Where did you get your dog?

I've always fancied having a pedigree dog like a beautiful Golden Retriever, but I've never been able to bring myself to buy one when there are so many dogs in rescue centres looking for homes. I know there are often pedigree dogs in rescue centres but I always manage to take the dog that most looks like it needs a home.

Where did you get yours?

 

Mine is actually a long story. I wrote it up at the beginning of the dog food post here: http://www.quirkycookery.com/2011/11/how-to-make-your-own-dog-food.html Long story short, his owner passed away and we took him in. The longer story is still one that will bring tears to my eyes, though.

 

What's for dinner Jesse.Yummo. Thank's for that and the other links. An interesting read.
Mishka came sort of from the hardware store. My wife was in there one day buying some nails or something when she saw a notice and a picture of some puppies. Our daughter was going through a difficult time and it was thought a dog may help out. Two puppies were left when my wife and daughter eventaully got to the owners house and Mishka was chosen.
Our daughter has since left home for the city and is doing very well and Mishka is, I guess, our dog now. So Mishka was chosen for a bit of therapy. She certainly gives me some laughs.

 

Majority of our dogs are just given to us by our friends or acquaintances. We do have a dog that we adopt since it used to be a stray dog.

 

We found our dogs at a local animal shelter (RSPCA). As I was in elementary school at the time (almost in middle school) we looked at adult dogs as I obviously couldn't be at home all day to look after a puppy. Thankfully due to my mum's work hours she was home some of the day with our new adult dog though. Perhaps a month or two later the woman who had adopted her sister returned her as she was allergic and they couldn't find a home for her and so we got a call and decided to adopt her.

I'm currently studying at college and Rosie the second dog we adopted lived until my first year of college.

 

Nice story. You're quite right about older dogs finding harder to be adopted.He's a lucky dog being cared for so well.

 

I have had dogs from pet stores and dogs from humane shelters. I don't like to buy dogs from a pet store as I feel that this helps puppy mills prosper. If you want a purebred dog the best way is to go to the breeder. There you can see the Mother and Father and how the puppy was cared for. Hopefully this will get rid of puppy mills!!

 

I've never had a dog from a shelter. I suppose if I ever went to a shelter I would want to take most of them home. I don't even think I can remember buying a dog. I have mostly gotten dogs as gifts. In the case of my last dog Zola she was born into the family. One of my "gifted" dogs produced her.

 

Homer was bought from a breeder.
We wanted to have a Yorkshire Terrier, because many of my family members have allergies. Yorkies are hypo-alergenic

 

I rescued my schnauzer girl from an irresponsible dog breeder, my pug was a gift. My first dogs (as a child) were bought to me by my parents from several sources, mostly dog breeders Yes, I'm sad to admit I was ever part of that dirty and disgusting business...

 

Hehehe! That is cute! So is the baby momma still around or not? I got a couple dogs in the past that way, hence I now only have females and they're all neutered already

 

Oh yes she's around. She is much smaller than her daughter and so timid at times. The daughter helped to bring her out of her shell. I used to call the mom "my ghetto queen" aka "the baby momma". She was not used to being in the house and it took me a long, long time to convert her. Her daughter was born with a "gold spoon" in her mouth and has had to teach her mom the social graces.

I've never neutered them and my brother wants my Zola (the daughter) to be with some other breed but I don't want it. At first I thought it might be good to carry on the legacy but with all the reading I have been doing, I don't think I want to go through with it anymore.

 

Not all dog breeders are bad people. We bought Homer from a really nice man who has two daughters. They help him taking care of all the puppies. Both Homer and his sister were very happy, clean and healthy when I first saw them

 

I know Claudine, some breeders are very nice and good people, but I still feel regretful. Because I'd have preferred my parents to get a rescue dog, instead of buying it. Now as an adult I'd never buy a dog from a breeder, I don't want to support that business, I'm actually glad to report that over here we are seeing less dog breeders.

What I dislike about this business the most, is not only the fact they breed their dogs til death, but the fact a lot of those puppies end up in the street. Yes, just the other day I saw a pure breed french poodle dog, in other occasions I've seen even pure breed Maltese and even a basset hound It's sad, but a lot people buy pure breed dogs, sometimes not even sure they want them, then they start to realize having a dog is no easy job and most of the time abandon them. That's why I don't like that dog breeding business. If only more people rescued dogs from shelters over here, then we'd not have such a huge stray dog issue.

 

This is so sad! I hate people who abandon their dogs. They're unbelievably cruel. I feel heartbroken when I hear stories like this. If my family wasn't allergic to most breeds, we'd definitely get a rescue dog too. I'd love to take care of a puppy from a shelter!

 

That is great, Claudine Wish more people were as gentle and caring as you are! Sadly a lot people out there are not. Over here it's even harder for abandoned dogs to get a second chance, because we don't really have many shelters The government just doesn't care, you have no idea how many times I've seen dogs I wish I could take home. Sadly I have no space nor resources to treat stray dogs Moments like that I wish I was a vet.

 

Thank you! You're very gentle and caring too
I've never seen a stray dog in my city. There are a few shelters here. I sometimes support them financially, but I'm only a poor student, so I can't give them as much money as I'd want to

 

That is great! I've noticed that in Europe there are almost no stray dogs (excepting Greece, of course), but most European countries don't seem to have the same problem we have in America. The stray dogs issues is so huge here, so I was amazed to see some countries over there have zero stray dogs :O