Humane Society, Pet Shops, or Online Ads?

[CountryWolf07]

Pet shelter!

My dogs were/are from animal shelters, rescue, and classified ad.

[lvpets2002]

Local Pet Shelter or Pet Finder are both good.. My babies have come from both places..

[k9krazee]

Hi JohnH, Welcome to PT!

In my opinion there are two places to aquire dogs.

1) If you're looking for the perfect pet and are not set on a certain breed/look - rescue is the way to go. There are lots of good dogs and puppies of every shape, age and color. I would recommend browsing petfinder.com, breed rescues, animal controls, humane societies, etc.

2) If you are looking for a dog to have a job (sports, conformation, etc), or "need" a specific breed I'd recommend a reputable breeder. This is not a person who has ads on the corkboard of the pet store or vet office. A reputable breeder , in a nutshell, is one who does health testing, titles their dogs, comes with a health gaurantee, and is breeding to better the breed. Generally reputable breeders charge $500-1500, but you get what you pay for.

Petshops are not a place to buy puppies. They're stocked with puppies from puppy mills and back yard breeders, not to mention super expensive.

Backyard breeders (BYBs) are usually the people that sell their puppies in the newspaper. They don't health test, show or attempt to better the breed. They throw together their dog and their friend's dog because they want the experience of having puppies. Puppymills and BYBs are the ones responsible for pet overpopulation, and I suggest you try to steer clear of both.

I don't really have a problem with aquiring dogs from craigslist/classifieds - if somebody is trying to rehome a dog and not selling litters. If somebody is advertising a litter or puppies on craiglist - chances are they're a BYB.

Good luck on the search! Personally, I think there's something special with rescued dogs.

[Freedom]

What K9Krazee said!

Plus --

If you are looking for a specific breed, every dog breed has a breed rescue. You can google to find them:
bichon rescue
dachshund rescue


Never, never buy a pet at a petstore.

[lute]

I agree totally with k9krazee!

Never buy from a pet store! Pet stores shouldn't even be an option for getting a pet. I've never seen a healthy dog at a pet store. Even if they look happy and healthy at the store soon after you will find there are genetic issues, behavior problems, etc. The best way to help the pet store puppies is to not buy them. Someday they won't make a profit off the puppies anymore and will stop selling them.

[Twisterdog]

I agree with k9krazee.

Petfinder.com is a great place to start. You can search for a certain breed by location, even gender. So you can get a list of all female beagles for adoption, sorted by the closest to you. Couldn't be easier!

[kokopup]

There is an exception to your "don't buy from pet shops" rule. We have a local Petco that partners with our local animal rescue to aid in the adoptiion of Dogs and Cats. They usually appear on one of our local network TV news shows as a regular show segment and then are available at Petco for adoption. This has been a very successful program in our area.

[MonicanHonda]

We actually have a shop that just opened in the mall that only charges adoption fees and they get the dogs from surrounding humane societies. It's a great thing.