Good grief calm down.
4 Likes
Welllll…i can speak to the OP. I’ve been a PWD owner since 1992, bred a couple of litters just for my own use and gave to close friends. There was a HUGE uptake in Portuguese Water Dogs when Bo was given to the Obamas. What was once a highly controlled breed popped out into the puppymill fringes and now they are easily bought with no strings attached…anyone can breed them now. Like labs. You don’t get to be a dog-snob by owning one anymore. lol. Not a bad thing really. There was just too much popular-sires-syndrome going on in the breed.
1 Like
Puppy mills are always a bad thing.
5 Likes
That is excellent advice.
Get the pet that will fit better our current lives, not the idealized dog sleeping at our feet in front of the fireplace many have in mind when they get a dog.
Our dog club helped with different “Muttfest” activities trying to place dogs and had to ask people to think about how a dog or other pet would fit their lives 24/7, not just adopt in the spur of the moment and then later some pets were returned when it didn’t work so well.
It does take a bit of thinking and then, best decision made, all can be happy.
3 Likes
I foolishly bought 2 Bichons at a mall petstore some years back and when I went to register them I needed some info from breeder in missouri so I called.
Question- How many puppies do you sell per year?
Answer- 1500
Think they were a puppy mill?
8 Likes
well yeah, of course. But one thing that happened was a couple of puppy mills got ahold of a breeding bitch and dog, and sold the puppies without a contract and one thing led to another, and now, there are enough people out there with breedable PWDs that are not under contractual obligation. Cat’s outta the bag on the breed. And i think that is a good thing, ultimately.
I am always grateful that my 3 favorite breeds that I have been owned by have never been trendy or in high demand.
Smooth Fox Terriers.
Borzois.
Border Terriers.
BTs are far more popular in the UK… but here, not so much.
4 Likes
I think it’s a damn shame. There are reasons a number of breeds rarely end up in rescue and the lack of marketability of that breed for puppy mills is one of main reasons.
1 Like
Filmed at one of my favourite local ski hills and towns (Fernie)…just saying LOL
1 Like
In the good ole days you had to know somebody. Or be on a waiting list for a year or so. And sign a contract they you’d spay/neuter or show. And that you could not breed unless your breeder was involved (to the extent of arranging the stud …with your consent). She would get first and second pic. And all puppies you sold were out on spay/neuter contracts. Lots of good working dogs never made it into the breeding pool. And it’s a ‘working’ breed. I happen to be a trainer and work is what i’m all about and what i value more than coat or correct tail carriage.
1 Like
Not just in the good old days. Each breeder I have worked with over the years has had those conditions (and lengthy waiting lists) or something similar. Plus the condition that if for any reason you can no longer commit to said dog, he/she returns to the breeder. Having that safety net for my pups is a very good feeling - and knowing that their breeder cares very much about all of them for their entire lives - and not just their first 8 - 12 weeks or so.
5 Likes
We went through the same process when we got our first Curly Coated Retriever. We had to have a reference and then got on a waiting list. Our first pup was the only one available in the U.S. Now that we have had Curlies for 25 years, it has been easier to network and we will get a puppy sometime this year. The breeders are incredibly strict about selling their puppies.
The Oregonian reported that the Oregon Humane Society has flown in 60 dogs and cats from Texas and they are now available for adoption. I think many people surrendered pets because of COVID. They either couldn’t afford them anymore or lost their homes through evictions.
1 Like
I sincerely wish that there was some way to get a handle on all of these idjits that are breeding Pitbulls. I have nothing against the breed, at all. It’s just that in this area, it seems like there are a bunch of homeless pitties in the shelters. Of course, they call them every kind of mix in the book, but the reality is that somewhere out there, someone decided to just let them breed, not spay or neuter, or just keep breeding. Between the existence of dog fighting, which is heinous, and the numbers of these puppies, the whole thing is a nightmare.
12 Likes
What do any of these comments have to do with the thread topic and original post? I’m so confused lol
1 Like
It is a huge problem here locally (central Florida). 95% of the dogs in the local shelters are pitbulls or pit mixes. Almost everyone that walks through the doors of our local animal shelter wants something without pitbull in it. It is incredibly sad to go through and see all those sad, sweet faces. Since the shelter here locally has turned to no-kill, some have been there 6-8 months or longer. They can truly be excellent dogs, but humans have failed them (lack of training, care, poor genetics/temperament from backyard breeders etc).
3 Likes
Threads evolve. The first post mentioned dogs. We are still talking dogs. Heck there are plenty of political threads the morph into recipes and the first post had nothing to do with recipes and neither did the first 35 pages. You have been here long enough to know how things wander around on this board. It is what it is. At least we are all being polite so that is a plus.
9 Likes
Every breeder my parents talked to had these policies. The puppy they ended up getting (Bernese Mountain Dog) they were on the waiting list for almost a year. But they also were inquiring with small, responsible breeders who only had a litter a year for each dog max.
4 Likes
That was my in-laws’ experience with getting Komondors, another rare breed.
As for the original topic – sensationalist journalism can come from right or left or way out there in the back of beyond. One of the problems now is that there is SO MUCH out there. There have been many instances posted here of a story picked up by a very biased media org, and the poster complaining about how the mainstream media haven’t carried this very important story, and it’s OMG they are so biased. What I’ve observed is that MSM are pretty careful in most of these cases – they don’t want to carry a blatantly false story, and they don’t want to over-glorify the really sensationalist ones. And a lot of times, in regard to the latter, they have carried it, but they’ve not made it a leading headline. So something that gets splashed all over (insert biased source here) might get a paragraph or two on page 3 of a MSM newspaper, and might not get mentioned on MSM radio at all because there is simply too much out there to report on everything.
Stories about the Bidens’ dogs are cute and humanizing, but aren’t headlines now AFAIK. You might even view a story like this as a “hook” to get someone interested in more political news. I think Ingraham and company are sooooo desperate for Biden to fail, they’ll do just about anything.
6 Likes
My city has ordinances that say ‘pitbulls and pitbullXs must be on a 4’ lead AND muzzled when being walked’ (seldom enforced, just saw a “violator” about 2 minutes ago), and I THINK, you have to carry extra insurance if you own one. And, of course, some home insurance companies will either charge you LOTS or drop you if you own a pitbull or pitbullX.
Other breeds such as Akitas, Chow Chows, German Shepherd Dogs, Rottweilers, and MY breed, Doberman Pinschers, have been subject to similar restrictions in other cities. (I can’t MOVE to Ireland WITH my Dobermans.)
4 Likes
We moved the thread to The Menagerie where it’s now a better fit.
2 Likes
