Warning!! Don't go into the pet store, you will come out with a best friend.

I don't even like dogs, but my DH has been pouting about a puppy for about a year now, so he dragged me to a pet store "Just to look."  The door to the back room was open, and there was the most deadly cute Boston Terrier staring at me from it's crate (he had JUST gotten to the store too)....so we bought him.  And I'm pretty excited about it.

Between his puppy eyes and my husband's, I'll never say no again...oh my.

picturess pleasee :D

I will as soon as I get him.  Have to wait until Monday so the vet can come in and ok him...we were so sad to leave him.

Lol! Last year I went to a pet store with a friend in between classes to look at hedgehogs.. and came out with a Yorkie puppy!!!!!!!

He is a little over a year old now and I love him!

Ah yes they always get you with the eyes! 

Animal shelters are worse though.  They have the eyes and a limited shelf life :(

You can imagine what my husband said when I told him he had to get the dog from  60 miles away after his neuter!  But now Mackie is everyone's best friend and lap warmer.

I don't mean to sound like an jerkwad, but I'm going to.  Pet store pups come from Puppy Mills.  That's not just a sometimes kind of thing, they always come from people who shouldn't be breeding dogs and they're kept in really cruddy conditions. 

This poses multitudes of problems.  Not only does purchasing a dog from a pet store give those greedy terrible SOBs more money to keep their hundreds of dogs in terrible conditions, they do not do genetic health checks.  Bostons have numerous genetic problems and it's very likely they have been passed on to your pup (heaven forbid) because mills and backyard breeders breed dogs willy nilly.

I am very happy you got a new puppy.  Truly I am.  Puppies are the best.  I just want to let people know it is not okay to buy from a pet store.  Here are some tips to find a good breeder.

Here are some great training resources.

http://www.clickersolutions.com/
http://www.clickertraining.com/
http://www.clickerlessons.com/

hee hee *jerkwad* love it...

totally agree with jewels.

The pet shop near me gets their puppies from a local and reputable puppy breeder, you can seem them both in the store and their own home with mother and father...

Totally agree with you jewels.

I have a hard time leaving the pet store without a hamster! I had one last year, and was so sad she passed away. We can't have any pets besides a fish and our bird at the appartment though, so I can't get one right now. They're just so cute and fun :D

Original Post by jewelsmcblah:

I don't mean to sound like an jerkwad, but I'm going to.  Pet store pups come from Puppy Mills.  That's not just a sometimes kind of thing, they always come from people who shouldn't be breeding dogs and they're kept in really cruddy conditions. 

This poses multitudes of problems.  Not only does purchasing a dog from a pet store give those greedy terrible SOBs more money to keep their hundreds of dogs in terrible conditions, they do not do genetic health checks.  Bostons have numerous genetic problems and it's very likely they have been passed on to your pup (heaven forbid) because mills and backyard breeders breed dogs willy nilly.

ditto.  i'm a jerkwad, too.

besides, there are far too many dogs in shelters (and those are the lucky ones) to promote breeding for profit.

Original Post by delilah87:

The pet shop near me gets their puppies from a local and reputable puppy breeder, you can seem them both in the store and their own home with mother and father...

 Reputable breeder means that the parents of the puppies are show dogs with high quality pedigrees and that puppies typically come with health guarantees because the parents have been extensively screened.

It doesn't mean the puppies are loved and kept in a good living environment with the parents. That's just a backyard breeder.

EDIT: Replace "typically" with ALWAYS.

yes each dog comes with their KC registration, and health guarantees, hip scored, eyes and hearing tested and what have you, and are also kept in a good living enviroment. Puppies are loved, and home checks are carried out before you take them home, much the same as with dogs from shelters. The puppies aren't separeted from their parents untill they have been weaned. I don't really see how the shop is doing anything wrong.

