Hello All...I am new to the list. This subject has really seem to hit a nerve with people. I had to reply because I am one of the bad people that has just purchased a puppy from a pet shop. She is a beautiful Akita puppy named Katie and she will be 12 weeks old tomorrow. To be honest with you I am quite surprised the I bought a puppy at a pet shop because I am one of those people who swore I would never do such a thing. We lost our dog, Chloe (samoyed mix), 3 years ago and I was finally ready to get another pup. I was constantly looking up the different dog breeds on the internet and coming to this website to see what everyone had to say about their dogs. I would search in the dog ads in the papers and was constantly trying to figure out what I wanted. Well, one day I went into the pet shop just to take a look at the different breeds and there was the little Akita puppy. My husband has wanted one for a little while now but I wasn't for sure. I actually asked if I could see her (never done such a thing in my life). I played with her in the playroom and absolutely fell in love. I had them put her back still thinking I could never buy a pup from there. I kept thinking about her though, locked up in a cage there. A few days later my husband said ok, lets do it, lets get a puppy. We were going to go to the humane society to rescue a dog there but I said lets go to the pet shop because they have a lot of breeds in right now and maybe he could see if there was any certain type of breed that he liked. I knew all along that he would fall in love with the Akita and sure enough he did. We spent 2 hours in there that morning talking to the sales girl, who I must say seemed to know quit a bit about the breeds. She told us where our puppy come from but we aren't for sure if it is a good place or bad place. We did manage to talk them down in price a little bit and she has a 3 year warranty and her first visit to the vet was free. We took her to the vet and the vet said she seemed to be very healthy. Her skin looked good. Her ears looked good and her eyes looked bright and alert. These were things that I knew to look for when I went in the pet shop. I must admit some of the puppies and kittens in there did not look as healthy. We go back to the vet in a week to start her on her shots because the doc wanted to wait and make sure that she hasn't picked up kennel cough or any other kind of bad diseases from her kennel or pet shop. I asked the vet how she felt about the pet shop and she said she was neutral on the subject. This group of vets take care of the animals at this pet shop. She didn't always think it was a good thing, but she didn't think it was a bad thing either. She said the way she looked at it is that I just rescued that beautiful pup that day. I don't know why I am going on and on about this. Maybe I feel like I have to justify myself because I did buy from a pet shop. All I know is that my husband and I simply adore and love our little Katie. My girlfriend told me that Katie was one lucky puppy. I said what do you mean and she said because she has a such great family now. I thought that was the best compliment ever! Well, I'm sorry I rattled on and on about this and I hope I haven't bored everyone. I wish I knew how to send a pic of my sweet little Katie (who won't be little for long) but I'm not good at figuring out this computer stuff. Thanks for listening.

Have a great day everyone....Robin

P.S. If anyone else has any akitas I'd love to hear from you and see some pics.