Pet store puppy

You can't.  That's the problem with buying puppies from pet stores.  I can tell you this.  It probably came from either a puppy mill or backyard breeder who didn't care too much for the puppies or else it would not have been sold to a pet store.  What is a jug, by the way?

I guess it's considered a "designer" breed. It's a cross between a Pug and a Jack Russell terrier. Our's is named Guinness.

I think I like my Russells just the way they are!  I couldn't imagine them crossed with pugs or anything else!  Most likely, your baby came from a not very nice background.  A reputable breeder will only sell to someone they have met and screened.  A person in it for the money will sell to anyone, including pet stores.  And, if one breeds the right way, performing all of the necessary tests, one will not make any money.  Your puppy either came from an individual in it for the money or a puppy mill (think lots and lots of dogs in tiny, dirty cages).  In the future, buying from a pet store is not a very good way to get a dog.  You never know what disease may pop up in the future that could have been tested for.  But, what's done is done.  Enjoy your puppy and keep up with health check ups.  Also, post some pictures...this sounds like a different looking cross (no offense intended!)

I got my dog Katie from a petstore and she's amazing. Luckily, a healthy puppy and although she is strange at times, has been remarkably smart and wonderful. I want to see that Jug also. Must be super cute! Katie had papers to say that she is a purebred dog but sometimes I look at her and she looks like she is mixed with some other breed. She is way taller than most Shelties I've seen and her hair is different as well. I don't care about that because she is just my little furbaby and I love her a lot.
I started The **Link removed** for her really. Now it's a lot of fun and I get to meet so many great people in my work so it's really been great. So as you said, sometimes good things do happen to you even though you got your dog from a petstore.

You can go to the website pet shop puppies.com fill out their questions and the find out the breeder / puppy mill that they came from. ( free of charge)
 
[linkhttp://www.petshoppuppies.com/about.htm]http://www.petshoppuppies.com/about.htm[/link]
 
 

ORIGINAL: darci

You can go to the website pet shop puppies.com fill out their questions and the find out the breeder / puppy mill that they came from. ( free of charge)

[linkhttp://www.petshoppuppies.com/about.htm]http://www.petshoppuppies.com/about.htm[/link]

Good for you for posting that link!

Now I must leave this thread before I go into convulsions.

We got our dog, Shadow, from a friend who bought him at a pet store. The breeder's name is listed on the purchase papers. He was bought at 6 weeks, Labor day 2003. We got him Labor Day Weekend 2004. I have yet to find the breeder. He is not on any Texas breeder list. I went to the website linked in this thread. They could not find him in their database of puppy mills. More than likely, he is a byb, back yard breeder.
 
I, too, simply want to know his parents, with or without pedigree.
 
That is part of the reason not to buy a puppy from a pet store. Lack of information and lack of cooperation on the part of the pet store. Not to mention that pet store puppies come from mills or bybs, people with a less than ethical approach to breeding, to put it mildly. And puppy mills are something you wouldn't wish on an enemy.
 

I think what the forum members are trying to tell you in a nice way is that you have made a mistake procuring your puppy from a store.  We know you love him, and that's great, but please educate yourself so that when you get your next dog you won't make the same error.
If you visit the hsus.org webpage, and search on puppy mills, you will find all the reasons why purchasing from these sources is a bad idea.  It is more likely than not that your pup's dam and sire live in cages, taken out only for breeding and (maybe) cage cleaning.  If the dog came from a byb, that may be a tad better, but it is still likely that no genetic or health testing was done on the parents of your pup, putting your pup at risk for these defects, and you at risk for a huge medical bill.  Pet stores operate on the fact that many people will be suckered in by the "cute factor" and pay hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars for a mixed breed puppy.  The fact that knowledgeable dog people didn't know what a "jug" was is evidence of the fact that before pet stores and mills decided to create this combo, it didn't exist.  Many of the mixes they create, unfortunately, get the worst characteristics of both breeds, and often end up in kill shelters or rescue.  The whole thing is a sad state of affairs, and one which I hope you won't support in the future.  Look at it this way - you didn't know what you didn't know.  But, now that you do, perhaps you can educate others)

I can't stand it when people make these post and they get jumped all over. The OP did not know they were making a mistake. So take it easy. They came looking for help for crying out loud. I Knew nothing about what was right or wrong with taking care of a dog, other than feed it love it and play with it.  You learn. You make mistakes and you learn. Will I ever allow one of my dogs to be bred NO, Will I ever get another dog and put of spaying NO. You learn.
 
