Puppies for Sale | What to Watch Out For

October 8, 2014

Puppies for Sale | What to Watch Out For

Have you sat around for days dreaming about bringing home a sweet fluffy puppy? Have you been scowling obsessively over “puppies for sale” sites?

Do you think you’re ready for a fuzzy puppy that will be a permanent family member, sharing in all of your joys and sorrows – right there curled up by your side? A true friend that cares about you and that you can go on long therapeutic walks with?

If you’ve answered yes to all of those questions, chances are you’re well on the way to buying a puppy and might even have a few places of interest where puppies are for sale.

But, there are a lot of important things you need to know before buying a puppy.

New Puppy Care

Of course, first and foremost before buying a puppy you must make sure your home is ready for your new puppy and that you can properly take care of him or her. You have to make sure you know:

What you’re planning on feeding your puppy and making sure it’s a good quality food or even better yet – a well thought out home cooked diet.
What kind of illnesses a puppy is prone to and how you plan on dealing with it if they happen to get it. Know the signs and symptoms.
What kind of bones and toys puppies need – after all they have baby teeth just like human babies!
Probably one of the most important things is a puppy training strategy that you stick to from the outset. It’s very important to be consistent with your training and behavior toward your pooch, so that they grow up into a happy adult dog that knows exactly where they stand.

But even with all of that aside, the place that you buy your puppy from is where you have to be most careful.

You want to make sure you’re not getting a puppy from a puppy mill.

Puppy mills are terrible places where puppies aren’t cared for properly and the mom’s are essentially milled for puppies until they’re too old and unhealthy to produce anymore, at which point they are usually put down or completely neglected. Just don’t support it!
Because puppies are born from unhealthy mothers into unhealthy conditions, puppies from puppy mills can be quite unhealthy themselves and many health issues can show up down the road – leading to very expensive vet bills.

Be wary of finding puppies for sale in classified ad's aswell - sites like kijiji and craigslist. Often puppies from puppy mills are brought to “half way” homes where they are then sold. Also, anyone can say anything about these puppies and there have been many cases of people being completely lied to about what breed their puppy is and its health condition or even whether or not it’s up to date on its shots!

So, what to do??

Do your research! If you’re looking into a puppy for sale or looking into adopting a puppy from any particular place make sure you learn about the organization or person that you are thinking of buying a puppy from. The Internet is a great resource for reviews and forums where previous buyers often discuss their experiences with puppy adoption and buying.

Adopt a pooch from a well-established rescue organization. Many of these organizations will actually foster these puppies and dogs first before sending them to their forever homes, in order to determine their temperament, health and other important things. Organizations like SaveMeRescue are really awesome this way and will even learn about you too in order to make sure you and the puppy are the right fit for each other.

Sources

Author: Aileen Schultz

Photo credit: Scott Kinmartin via photopin cc