Hi there I was thinking of buying a dog from here.... however I am not sure?

Dogs4Us sell sick puppy farm puppies. They have been exposed on television before but still carry on trading. You should never buy a puppy from any pet shop as no decent breeder would sell a puppy to a dealer or pet shop. One of the main rules for buying a puppy is to see it with its mother at the place where it was born and raised. Then you can see the conditions as well as the temperament of the mother. All the relevant health checks for the breed should also have been done and the breeder should also offer lifetime back up for the dog.

There is more info about puppy farms at Puppy Love Campaigns and there are monthly protests outside Dogs4Us, Leeds with the next one on Sunday 29th May at 1 pm. There is also a protest at Petworld, Orpington Bypass, TN14 7AP on Sat 28th May at 1pm, 5 mins from Jct 4 M25.

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

Listen to the instinct that made you stop and come and ask here instead of just buying!

Good, reputable breeders want to talk to their puppy buyers - they will offer a lifetime back up service in advice and also to take the puppy back if anything awful happens that means you cannot keep him (Obviously they are not superhuman and cannot be there at the drop of a hat but they care about puppies produced, and want the best for them for their WHOLE lives).

When you see the price of a well bred puppy, its not much more (in some cases LESS) than what Dogs4us charge, but for that price you are getting a WHOLE lot more for your money.

Reputable breeders ensure from day 1 that your puppy has the very best chance it can have of having a happy life - those first 8 weeks or so are actually the MOST important in your pups life for learning about the world and how to cope within it. Puppies that are sold in pet stores miss out on teh lessons they NEED and even if you buy a pup at 8 weeks from a pet store, you have missed out on half the 'magic' slot for best learning.

Buy from a place like Dogs4us and you will be playing catch up for the rest of that dogs life trying to make up for what he missed out on!

Puppies sold by places like this will be from parents who are poor examples of their breed, who have not been health tested for the various conditions we know some pedigrees can get (and its not that pedigrees get more health problems, its that we KNOW what they are and can test for them!) and will not be KC registered either. Whilst you may not want to show, there is no good reason to be breeding non-registered and non-registerable pedigree dogs, there are only BAD reasons for doign this (cutting corners, breeding from animals that are in fact not pure bred, breeding from animals too young, too old, too often!).

This is an investment, think of it as a maybe 14 year investment - its really worth putting in a few months research, time and travel to find the right puppy from the right breeder!

Do you mean Dogs4us or is there somewhere else with a similar name?

Back in 1989 I got a cocker spaniel from what was then called Mayfield Kennels, several colleagues recommended the place to me and I must say I was very impressed with the cleanliness and the helpfulness of the staff, he went on to live till he was 16.5yrs old and had no illnesses what so ever in that time and died suddenly one night of old age.

Now in these days of the internet and being more knowledgeable about where the pups came from I wouldn't do it again but wanted to share my experience of the place.

Please please please please don't buy from Dogs4us. (formerly dogsRus and Mayfield Kennels).
The pups are portrayed as "having papers" but these have "dog Lovers Registration Papers"  NOT Kennel Club papers.
They give no back-up or help once you have walked out of the door and the prices are extortionate considering the dogs are effectively NOT registered. For what you would pay for one of their pups you would probably find a good, responsible and caring breeder elsewhere.
By all means go and have a look, but be alert and read between the lines and look carefully at the body condition, coat, weight, eyes and nails of the pups there. Watch them interact with each other and their reaction to you. (EVEN THE MOST EXPERIENCED AMONGST US WOULD FEEL A TUG ON THEIR HEART STRINGS SO PLEASE LEAVE YOUR CASH/CARD AT HOME WHILST YOU GO FOR A VIEWING). Then ring a breeder of the breed you want and ask them all the questions you want. Most breeders I know would happily spend time talking to you about their breed, pointing you in the direction of websites with information on history and characteristics of their breed and may even want you to visit to meet their adults. Was going to write more but baby crying.

wind up surely??

Never ever buy a puppy except direct from it's breeder or owner of the sire, where you can see in what way it has been reared, meet mother/father and other relatives.

You can check to see what health tests the parents have had, why the parents were chosen for breeding dn assess at least Mum's temperametn.

No decent breeder would hand over their precious puppies to a third party to sell to persons unknown.  If they don't care where their puppies end up how can they have been careful with how they bred and reared them????

> Back in 1989 I got a cocker spaniel from what was then called Mayfield Kennels, several colleagues recommended the place to me and I must say I was very impressed with the cleanliness and the helpfulness of the staff, he went on to live till he was 16.5yrs old and had no illnesses what so ever in that time and died suddenly one night of old age.
>
>

With luck just as with people who don't have the best start in life things can turn out OK, but it is less likely.

There were originally two posts made by the OP.

Not sure which one came first or second.

