What I dislike most about a lot of ads I have seen is that they say 'Pups ready now'. My freebie paper comes out on a Thursday and you can just imagine someone sat there wondering what to do over the weekend, flicking through the paper for inspiration, and thinking, great idea - I'll get a dog .

I know of a recent instance where the breeder of a very well bred litter found themselves having to advertise all over the place because their pups happened to arrive at same time as a fatal attack by a dog of this breed on a child Immediately, the majority of buyers who had been on the waiting list, dropped out leaving the breeder with most of the litter to find homes for so had to use every avenue available to them, including ads in pet shops and on the internet. Of course, they had the added advantage of the breed club to pass potential buyers their way too but I guess any ethical breeder who found themsleves in a similar situation would do the same...albeit that they have to be prepared to deal with a lot of timewasters/numpties you wouldn't trust with a goldfish in the effort to find suitable homes.

Heck, one of my own dogs came via an advert when the breeder found herself with 2 pups of the 'wrong' colour and a waiting list full of people who only wanted the 'traditional' colour. She purposely didn't mention the colour in the advert and almost every call from interested parties ended when she said what colour they were I just wanted a healthy puppy who had been well reared...colour was entirely secondary.

I guess that must happen a lot...breeders finding themselves with too many pups of the 'wrong' colour/sex/markings or a larger litter than they had expected. As long as an adequate vetting procedure is in place, I don't think it particularly matters where the potential buyers are found.

I am also strongly in favour of Mahooli and her ilk advertising on websites and in the free ads. It seems to me an excellent education opportunity as Joe Public might finally begin to realise that, 9 times out of 10, they can have a well bred pedigree puppy with appropriate health certification for around the same price as a poorly bred one or ridiculously named crossbreed.

I got Missy through an ad in a paper. At the time , I was off work with depression and felt I had no reason to get out of bed. At one doctors appointment I was told to go out walking as it would make me feel better and bring my appetite back. Before this , I had hardly got out of bed for 3 weeks and was hardly eating. I had no reason to. On my doctors advice , I decided to get a dog. I couldn't stay in bed if I had a dog relying on me to provide it with food , water , exercise and love. I didn't really have anything particular in mind breed wise , I just wanted a dog as soon as I could get one. My only preferences were that it would be medium sized , short haired and good with children as my sister often visits with her little girl. I didn't even know whether I wanted a puppy or an adult. I asked my mum to buy me a copy of Ad Trader , as that way I could look for a dog without having to leave the house. I looked through the dog ads and saw a couple that interested me. That gave my confidence a slight boost. One ad was for an 18 month old brindle Staffie bitch. Having always liked Staffies , I got quite excited about this ad , but as I was depressed , I thought there would be no point in phoning as the dog would have been sold. It was 2 days later before I felt confident enough to ring , as I'd told myself it didn't matter if the dog was gone , I'd just have to look for something else. When I rang , I had already convinced myself that the dog had been sold , so I wouldn't feel let down. Imagine how happy I was to find out that she was still there as the seller had turned down several callers already. She didn't think they would have given the dog as good a home as she would like ! After talking on the phone for nearly an hour , asking and answering hundreds of questions , I was finally invited to go and see the dog. My mum and I drove to West Calder that evening and spent 2 hours in the lady's house. After a lot more questions , Gail was happy enough that we would give Missy a good home and she was happy to let her go with us. She was devastated about having to give up her dog. The landlord had told her to get rid of the dog or move out of the house ! I still keep in touch with Gail and let her know how Missy is getting on. If it hadn't been for this ad in the paper , I don't think I would be here today. Missy helped in a big way to get me out of depression and back to work. At the time , I couldn't have waited for a puppy from a breeder , having lost 2 stone in 3 weeks and having no reason to live. I wouldn't have known where to find a good breeder at the time , never mind know about health tests and I wasn't in the state of mind to spend time finding out. My first stop was the paper because I knew I would find a dog there easily. Only after getting a dog did I start to buy books in order to learn more. I also enroled her in training classes as soon as I got her . Ads in papers really aren't that bad after all now , are they ? I wouldn't have bought a dog from someone I thought was breeding indiscriminately. But without much knowledge of Staffies , I've managed to buy a very nice , friendly , fun pet .

We got Jed through AdMag, Flynn through E Pupz and then obviously Kai from a rescue.

I wasnt as clued up then as I am now so I wouldnt go down these paths again when looking for a dog. None of them have been health tested and we are not in touch with the people who bred them.

I got Flower, my mongrel, via the internet...and Willow from epupz....no complaints, beautiful girls, loved and spoilt to death. Neither of them are KC registered...but both loved and looked after as well as imaginable.

People have there own opinions on mongrels and non kc redgistered pups...but everyones opinions differ xxxx

IMO, simply because 99% of breeders who sell online, are not genuine ethical breeders, sorting the wheat from chaff would be very difficult for most well experienced buyers never mind joe public who is new to dogs.

Also the majority of the buyers who look online are not really the sort of people i'd be wanting any of my pups to go to.

Of course there are exceptions to every rule but it just means the majoritry of sales are rubbish breeders selling to rubbish owners and that can only spell a complete disaster!

Same goes for admags and papers e.t.c. JMO remember. :smt002 I have no digs a good breeders selling online as long as they are very very careful, which any good breeder always is!

Opinions differ because we care about breeding healthy dogs, that are free of terrible hereditary health problems, not because we don't like mongrels !

The whole point of breeding good dogs is health testing and breeding to better a breed, NOT to make money ! If you are for condoning that, so be it, but good breeders don't just have 1 dog's welfare at heart, they have a whole breed to think about !

What a load of tosh, i know many last year that have had to resort to advertising on epupz i years ago got my first dane from an advert and i'm a decent dog owner so theres people like me out there it doesnt mean the breeder has to sell to them!!

We have a major problem of late with pet people breeding their pet danes and selling them on epupz for a fraction of the cost, many top breeders are now not breeding as they may have 4 show homes but no homes for the rest.. We are not a popular breed regardless and to try and sell to pet homes in a market that is already saturated isnt easy..

I dread the next few years and the influx of crap danes brought to the ring..As it stands with the net reputation isnt proceeding many top breeders as poorly bred pups are too readily available..

I did say JMO and that there are some exceptions but from what I have seen (and I do occasionally trawl them like a busy body when i'm bored ) the vast majority are rubbish breeders, but then I only really look in Weims and Rotts so don't know about Danes, can't comment on other individual breeds.

I would say epz seem to have more than there fair share of designer cross breeds at inflated prices. Wouldnt it be nice if all the online sites that sell pets had a code of ethics and refused to take pf and byb, or at least gave a list of health checks and told buyers want to expect or even had a feed back section.
Doubt this will happen as most of these sites are in it for the money which is why I cant support them.