Dogs for sale

Looking through the ads on the internet its amazing how many dogs from about 4 months old up to 18 months old are up for rehoming.I suppose some are genuine but I wonder how many are due to the dogs outgrowing their cute puppy stage and becoming a nuisance.We all know between the above ages dogs become rather unruly teenagers and then the commited owners become apparent and work through that stage. Unfortunately I think a lot of people just give up.

I think you are right I don't think some realise what a lot of work they become at that age and you have to work harder than you do with the house training when they hit that teenage stage.

Hi Bev I think the problem is often the old story of people get a dog without realising the time,commitment and cost involved in having one.

If you said to many of these people before they got the dogs 'do you want a child to look after for maybe the next 14 years' they may think twice before getting one.

I made that mistake with Pereg. Little One had been so easy to house-train and was easy-going all her life, so I thought another puppy would be just as easy. Oh was I wrong.

I ended up with Pereg who had diarrhoea from the second I put her down to open the door when I brought her home. It lasted for a couple of weeks during which she poo'd orange liquid everywhere almost non-stop. Once that was sorted and she was eventually house-trained she started getting bolshy and extremely difficult and I went as far as telephoning the rescue organisation to please come and take her as I could not cope.

But then I realised that I could not part with her - my Vet gave me the telephone number of a dog trainer and with his advice and help she calmed down.

I have had what would be hilarious puppy enquiries, if it wasn't so sad, and didn't show how little people think about the commitment involved with a dog. One I found pretty disturbing was a lady who rang me about one of Lona's babies. One of my questions is always about their experience with large, active, intelligent breeds. She said to me they had had a westie, oh and also a labrador, but its legs went funny and it had to go. It gets better.....I then started to explain that maybe it wasn't that good an idea to have a puppy, she said to me 'well can you tell my son that he is driving me mad to have one of these puppies' I asked how old the son was - 15 so I said put him on. He came on the phone...I asked him what would happen to the dog when he went to Uni, oh he hadn't thought of that, maybe his mum would look after it, I said had he asked her, maybe she wouldn't want to...er no he hadn't asked her. I said to him that he would need to take his puppy to training every week and practice what he had learnt every night, would he be able to do that...er...didn't know about that one...I said to him these dogs could live anything up to 14 years...so he could well be married or living with someone by then, what would happen to the dog....he hadn't thought about that one either...then he said 'well thanks for being so frank..' and went off the phone. His mother came on and said thanks for that, what on earth was wrong with HER saying it that's what I want to know. I have helped my puppy owners re-home their dogs when personal circumstances have dictated it, and I am in touch with their new families, things don't always stay the same in people's lives and sometimes they do have to make the decision they never thought they would, I always say to them I am here for the good and the bad and don't ever be afraid of ringing me if there is any problem, I will help if I can. Unfortunately there are people out there who will just take the money and do no checks of any kind, and there are people like that woman (and I bet they went out and bought a puppy of another breed for him, but it wasn't going to be one of mine) who just don't think and to them the puppy is another tick on their offsprings 'I want' list

We have had two rescue dogs in recent years, first a year old chow mix and the other 3yr old Ute. Both the consequence of a marriage breakdown (or so we were told).
Incidentally TW our first Ute was bought for our 14yr old son. Took a year for him & OH to persuade me to get him because I knew the main care would fall to me when he went to Uni.
Good that you are extremely careful about where your puppies go, too many of our type dogs ending up in rescue and completely inappropriate homes.

I have 2 occasions where they have got themselves into the wrong home, and I really do 3rd degree everyone, but somehow they slipped under the radar, and when I realised what was going on they came back to me and I got them sorted and they have both gone on to be well loved happy family dogs, but it could have turned out so differently for them. The others have been re-homed from their own homes so haven't had the upheavel of being moved to me and then again, but no way could I have left either of those 2 particular babies where they were. I was completely conned both times by practiced liars they just wanted a dog no one else had, the minute things began to get difficult for them they rang me and complained about how badly behaved the puppy was, yes well it helps if you go to training and socialise your puppy.....grrrrr

TW can I ask do you advise your prospective puppy owners that they will need to use a secure, enclosed area to safely exercise their pup/dog off-lead due to the sibe in them? I don't find this is routinely the case with our 'type' and may be one of the reasons that so many end up in rescue or being sold on when they become destructive due to lack of exercise/stimulation and/or the prey drive kicks in?

Well I don't find that to be the case to be honest. Both my girls are trained to KC Good Citizen Gold. I do advise they have a strong prey drive and should be kept onlead near sheep or poultry and to beware of cats, however mine have horses cantering/galloping past them and don't bother, have been in a field of cows and again don't bother them, though of course if there were calves in the field we wouldn't be in there. I also advise they need to go to training classes to learn how to handle their dogs, also I tend to look for people with experience of large agile breeds such as GSD's, people I have on my list at the moment include people with boxers, Rhodesian Ridgeback, GSD and huskies, all these people are well aware of the need to train their dogs. I turn far more people away than I take on my list because lots of enquiries I get are from people with a pipe dream of a 'wolf' walking obediently alongside them, that ain't gonna happen without a heck of a lot of hard work on their part, and maybe it will never happen in some cases. There are so many things you can take part in with these dogs once they are mature, as I know you are aware, scootering, cani x, biking, running to name a few. I also look for families that tend to lead an outdoorsey sort of life as well, then the dog is included in these activities and becomes a valued family member instead of a nuisance which is what any dog bought on a whim becomes

I think a lot fall in love with the idea of having a dog and think they are all like the Andrex puppies. They don't seem to see the naughtiness of pulling loo roll through the house though

Think ideal family = 2.5 children and a dog sat in its basket in the corner. Unfortunately, none of 'em come ready trained.