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Location: U K
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 5,588
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Originally Posted by
cintvelt
ok, that's what we did... bought the dogs (one of which was for sale at a butcher's shop in Asia... that really was a "no discussion necessary" situation)... both dogs lived happily in our own loving home and died of old age, one at 13, one at 14.... both were complete mutts but the best dogs ever!!!!
but now, bringing it into the present.....
when we (my husband and I) decided that the time was finally right (we had been thinking of this for a very long time, we both really wanted a BC) for our family (two kids, now 8 and 10 years old) to get a BC pup... we started searching.... we found
a) a number of official and wonderfully acclaimed BC breeders who unfortunately had no pups at the moment and no plans for a litter any time this year, but.. given enough potential owners on their waiting list, their minds may be swayed to breed a litter sooner...
b) a few one-time breeders (also genetically tested and found perfectly fine for breeding) who's pups had already been born and needed new homes
what would you choose?
Well we had a similar scenario. When Rosie was 4 my brother got a staffy x pup from rescue. Rosie thought this was great but when he went home she got so upset and spent ages searching the house looking for "her" pup. So we thought the time was right to get a companion. Normally we would do it within 18 months of getting the first dog but circumstances were never right or never occurred.
Because at that time Rosie had a condition which we thought might make a male companion "too" interested in her we opted for a bitch. We asked the vet for her advice and she said that generally speaking an adult dog finds it easier to accept a puppy into her home. So we tried various outlets such as shelters - one turned us down because at the time I worked fulltime even though there was someone in the house all day and the dog would not have been left for more than max of 2 hours a week
At that time it seemed there were more male pups looking homes than female!
We did ponder on a Lab as my parents have always had them but then came back to the idea that it was Boxers we had, knew so well and might as well stick with what we knew and loved
So the search began. By golly its a mine field out there. I asked a few if they showed and when they said yes you knew they were telling porkies
Then there were ones that were "seeling the pups for my neice/grandson/son/daughter" do joe public really fall for these porkies
- sadly yes. I just didnt like what I was hearing at all. So......... I decided to ask the lady who we got Rosie from as she bred Boxers and her hubby showed them and she also runs NIBoxer Rescue.
She couldnt have been more helpful, she put us in touch with a breeder who had just had a litter of pups 10 days old. Mum was an Eng + Ir Champion and dad Eng Champ - Winuwuk - Lust in the Dust. Initially we were interested in a brindle pup - 5 brindles and 2 white.
We had a long talk with breeder on the phone. When pups were 4 weeks old we went to "meet" the breeder, had a good long talk and during the conversation he sent his young daughter out to bring in "our" pup. She came back with this tiny pup wrapped securely in a blanket and set her on my knee. This tiny little "white" pup - yes
he knew what he was doing, looked at me and I was lost. Still am, spoilt rotten she is
From that moment on he started to call her our choosen name - Katie.
18 months down the line we heard he had another white male pup - quite stunning apparently, obviously you cant show whites. So we talked it over and decided that as we had this ratio before - two bitches and a dog we could do it again. Even so the breeder told us to think seriously before committing ourselves - you see good breeders do exist
Nevertheless this little white pup arrived - looked just like bigger version of Katie at that age.
He came in - had his devoted "momma" Rosie for cuddles and comfort and his equally devoted "momma" Katie for rough and tumble games - [Rosie's "girl" problems had sorted itself out when she started on thyroid treatment]
I still keep in touch with their breeder.