The first in a four-part series written by guest poster FLA, the owner of a 6 month old Barbet puppy
The Quest Begins: Finding
the Right Puppy Is Not Easy
Not too long ago, I was the typical inexperienced puppy
buyer. We wanted a pup with the qualities we loved most in our last dog, a
joyful rescue with a calm temperament who enjoyed our active lifestyle. Finding one would be easy, or so we thought
at first.
Once our intention of launching a puppy search was made
known to friends, the advice came pouring in.
‘Go to the shelter and just pick
one.’
‘There are great puppy finder sites
online. You can get a good dog a lot
cheaper there.’
‘My friend knows someone whose dog
had puppies. Want me to ask her?’
‘Don’t spend too much, that would
be crazy.’
‘Get a doodle.’
And on, and on.
Everyone had an opinion, but the variety of advice left my head
spinning. So we launched our own search.
Weeks were spent visiting shelters in person and on their
websites, checking in daily for just the right match. For many reasons, we began to understand that
what we were looking for was not likely to be found there.
Our next step was to run online searches for puppies. The results were shocking. Pretty pictures and cheap prices were hiding
an industry I soon realized we needed to stay far, far away from. Deeper digging revealed pictures and
information that I wish I could forget, but cannot.
Next, I listened to the voice of popular opinion that
labradoodles are the way to go. Finding
one was easy. Sifting through all of the
information was not. The more I read,
the more disheartened I became. A
discussion about why I did not get a labradoodle is a long and detailed story
though, and too far off topic for this post.
I slowly began to realize that if we wanted a quality puppy,
we had to look for the people and not
the dog.