Maybe you all should rally together and get people all over the world standing in front of EVERY pet store so people wont make the mistake  and come here looking for help later. If I had the money I tell ya right now I would buy a dog from a pet store to save its poor life.
 
And as for making  comments on his mixed breed. SO WHAT? It's being done every where. Its getting so bad wher I am that you ahve a hard time finding a dog that isn't mixed.  He gave the dog a home, it's not sitting in a cage anymore, and it's not in a shelter.

And as for making  comments on his mixed breed. SO WHAT? It's being done every where. Its getting so bad wher I am that you ahve a hard time finding a dog that isn't mixed.  He gave the dog a home, it's not sitting in a cage anymore, and it's not in a shelter.

That's absolutely not true. There's no mixed breed snobbishness here. There is alarm that mixed breeds are being produced by greedy people who do not have the best interests of the dogs THEY own at heart, OR that of the puppies they produce, OR the people who buy those puppies with no knowlege of their backgrounds, and are taking their chances on bringing some serious heartache into their homes in the form of a PURPOSELY badly bred puppy.

Let me repeat that. It's not that the puppies are mixed, it's that their breeders are doing something that is just plain wrong. That needs to be pointed out every time this comes up, in my thinking. Someone comes on and says, "Look at my cute Porkle!" And lurkers say, "hey, that IS cute and sounds like a great idea!"

If someone doesn't point out what it means to support the breeders of these adorable puppies, supply and demand will just increase the misery in puppy mills.

I couldn't see where anyone was giving the OP anything other than advice and education.
Any information regarding puppy mills or BYBers willing to send pups to a pet store needs to get out there. Education and correct info is the only way to get these operations stopped.

FWIW, mixing a bracycephalic (sp?) dog that is prone to overheating with a dog with extreme energy levels seems like not such a good idea. If I got a "jug" and was going to be responsible for it for like 12-15 years, I would want to know what's up with it, what the potential problems are, etc. Knowledge is power.

I also didn't see anything other than information being shared in this thread. And while I agree that sometimes being right is more important than being helpful on this board, I think it's important to share information. Pet store puppies are problematic on so many levels. They are not health tested, and not much thought goes into which dogs are breeding with which, and this can create all kinds of expensive health problems down the road. These problems can be amplified when "designer" mixes are created, because genetics is pretty random. You can wind up with all the worst qualities of both dogs healthwise just as easily as you can avoid health problems by mixing breeds.

Pet store pups are generally raised in an environment that creates more acute health problems like worms, and are also raised more like livestock than like pets. This can make for all kinds of behavioral problems due to a lack of socialization with other dogs and people. They learn to live with their own mess, and therefore can be difficult to housetrain.

That doesn't mean that your dog will definitely get sick or aggressive or never become housetrained. But if you know that these are potential problems, you can do more to make sure they don't happen. If I were the OP, I would read up on both breeds, pay special attention to housetraining and socialization and hope for the best! There are a lot of people with pet store dogs on this board, and they are doing just fine.

if you buy a petstore puppy, your money has gone to support a doggy torture camp. That's the bottom line and why people tend to jump all over folks who admit they have done this. 

if you buy a petstore puppy, your money has gone to support a doggy torture camp. That's the bottom line

 
That pretty much sums it up mudpuppy. Thank you.
 

Maybe you all should rally together and get people all over the world standing in front of EVERY pet store so people wont make the mistake  and come here looking for help later.

 
...and that attitude doesn't help anyone. Making changes can be as simple as educating a single person.  You don't have to mobilize the world's dog lovers in an all-out pet store chain link fence to stop puppy mills, you just have to stop buying dogs from pet stores.  You are not saving any lives.  You are condemning future generations of puppies to a life of despair.
 

If I had the money I tell ya right now I would buy a dog from a pet store to save its poor life.

 
Your money would be far better spent in a shelter or breed rescue.
 
The OP didn't know any better, now she does.  What's the problem?