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How Dog Sales Work

This article will share about how most dog sales work, with this we hope to enlighten more owners to understand where their purchased dogs come from, not through guessing or reading, but through our personal experiences and information gathered over the years. Hopefully after reading, you will be able to decide for yourself and make wiser decisions if you do wish to get a dog in future, if you already have a dog and found out that it was from an unethical breeder, then you can help to play a part by sharing this information around, to put unethical breeders and dog sellers out of businesses. Other than that, knowing your dog is not bred properly can help you to invest in quality food and keep a look out for his/her health in the long run.

Note: this article reflects solely on our experience and knowledge, we do not assume that all businesses are using these methods, there may be newer sales method (ethical or not) that are not discovered by us, hence all readers should read this article for educational purposes only.

Where puppies come from
All puppies come from their mother, yes this is common sense, however what we are implying is not literally questioning where they are born out of, but to know how these dogs/puppies fall into the hands of sellers. Knowing this may give you a better idea of how the puppies may turn out, if these puppies are bred from inexperienced or unethical breeders then buyers will have a high chance of getting puppies that are sick or with bad temperament, when we say sick we are not talking about mild cough/flu symptom, we are talking about diseases and sickness that may affect the dog's health and wellbeing in the long run - genetic skin problem, kennel cough, distemper, parvo virus, luxating patella, undescended testicles and many other problems, these can actually be prevented with proper breeding and care, however when ignored, a lot of poor puppies will be suffering as they grow, some may not even get to live a proper dog life.

We understand that it's not wrong to be quick thinking to earn more money, as long as the puppies are really in good hands there is nothing wrong with this. However, most dog sellers/breeders are not as caring as they seemed to be, in any ways possible, we will always set higher than average expectations when it comes to purchasing dogs, dogs are living things, they are live animals and intelligent enough to know what is life, death and suffering, buying a dog will also mean you will mostly likely be spending more than 10 years (depending on breed) with it, setting high expectations is nothing compared to breeding dogs with sickness and behavior problems. We have seen how puppy mills work, we have seen how pet store run their businesses behind closed door, we have seen dog births, their growth and know what they need, which is why we protect them so dearly.


Sad but the truth, this is how puppy mills are like

Puppy mills
Most pet stores import puppies from somewhere, and puppy mills are the most common place to get from, they are imported at a very cheap price especially if purchased in batches (siblings), which you may find that certain pet stores, especially those at pet farms will be selling the same breed at a lower cost compared to the market rate, most puppy mills operate at pet farms and setting up a pet store at the farm itself is the most profitable way to do businesses. If you do not know, puppy mills are "factories" that constantly breed dogs so that it will be enough to supply the market (us), these dog parents are forced to breed over and over again to make money for the businesses, usually 1 female and 2 males (sometimes more) will be locked inside a small steel cage and left to mate, if the female dog struggles, she may be injured or killed, if she don't then she will have to work as a breeding dog till one day when her body fails to function, then she will be thrown on the streets, which is why you see a lot of ex breeding dogs at the shelters, some are disfigured due to environment and fights, some have their private areas ruptured and torn because of excessive breeding, you will only feel the true sadness if you manage to enter a puppy mill and see for yourself.

The law for animals welfare are strengthening as time goes but there are still a whole lot of room for improvements, in areas like pet farms which are hidden from the city, breeders will not have to worry about disturbing the neighbours, once in awhile authorities will go down for inspection, but businesses know and are notified in advance, they can recreate a nice scene even if it last for just a few days, we have personally encountered this so there are nothing else that can fool us, one visit and we can more or less learn the daily routine of a pet store, however the authorities and pet owners like you may not know, we also feel that sometimes they just don't have the time to bother.



An unethical practice that is becoming popular for greedy breeders


Home breeding
Home breeders used to be the angel of the dog breeding industry, because they are able to bond closely with the dog parents (usually 1 pair), the puppies can grow up with the parents and learn beneficial skills before they are sold. However in the recent years unethical breeders are starting to use this method to earn quick bucks, they purchase dogs just for the sake of breeding, thus recreating what we call a home based puppy mill. Without having to pay rents and get lots of attention, why not? Nowadays a lot of home breeders are totally inexperienced, they have little to zero knowledge about breeding dogs, they do not care about traits nor the wellbeing of the puppies, some to the extent of ignoring when all the dogs are infected with ticks, fleas and diseases, all they aim for are the puppies to survive birth and that's it, at 2 months old with just 1-2 vaccination anyone is free to bring the puppies home. Cute as it is, your 2 months old puppy may grow to have very low immunity and prone to diseases, vaccinations are rushed and most of the time so fast that it becomes useless, if your vet knows about this he/she will recommend the 4th jab, which is just giving your dog more vaccinations when it should've been healthy and fine with just 3, if the breeder wasn't selfish and greedy.

