Dog Community

Where did you get your dogs?

K.J.

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:14:35 PM

I'm looking on petfinder for fun on my ideal dog preferences; dog, no breed, baby, small, and female. I only see a few, many of which would not be suited to me. How did you find your dogs? Puppies specifically.

losinsusan

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:19:11 PM

I looked for breeders at the irish setter organizations first and had little luck. I did find my breeder online. But not sure I would recommend doing it that way in the future. My dog is wonderful and I think we just got dumb lucky on this one. But I was contacted not long ago by someone claiming I got a dog from a puppy mill breeder. Because she sells more than 50 pups a year. I was upset. Had no clue but in fairness, its her daughter and her, two seperate homes near each other (more like farms) and they do two different breeds. So with show quality, field quality and pet quality dogs in both breeds I would assume 50 pups could be possible. Next time I want to see the place in person!

Disarray29

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:20:01 PM

I've never had a puppy, but I would recommend an animal shelter or rescue group. I got Gypsy from a rescue group outside of Petco. I was not planning on bringing a dog home that day, but it was seriously the best decision of my life. I love all of my dogs, but my connection with Gypsy is the strongest. Emi and Eloise both came from people that no longer wanted them.

K.J.

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:21:57 PM

That's interesting. Your dog is very pretty. I don't think I could ever ger a purebred... I had, for a while, thoughts about getting a papillon - still do, but I'm afraid I can't afford the thousands of dollars for a pet quality one. And no rescues are near me. [8D]

2shelties

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:22:51 PM

My two shelties I got from a breeder, Penny I found stray, and the last two dogs I had before the shelties (Fletcher and Domino) were from a shelter. Domino was two years old when I got him, the rest were/are puppies. There was no petfinder when I got my shelter dogs, I just went down there two or three times until I saw a dog I liked.

Pwca

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:25:01 PM

Small baby females with most of the shelters around here don't last long enough to get to petfinder- they get snapped up by the waiting lists. Also, a lot of local shelters don't like saying 'small baby' just because with puppies, it's REALLY hard to predict how big they're going to get, especially if they're not sure exactly how old they are, what mix they are, or anything like that. If you're dead set on a baby, your best bet is to get on waiting lists at your local shelter OR research a breed and find a REPUTABLE breeder.

K.J.

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:25:34 PM

Only a few dogs were in Washington that fit my preference. My animal rescue rarely has small dog, and, much as I hate to admit, I'd like a puppy. I just think there's something about bonding with it, being able to train it makes it more worthwhile. I did run across a poochie - poodle chihuahua - a few weeks ago for $300. That would have been a good buy, but I guess I'm still a papillon person at heart. [

] Unless I can find an under $6 - 700 dollar papillon, I'm out of luck, though!

IrishSetterGrl

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:26:02 PM

Cadie is from a wonderful Irish Setter breeder, a couple who we still keep in touch with. They are great people, though now they only have 2 dogs (Cadie's littermates) and do agility and field trials with them.

Riley is from the humane society where I volunteer as a dog walker. I'd volunteered for a few years and one day, looked in a kennel and saw two purebred male IS puppies and Riley, the bigger of the two, came home with me the next day. It's one of the best decision I've ever made. He and his 20 siblings (all ISs) were seized from a "breeder"'s house because of uninhabitable living conditions. I think he's pretty comfy here though! : )

FourIsCompany

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:27:36 PM

I've had 4 puppies. Two I got from the pound and 2 I researched breeders and found one who came highly recommended.

If you want a puppy, I recommend going to the pound every week till you fall in love!

K.J.

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:28:53 PM

Ironically I do volunteer at the shelter, weekly. In the eight months I've been there there have been one litter of puppies - all labs, which I'm sorry to say I am not interested in a dog that size. Or.. that lablike. [

]

miranadobe

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:32:06 PM

If you want a puppy, I recommend going to the pound every week till you fall in love!

Or make friends with the adoption coordinator (at another/nearby shelter) so that you're on their waiting list.

bluelighting

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:33:44 PM

I was looking for a corgi mix puppy on petfinder when I came across Blue's siblings and I emailed the shelter owner about them who told me about the other puppy which was Blue. He was 14 weeks old when we adopted him.

Keep in mind this was the fifth time I have been looking for corgi mix puppy when I finally found Blue and the third time filling out adoption papers plus several shelter visits.

No, Blue is not a corgi mix at all.

FourIsCompany

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:34:23 PM

Oh, wow! Our shelter is filled with puppies! Wanna come here? [

]

How about contacting the vets in your area or putting up Wanted cards in the vets waiting rooms? My vet has a board out front for such things.

K.J.

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:37:08 PM

... Yes [

]

Yeah, I probably will. Seems like most people who have puppies don't give them to the shelter. Our shelter does pay for the animals to come so... 20 dollars per dog... erm... Well, once I get the money I'll try that - still wish I could get a papillon though [:-]

2shelties

Posted : 8/14/2007 9:38:44 PM

The shelter near me seems to always have two or three litters, usually larger breeds though, but there is a nice blue merle aussie mix pup there now...too bad there are no vacancies at my house.