Original Post by delilah87:

I don't really see how the shop is doing anything wrong.

don't kid yourself.  the shop is a business; they and the breeders are in it for profit.  in order to sell puppies at a competitive price and still allow for profit for both breeder and retailer, they're cutting costs somewhere.  how do you think they do it, if it's not by providing inferior care for inferior dogs?

How are they providing inferior care for inferior dogs exactly? The dogs are looked after, the dogs  find loving homes.... I don't see how this is any differernt to someone going to a shelter...They're not in puppy farms, you can see mother and father, you get home checked, you get insurance, you get healthy puppy. What is the problem?

Most reputable breeders don't make a profit selling their puppies. They usually break even on them after all the vet checking, etc. The money maker is the winnings from the show winning parents. Any breeder selling their puppies in a pet store likely isn't reputable at all.

Original Post by delilah87:

 

yes each dog comes with their KC registration, and health guarantees, hip scored, eyes and hearing tested and what have you, and are also kept in a good living enviroment. Puppies are loved, and home checks are carried out before you take them home, much the same as with dogs from shelters. The puppies aren't separeted from their parents untill they have been weaned. I don't really see how the shop is doing anything wrong.

Getting a KC registration isn't a big deal.  Millers can get AKC (or any other club) too.

Do you happen to have a link to this store or the breeders?

exactly, lynners:

a puppy from a reputable breeder @ cost recovery is, say, $1000 - 1500.  compare that to a puppy in a pet store at, say, $800, of which 50% is profit for the pet store.  so how exactly did the breeder keep costs so low?

how does the pet-store breeder manage to produce a puppy for $400 when it costs the reputable breeder three times that?  by breeding inferior stock (dogs that should have been neutered) and providing inferior care.  edited to add: and breeding way too often.

delilah, it's sweet that you're so trusting, but the truth is, breeding dogs for profit is a cutthroat business, and fraud is rampant.  the fact that you might be able to go to somebody's home, on their terms and on their schedule, and see a few happy, healthy dogs running around in no way means that the puppies in the store came from that environment.

Original Post by delilah87:

I don't see how this is any differernt to someone going to a shelter...

anyone want to take this on?  i can't face it.

Hmmm... adopting a dog that was given up because the owners have zero responsibility and probably faces being put to sleep or a life in an over-crowded shelter, where the dog has usually has at least it's first round of vaccines and is spayed/neutered and giving it a second life OR contributing to an industry that pops out unhealthy pups from overbred dogs. Breeders that sell to pet stores are not "reputable". They constantly have the mother dog pregnant just to make some money. Petco says they're pups come from "reputable" breeders and are AKC registered however, the few times I've went in to play with pups (to control my urge for going to a shelter and just bringing one home) I saw several dogs with health problems that were very visible to my non-trained eye. A "pure bred Cocker Spaniel from a reputable breeder" would not have visible defects and a "reputable" pet store wouldn't let their dogs sit there with infected eyes and no vet care. 

It doesn't matter how "shiny and nice" the pet store looks. The pups come from puppy mills and crap breeders. Sure, you might have taken a dog out of that situation but you just contributed to the pup mill industry and are just helping to perpetuate it. There's a reason why so many people adopt from shelters and rescues. There are plenty of breed-specific rescues as well. And if you were dead set on getting a Boston Terrier, pure breds show up at shelters pretty often. I met a couple who adopted a French Bulldog from a shelter (and those dogs are about $1800 from an actual reputable breeder and about $1200 in a sheisty pet store). 

i kind-of suspect that kenya was a mill dog.  first, she's a ridgeback without a ridge, so she should have been spayed automatically, but she wasn't, and she had at least one litter.  so--hypothetically--she gets picked up cheap or free because she's not up to breed standards (probably with an agreement not to breed, but--hell--who enforces those?).  they breed her once or twice, but she doesn't produce, so they dump her in the middle of nowhere to fend for herself.

it's the only explanation i can come up with for her to end up a stray, because--you know--she's perfect .