Completely agree but being completely pessimistic (or perhaps realistic) about it, I can't see a solution. Yes, brining in laws requiring greater responsibility for breeding and looking after your dog would be one way BUT for this to work, you have to make sure you enforce the law. When we have enough trouble policing other crime as it is, how is resource to be made available to police any new dog laws?

I think the best we can do at the moment is try to educate people, but even then I don't think this will make a significant difference - the majority of those who need educating are largely too selfish or uncaring to take heed.

I suppose it depends on what kind of dog/breed you are after. The dog I own is so rare there are never any of them in rescues, if they were I'd be happy to rehome another one. I had to go through the breeder route and will hopefully adopt another one at some point - if I'm lucky I'll find a retired show dog but that will be again through the club or breeders.

We have done both.
One of our dogs was even a rescue pup!

at the moment we have one dog from a reputable breeder (now friend) he is a joy...he is what we want because we were able to mould him from the day he came.
We also have Tango, a rescue....she is harder work and is work in progress...but i have always liked a challenge!!!!
We have no history of her being around children...but were assured by rescue she would be fine. On the day we met her, the man from rescue threw a training dummy for her...guess who she took it to???? My 9 year old son. Rescues and children are fine...Tango and my son are generally to be found cuddled up somewhere these days. She adores children....touch wood. Of course we are very careful...but we are with Cosmo as well...they are dogs at the end of the day.

What would I do in future??? It's hard. I think reputable breeders should be encouraged...but I have loved rescuing Tango. My OH says he will not have another pup now, it is rescue for him all the way, but I don' t know. I think we may always have one of each

I had a young dog from a breeder once. She was 4 months. I suspect she`d been returned. She was the most difficult bitch I`ve ever had!
All the others were rescues / rehomes/ fosters and one I found in the road.

As ours was my first ever dog & I was a bit scared of dogs I wanted a pup & wanted to get it from rescue. So we kept going back until some came in & although she's been a bit of a challenge, I've learnt so much. Now I'm a bit more experienced if I were to get another dog I would get an older rescue, but I'm happy with 1 dog so must not look as it breaks my heart & I want them all!!

As I’m just after a family pet I’d always go Rescue. I don't think I would ever consider buying from a breeder while the rescue homes are so full.

As for buying from breeders, I can understand completely people wanting a pup where they know the health history of the dog going back a few generations and have a chance to see the temperament of the parents, especially if they have children to think of.

As the dogs I am passionate about, English setters and Pointers hardly come about in rescue, all mine are from breeders.... but I would consider rescue for the next one, but that I am afraid is years away....

That's a whole discussion on its own - and apologies to the OP for answering, I don't want to hijack your thread.

The short answer is : I am doing all I can do. Are you?
If your "we" is the human race "we", I think we fall short.

I started out with a rescue, but now have dogs from a breeder as well, mainly because as well as being a pet I hoped to occasionally show them, and if good enough breed them.

If i was going to get a dog that I had no intention of showing then i would probably get a rescue, thing is, i chose my breeds for a reason, and even if i was to get a rescue, it would be a rescue of that particular breed. However, given that neither of my breeds are prolifically bred, nor are there regularly dogs of that breed to be "rescued" then I would probably have to wait longer for a rescue than i would for a puppy.

That said, with both breeds I help with rescue, being a rather badly failed fosterer of the over 10 year old dog. At the momember, I think that vallhunds average around 1 rescue a year and the spitz only slightly more than that.

i dont think it matters if you have kids, you can still get great dogs. it just might take a bit more time. when we got my last dog sam, me and my sisters were kids and we got sam. a perfect match! no history of him was known, since he was left outside a community centre tied up. but he was great with us.

breed doesnt matter to me, as long as they are medium size plus lol

great post, totally agree with that.