a mobile Telephone number and prinicpally deals in Cavalier pups? :D

I think one of the worst things about any bacly bred pedigree pups, especially in less known breds like ours is that it actually will discourage people from owning our breed especially if the foolish people who buy on impulse fail to train their dogs properly or have health issues with them, gives the whole breed bad press.  Saw an articla about Insurance inwhich magasine and it was about an Elkhound with losts of health issues!!!  This in a generally very healthy breed.

Don't know Barbara, this one does not have any Cavaliers as far as I know but think they have cross breed terriers.

Have to say I had a well-bred Elkhound who suffered with very bad health but that was, in the end, put down to his having been castrated at 13 months rather than anything wrong with the way he was bred. Think that more Elkhounds than we realise suffer with skin problems particularly those who have been neutered.

This particular one was pretty young.  Most reputable breeders would not breed from any dog or bitch with an obvious problem, not knowing if it may be passed on, but these puppy farmers don't care as long as they can get them to saleable age their future health welfare and lifespan are irrelevant to them, not to mention temperament.

Just thought I'd update you...
pup has now graduated into Frankies class at traning... due to age. Met him again last night ...hes quite a pretty little thing...BUT TINY!!.At 6 monthe old he can stand no taller that 14 inches !My Frankie is 8 months and towers over him.They're still on about breeding from him so we had a long discussion about the down side of it...and hope I made some sort of progress.
Next week shes going to bring his papers in...so hopefully I can find out where there breeding stock has come from.
Archer

OHHHHH- we had this scenario with a couple who owned a shar pei - just like some famous England Footballer is supposed to have!!!!! - they had no idea of the breed etc, but when it misbehaved it was everybody elses fault. Eventually, and quite sadly, I had to get the police involved when the dog attacked our dog ( a lab), and the owner attacked my 13 year old daughter, whilst the dog attacked our dog who was off lead, and my daughter hanging on to our dog fending off aggressive dog and owner.

Oh my god ManxPat, that sounds awful :(are your daughter and dog OK?? I hope they are.
What horrid people are in the world nowadays. What happened to the people? I hope they got what they deserved
It makes me so mad that these people buy dogs with out a clue of their care.
If only puppy farmers would stop producing puppies and mistreating poor dogs :( 

The other harm I think these puppy farmed pups of any breed do is to the reputaion of a breed, especialyin a littkle known one like ours.  If people are basing their opinion of a breed on untypical specimins then it does harm.

For example if the puppy farm/pet shop stock is nervous agressive or has health problems more than would be expected in typically well brede ones then the breed gets a bad rteputaion among Joe public.  After all is said and doen all puppi9es bred should be pets first and foremost, and 90% will have not other role.

Oh people who get pets with no thought make me so angry.

Archer, may I ask what dogsrus is?  I'm imagining some sort of puppy supermarket? :-(

Thats exactly what it is. Its a large pet shop with a section attached that sells puppies. You walk down a corridor with pens on either side full of puppies.They are not KC reg usually because the parents are either not registered or bred from too often etc.
Archer

OMG - what sort of person would buy a puppy from there?  Where do they get the pups from?  I assume puppy farmers or unscrupulous breeders.  Those poor babies.  Do they sell many different breeds, and/or those dubious X-breeds (Cockerpoos etc) for ridiculous sums of money

Harrods sells puppies in it's pet department, which I've always thought is very dodgy - I suppose some people just like to tell others that their pup came from Harrods, how pathetic.