Home breeders are illegal and highly sought after by pet stores, unethical pet stores will do a series of persuading tactics to get their customers to breed for them, most will advice inexperienced customers to let their dogs breed after purchasing, "at least once" they say, and offering to buy back the puppies so that they can put them up for sale again. Some time soon, we will be sharing an example of a real life situation on how a seemingly innocent customer became an unethical home breeder.



Cute? Read here

Import from overseas
New Zealand, Austrailia, Taiwan, a wow factor for most people hearing about this, it's true that most foreign countries are much older, thus knowledgable and experienced than Singapore in terms of breeding dogs, however do remember that puppy mills were also created in these places before us. A country is so big, how can one even trust a seller just knowing the country it came from? At least 80% of imported puppies come from puppy mills, with pedigree certification or not. A certificate is a paper to proof the bloodline of the dog, who their parents and grandparents are, anyone can purchase pedigree certified dogs, then start mass breeding them, there are even black markets that sells pedigree certification, some of them are even invalid.

There are owners in Singapore who do not mind paying more, however they do not understand than paying more does not guarantee anything, a lot of them pay more because they believe this is the fastest way to get a healthy dog without having to research and know about dogs. We'll tell you that it is not a bad idea to get an imported dog, but you will still need to do a lot of research and find out the pet store, even better if you can travel down and have a look for yourselves before making up your mind.




Kennel club recognized breeders
People participating in dog shows are most likely to be a breeder, their first generation of dogs should have good bloodline, following on would be up to them to select and make decisions for the offspring, this is very important and can affect the future generations if they breed with the wrong dog, one good example would be genetic health problem, it is very likely to have their offsprings carrying the genetic problem if one of the parents has it, in this case the breeder would have to stop breeding this litter, that's if they actually care. This is also why top breeders are highly sought after, to achieve exceptionally good bloodline takes more than 10 years of properly breeding practice, these dogs are not only healthy, they have good proportion, facial features and coat, easily exceeds more than 3 times the price compared to pet farms. Breeders like this are very rare, and they are very proud, holding their heads up high and not hesitant to reject buyers if they don't feel like it, you will mostly likely need to queue and wait because they don't breed excessively, at most 1 litter a year.

Though we do not encourage using dogs to participate competitively, reputable plus recognized breeders are actually one of the best choice if you wish to get a dog, in this case paying more is a better investment rather than having to pay EVEN more for medical bills later on if you get a cheap but unhealthy dog.


One of the many reports we receive about unethical dog sellers

In-store breeding
Some pet stores may provide their own batch of puppies, they boast their puppies to be healthy and pure bred, have you ever wondered why they do this and not import from puppy mills? We'll just tell you that because it's a really good income, if planned well these offsprings can actually fetch more money than importing from puppy mills or other breeders, once again it's not wrong to boost income, but you just have to be real careful with whom you are dealing with.

Most if not all dog sellers have dogs of their own, while they eat, play and sleep all day long, why not let them help earn more money right? That's how most in store breeding starts, they get another male/female for their dog and let them breed naturally, the puppies cost almost free of charge and can be sold at a regular price tag, then subsequently they may introduce more dogs as their own and start breeding more, Bichon x Poodle, Maltipoo, this is how they are given birth because the pet store cannot control and do not wish to sterilize them, when this happens the quality will be no different as puppy mills. If you are to purchase puppies from these pet store, make sure you do a very thorough background check, not through reading facebook reviews, but by asking professionals in the dog industry, they know secrets that you may not know and is not able to openly share them because of legal rights.

This ends the article, we hope you have learned something new!

Comments

  1. The Lovely Pets takes great care in grooming and providing for your puppies, dogs and cats in the lovely island of Singapore. dog sale singapore

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for sharing the article. The data that you provided in the blog is informative and effective. Imported Puppies For Sale

    ReplyDelete

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