Looking for a Puppy?

Looking for a puppy? Let's talk about how to do it right shall we? But first, background.

Our little dog Holly keeled over a couple of days ago.

She’s a little love bug from a puppy farm and was bred from until she was 6.

She’s over 13 now.

Holly has lung disease. She has arthritis in her elbows and is pretty much blind and deaf.

It’s unbelievable considering all her health issues that someone bred almost six years of puppies from her, tiny teens frame.

Bred from with her genes, allergies, snub face and poor health.

It’s hard to believe that people still bought her puppies from classifieds and the like, no questions asked. But they did. For six whole years.

The day before yesterday we thought she had died. It seems she fainted though, she got very excited when we came through the door and the oxygen stopped getting where it needed to be, because her lungs are broken.

A quick vet check, a quick decision to wait and see what happens next, and she’s back to normal, for now.

Please though if you want a dog and are considering a puppy, think of Holly.

Think of the dog behind the classifieds puppies, in a dark shed, being bred from.

Think of all of those dogs with health issues, and their puppies who won’t cope in the World.

If you can, go to a rescue. Please.

If you can’t, research the breeder, take their words apart, see the puppies with mom and dad in the home. Question breeder motivation and watch so carefully how the puppies mum looks. Watch how the breeder acts around the dogs, be hawkeyed. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Take note of how many questions they ask you.

If a breeder asks you lots of questions, they were probably as careful before breeding from their dog. If they don’t, well they were probably not too careful at all.

Emotionally, it’s hard if you unexpectedly end up in that situation. It might feel like rescuing to take a puppy farm puppy, but it’s not, it’s enabling many more puppies to be born. It’s creating a market. And for the dog in the shed being helplessly bred from, it’s prolonging their time in hell.

Let’s pull together and not do that anymore.

Since I wrote this we lost our little Holly to the lung disease she carried all her life.

You can still read Holly's story through her book on Amazon.

Life with a Puppy Farm Rescue