I work at a petstore in georgia that does sell puppies. when this petstore opened three years ago there were a lot of people of our town rallying against it, including me! I interrogated the employees and owner about where those puppies were coming from, and I too was told from private breeders... after more prying and researching (i.e. copying down information about the "breeders" from each puppies personal files) and contacting and investigating these breeders I found that the petstore was actually being truthful! After looking more into the techniques of caring for these puppies I approved of the handling of these animals to the point I actually took a job there. At this particular petstore they get our pups at reputable breeders, we (the pet counslers) love on and cuddle these pups all day, excercise them around the store at least 3 X'z daily, and inform potental pet owners of the positives and negatives of owning a dog/breed (and ask them questions to see if they've researched owning a dog, if the haven't a clue we send them home with info and resources to come back after really thinking about it)! My co-workers and I nearly all have dogs (or cats) of our own and we work hard to find good homes for these babies, both our pure bred and our pound puppies that we hold for the shelter (our store is cleaner and they get vet checked and shots)! I will NOT speak for other pet stores, however, and if you come across a shady pet store get involved and research, you might aid in shutting it or a puppy mill down... or you might end up working there! As for the kennels, we do use much larger than that of the picture, but we use the wire flooring with rubber mats and puppy blankets. Usually pups go potty through the wire but they sometimes go on their mats, and though we are cleaning constantly, a pup can quickly make a mess of himself when he goes on the mat, hence the wire. Some dogs prefer sleeping on the cool wire to the soft mats!! The water bottles are needed to make sure fresh water is always available for our babies, even when we have a rush of customers! Pups will play in and knock over water bowls of all shapes and sizes, not to mention getting hair (or their ears) in their water! I've never seen a pup have a problem using one, and many of my dog park compadres use them for their puppies when they're at work or school during the day. There are a lot of pet stores that have puppies that shouldn't (it's hard to what we do and time consuming to take good care of so many pups) but I learned not to judge imediately (unless it's filthy or has unhealthy pups) but to research first. If you discover a pet store is buying from puppy mills or is not taking good care of it pups contact the Department of Agriculture or it's equivalent... they keep close tabs on the petstore I work at and the owner (of any well kept store) always invites the reps in any time they show up!
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