But the other post (which I can no longer see) said something along the lines of 'anyone heard of these scumbags?', so one could hope that the OP is aware of how these places operate.

Hi
everytime you go and look at dogsrus/for us or whatever its called, the pups look starey coated, cold and often wormy, just a look at there pooh;s tell you all isnt very well, i always feel terrible for the majority of them, you get an occasional bouncy well looking playful one, n yes they are clean and watered but they look far from happy, staff look bored n disinterested, papers say petlovers only one last weekend was kc reg.

I go for a mooch or leads or bedding and cant resist having a look at the pups but it always leaves you sad

> I go for a mooch or leads or bedding and cant resist having a look at the pups but it always leaves you sad

I would never go into a shop for anything at all if I thought they sold puppies. I know you are only going in to look, but others do that and come out having bought something even if it only a small treat for their own pet. To really hurt these people it needs a total boycott of anything they sell from the smallest treat to the poor puppies. I have never been into Harrods although had been to London with friends who went into the place for that reason.

agree with Polly.  I won't buy ANYTHING from a shop that sells puppies or kittens.
part of the reason they sell puppies and kittens is because it draws people in to coo at the babies - then they go spend on other stuff.  if everyone who disagrees with the appalling practice of selling pups and kittens stopped spending in these shops on other items then the shops would cease to sell them

If no puppies were not allowed to be sold by anyone other than the person (the breeder) who had bred the litter directly to the puppy purchaser it would stem the flow of mass produced puppies being sold by pet shop licence holders.

It is quite easy for a person who wishes to purchase a puppy (card in hand) to go into a pet shop purchase any puppy that appeals to them at that moment and walk out of the shop puppy in their arms. Many will have not given the purchase of a puppy any deeper consideration other than 'I want' at that time. The pet shop will offer little advice and be more interested in how how the purchaser is going to pay by card or cash than the welfare of the puppy or the conditions the puppy was bred in.  Many pet shop licence holders rely upon their dealer to supply them and have never actually seen the premises where the puppy was bred.

It is also too easy for anyone wishing to buy in and sell puppies to be granted a pet shop licence issued by the Council.  The public when advised to not purchase a puppy from a pet shop understand what a typical pet shop looks like even one of the larger super stores like Dogs4Us.  However they do not always understand (although with common sense they should because invariable they will not be able to see the mother and puppies interacting together) is when pet shop licenses are issued to individuals who do not have a shop as such.

These are some examples: Dog breeders who in addition to their dog breeders licence also have a pet shop licence but no pet shop. 
Dog Boarding kennels that have also a pet shop licence but no shop. Sometimes individuals have all three licenss all operating from the same premises.
Individuals obtaining a pet shop licence to buy in and sell puppies from their homes - keeping puppies in a garden shed.
Individuals  "           "  "     "       "         "  "     "   "     "      " to other pet shops in other words act as a dealer.
Individuals having a pet shop but also dealing and supplying other pet shops.
Individuals having a pet shop licence and (dog breeders licence) but also offering a rehomming service and using the pet shop licence to enable them to charge for the puppies/dogs they buy in/take in and resell.

Therefore it is easy to say to people do not buy a puppy from a pet shop but some unintentially do get caught by the other methods of sale used by individuals with a pet shop lience.

Even they way they advertise in the papers or on web sites to the public is confusing if not aware of the sale methods used.  Some will refer to themselves as licensed kennels or licensed premises - the public often when seeing puppies advertised wrongly beleive they were bred on the premises, when of course that is not the case they are more likely to have have started their lives in a puppy farm in Ireland (Eire) or a licensed commercial breeding kennels in Wales.

The only way to end this confusion would be to stop puppies being sold from pet shop licence holders. 

The Bateson report noted there was one puppy farmer in Ireland which sold over 5,000 puppies a year to southern England alone. Which doesn not take into account other puppy farms in Ireland (government subsidised) or those Wales, and sales in the rest of the UK.

I think only legislation is going to prevent dealing - and its consequential suffering - on this scale.

What worries me is what happens to stock that remains unsold after its sell by date??? Does not bear thinking about but they can't sell every cute pup so lanky expensive teenagers must go somewhere. They are not socialised or trained in any way so I suppose they are disposed of in ways we would rather not consider.

What worries me is what happens to stock that remains unsold after its sell by date??? Does not bear thinking about but they can't sell every cute pup so lanky expensive teenagers must go somewhere. They are not socialised or trained in any way so I suppose they are disposed of in ways we would rather not consider.

Too right. No one ever seems to consider this issue at all but it must be quite a MAJOR problem surely?
Another fact is that the puppies are frequently weaned far too early, transported at a young age from the place where they were born, often many hundreds of miles, before they reach the pet shop/dealer. All of this places tremendous stress on an undeveloped immune system at a critical period.  This frequently has a major impact on the long term health of the puppy.