I try very hard to stay off my soap box and remain unpolitical on my business pages but I feel like I need to speak up right now in the hope that my words will aid even just one person in making an informed decision. If this mammoth post avoids just one dog from getting bounced from pillar to post simply because their owners didn't research properly, it was worth the effort. Because right now, it feels like many people put more effort into researching their next model of mobile phone or vacuum cleaner than they do what breed or type of dog to get and it is quite frankly mind boggling.
I will start by getting this out of the way - Rehoming is often not a sin. Whilst I wish it was never necessary, I'd always rather see a dog rehomed to a better equipped person than stuck in a situation that isn't coping with it and is reducing its quality of life. Though that's perhaps a topic for another day. But the amount of hardcore working breeds currently being shunted from one inappropriate home to another right now is heart-breaking and there are two sets of people at fault here.
The first is of course the breeders. A good breeder will give you, the prospective puppy buyer a pretty thorough grilling regarding your lifestyle, what you want from a dog, your experience and training ability etc before ever selling you a dog. You can expect to be placed on a waiting list and this might be as long as a couple of years because breeding good dogs is not a quick undertaking and not done en mass. They will likely be forthcoming about the parents health and (if relevent) working credentials without you even needing to even ask as they will be proud. It's pretty common for a good breeder to match puppies to owners based on their temperaments and the buyers wants and wishes. This is to avoid placing the highest energy, highest drive puppy with a family that really needs a lower energy companion or the laziest puppy with someone that wants a sporting companion which is a real risk when the only other selection criteria is colour and perhaps gender. A good breeder will not sell a dog to a home they feel will be a poor fit for their breed/individuals within their litter. This isn't snobbiness, it's ethics.
Crappy breeders will probably ask a few perfunctory questions but a few will ask none at all. Puppies will likely already be on the ground or the dam already be pregnant. You'll probably get to pick your pup but for the reasons given above, this isn't as always as great as it sounds. If you're *really* lucky, the parents might have been Embark tested for genetic disease. But this is far from the full story that proper health testing (orthopaedic, eye and heart function tests for example) give. Crappy breeders are frustratingly willing to sell to whomever promises they'll be a good home and hands over the cash. They're usually not even cheap. Expensive doesn't immediately mean quality.
Especially if you see the words "rare colour" in the advert...
The rest of the fault however lies with the buyer. Crappy breeders will always be out there if people don't vote with their feet and stop buying from them in the first place. Supply and demand. But my main bone of contention in all of this isn't even that crappy breeders get supported (which is sad enough) but the fact that buyers are purchasing such ridiculous choices. Most of us walk around with literal computers in our pockets with constant access to the internet at all times. There is no excuse to not be researching something that is such a huge decision. None at all.
If you work a 50hr week, have very small children, small pets, hate exercise and are generally time-poor, why would you buy a breed that requires intensive mental and physical stimulation, extensive grooming and/or has an enormous prey drive? If you are desperate for a dog that will be a social butterfly, why would you opt for a breed that is almost always aloof or suspicious of or even leans towards aggression to strangers? If you want a dog to be social with other dogs, why would you chose a breed that in its not so distant past was rigorously selectively bred for hard-wired aggression towards other dogs?
As much as I am pro-rescue/rehome, I do feel like the rescue centre mantra of "it's all in how you raise them" has a lot to answer for in this as it has left many people under the illusion that you can just straight up love the genetic traits you don't like right out of a dog.
It goes without saying that I will always, always help people without judgement when they come to me tearing their hair out and desperate for training help.
I'll do all I can to help that dog to fit into your home, but sometimes, the home really does have to fit the dog too. Especially if that dog is a working or so-called 'power' breed. If I could afford to do so, I could literally cancel everything and fill the next six months right now with nothing but the rescue/rehome Malinois and working line German Shepherds I'm getting tagged in and begged to help. Probably the next year. I've noticed XL type bullies and Cane Corso becoming problematic recently too despite that those aren't the circles I'm involved in. So make that more like two years.
And that's without all the Staffordshire Bull Terriers and other bull breeds, the Dobermanns (especially the high drive Serbian imports that seem to be a bit much for many who have bought them just for the look, the lurchers who don't want top spend all day upside down on a sofa and would rather kill wildlife, the livestock guardian breeds that may look like giant, fluffy teddy bears but are often 50kgs+ of stranger-danger and dog aggression...
So I feel like this needs to be said. Because the current situation is dire.
Please, please research your choice of breed/type BEFORE you take the plunge and buy a puppy.
I've offered a service for years helping people to select a suitable dog for their lifestyle and am still happy to offer that now under my own banner. All you have to do is ask.
...And hey, if anyone feels like gifting me a winning lottery ticket so I can spend the rest of my days helping all these unwanted, poorly bred and unthinkingly purchased working breeds that are getting pushed from pillar to post, I'll be eternally grateful! 😂
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