I am not against it and can see the appeal as I hate the puppy stage.

I also agree with this

sometimes so do i, but that doesn't mean if i get an older dog i still don't need to train it and not know how to do so

I do wonder why anyone would want to do it though...the basics of training are the most important and ensuring the dog knows them and teaching them to the dog is surely a good way to ensure that you know how that dog thinks? How that dog learns and reacts??? Why get someone else to do that for you? It befuddles me...

Nigel Mansel paid £15000 for his
http://www.a1k9.co.uk/Daily-Express-...-protector.asp

here here

good post

why take away your own opportunity to learn about something you take into your own home and heart?
also, training withyour dog is a valuable part of the bonding process, and a joy to behold when you see your own efforts blossom into life, especially when you suddenly get that look of epiphany in your dog's face.
it's like you have painted a picture together.

£15,000 for a dog is just nuts. I'd pay £15,000 for a dog if it did my housework for me, but for a that just bites on command? crazy. Some people have more money than common sense.

Exactly. That is it exactly. I don't want someone else to do that for me.

Just been pondering and I rescued Jazz so in theory free and she is a natural protector. She is very assertive when people come in but tell her shush and she does or bed and she gets on it.
And when out if some man approaches and its dark she lunges forward but soon as I tell her here she does.
So really just saved myself £15000.

Just been thinking a little more since my last post. One of the disadvantages in getting a part trained dog I think is that you have not known it from a puppy, do not know its history (or at least in detail) and therefore do not know the dog and its reactions inside out like you would if you had had it from a puppy. Also you form a relationship and understanding with a puppy from the first day it enters your house and mould it to how you want it to be. Although an adult dog is mouldable too, it is not to the same extent as a puppy. Both Cox and Belle have certain behaviours that, had I had them from a pup, I would have moulded differently, but it is harder on an adult dog set in its ways.

For example, Cox doesn't like strangers examining him at all, or even petting him. It took us 30 mins at the vets to read his microchip because he was squirming and scared of the reader, big woose. It makes vet visits a nightmare and means sedation even to look down his ears. I am working on this but it is a work in progress. If I had had him from a pup I would hope this would not have been a problem.

As another eg, both the dogs are not particularly friendly with other dogs, but not too bad. They also don't really know how to play with other dogs and that is a result of their upbringing which I couldn't control.

On the plus side, both dogs have had resources and knowledge put into their early training which I couldn't have hoped to match.

I have done the puppy thing though, and the basic training thing before though, so I know what it involves. it just happened that Cox and Belle both were looking for homes when we were thinking about adding a dog to the family. We went to see them, and felt drawn to them, and that was it, otherwise, I would be doing the puppy thing right now lol