Where to buy a dog

giddings

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

My wife and I have been looking for a dog for nearly a year. We have two young daughters, 6 and 8 years old. We both grew up with dogs.

Every application we've made with Adopt a Dog or <snip>, and all our visits to the shelters, have ended in disappointment, because the available dogs are too big (we live in a small house) or aren't suitable for kids. Dogs.ie rarely has anything available; DoneDeal always smells dodgy; breeders want crazy money (our max budget is €400).

Any advice?? Where can you get a smallish dog that's good with kids without spending a fortune?

kylith

Your best bet would be to decide on a breed, or a couple of breeds (if you post your living situation, how much grooming you'd be ok with, how much exercise you'd be prepared to do we'll be able to recommend some breeds). Then you can get in touch with breeders through the breed clubs; but be aware - the reputable ones won't have pups for Christmas.

You're right to stay away from Done Deal; it's full of puppy farms and scammers. Dogs are much like anything else though: you get what you pay for. <snip> often have pups so I can't fathom why hey wouldn't have anything suitable.

DBB

Folks, can I remind you not to discuss or link to individual rescues, as it's against the forum charter. Recommendations by pm only.
Thanks,
DBB

Knine

Agree with Kylith, we need more info so we can help you choose a suitable breed.

To be honest though if you are looking for a puppy from a reputable breeder your budget is a bit small. Reputable Breeders charge 'crazy' money because it actually costs a lot of money, time & hard work to produce quality puppies. Cheap pedigree puppies mostly likely means lots of cut corners.

After Christmas I'm sure a lot of puppies will end up in rescue & you will have a lot more options, in the meantime I recommend you keep saving if you decide to go with a pedigree dog.

dubjay

wait until after xmas. I have a large dog in a small house but she gets out every day which is fine and is very good at picking up new tricks and doing what she is told and to be honest I am waiting to get another from the shelters after christmass

tk123

I live in a small house and have two retrievers. You don't need lots of space in the house/garden if you can adequately exercise and stimulate them.

giddings

Thanks for all the replies. We canceled an arrangement with someone on DoneDeal earlier today because it didn't feel kosher. Then gave one of the shelters another last try, and found they had just gotten in a sweet jack russell cross puppy, who'll be coming home with us next week. So a happy ending after all :-D

VonVix

Avoid DoneDeal alright! There are very few good breeders on there (a good breeder generally doesn't have to sell online because they have people already waiting for their puppies), but not only are they few and far between, you have to know what to look for and the average person looking for a dog wouldn't know.

Be sure to get a dog that suits your lifestyle, be aware of what the dog you are looking at was bred to do. I have a house of 3 herding breeds and they display behaviours associated with that every day

I find a dog is good with kids if the kids are good with the dog. Often I find medium/large dogs are better with kids. Smaller dogs can be less tolerant because they are physically more fragile and they know it. Larger dogs can take a bit more rough and tumble with stride. Just my experiences though.

Madisonmenece

I think as mentioned already once you make a decision on a breed/type you will narrow your search options, and it will be easier to find the dog you want.

As far as I am aware shelters are bursting at the seams with dogs, as you mentioned many of these may be large dogs that other people could no longer deal with. it might be worth looking at shelters in other nearby counties, the great thing with a rescue is that you are helping an animal in need and most of the toilet training etc. is done but you don’t know the full history of the dog.

I have never rescued but bought both my dogs, one from a top breeder for the breed and the other from donedeal. Both dogs are pure bred with full papers but the boy from the show line is very sensitive, the girl we got from donedeal is as hard as nails and never causes us bother. When we went to breeder from donedeal he turned out to be resposible and we were very comfortable and visit a couple of times and asked all the questions we needed.

if the person selling the dog does not want to answer questions which are concerning you walk away, the breeder should support the person taking the dog and be as worried about where the dog is going as you are for where its coming from.

You will find a lot of breeders that have websites are breeding for show, often these have long waiting lists or arrange joint ownership with others in other countries to further the kennels name.