Just come across this thread which is very informative.

I have owned Great Danes for more than 30 yrs and would class myself as a 'good, caring, owner', however, I do feel that we should have a system in place not unlike a driving test for new prospective owners. You may have a great breeder but they too can be taken in by a prospective purchaser which in turn can reflect on their reputation and that of the breed.

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say I do believe that having your dog spayed or neutered should be compulsory unless you are a registered bonafide breeder. There are too many dogs in rescue through indiscrimate breeding.

Apologies in advance if I have offended anyone with my comments.

You certainly didn't and I somehow get your point. Population control, dog population in this case, is what's needed so that there wouldn't be several dogs in shelters all looking for a home. That along with responsible dog owning will pretty much save the day!

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If your dog is FAT, you're not getting enough exercise.

It would also I believe bring credibility to hard working registered breeders.

I think population control and reduction in rescues, comes with proper care and responsibility of puppies.

Far too many ppl, fall for an emotional attachment with a cute puppy on sight. I know breeders who've complained in forum about ppl doing due diligence, who then went an bought a poor quality pup from an inferior breeder, apparently on a whim, having been on a waiting list. The problem is, hands on; humans are impulsive and don't realise necessarily the responsibility and amount of care, they'll need to put in.

Far too many puppies, were emerging only with the fine weather, just like lawn mowers. One 16 week old was fearful of both dogs and people, with owner responding to suggestion to go to puppy romp, with "she's fine at home!". Of course because that's the only place the poor pup had been *sigh*

That programme shown after Crufts mentioned compulsory chipping & socialisation in Sweden. Having "lured" an unchipped, uncollared young stray Shar-Pei bitch last month, roaming street into hands of a CSO, presumably abandonded as she'd become a handful, it's hard not to wonder if similar legislation would not be good idea here.

Great advice on how to maintain your puppy healthy.

Extremely hard may be an understatement. We have owned dogs all my life and they have always been potty trained. Even if that meant accidents took place on the potty pad. My mom has an iggy (the love of her life) and she is 3 going on 4 in October. She still has accidents. Worst of all every winter she has to re-train her because she does not want to go outside. My dad actually shovels her a place in the snow where she can touch grass because otherwise all bets are off. Good luck and I hope you do not mind cleaning messes because most of the people we have talked to "used" to own an iggy. I think it is terribly sad because they are so cute, or at least my mom's Nellie is.

I love this! its so helpfull as we're looking into getting a pup next year (English Shepherd) i have already looked up soo much on them i dont think there is a site about them i have'nt looked at lol.
ive posted a link to this on the animal pages on facebook to make people think twice

Becky xxxx

If you did this and enforced it - there would be unlikely to be any small scale hobby breeders left - leaving the PUppy Farmers to meet the demand for puppies - as PF are predominantly responsible for a large percentage of the dogs ending up in rescue in the first place, what exactly do you think would be achieved?

Good breeders will take back / assist with rehoming their pups, this is not to say none end up in rescue, I am sure a small number do, but it simply doesn't compare to the numbers coming from PF.

To enforce such a monitoring scheme would place the costs outside the capacity of small scale breeders such as myself (and many others) - when more often many of us don't even break even when we have a litter.

If you want to control the dog population - stop puppy farmers breeding - even the small scale BYB must as I dislike their practices aren't responsible for the bulk of dogs ending up in rescue.

Stop the puppy farmers and force people to buy responsibly by doing their research beforehand

This is how you reduce the rescue problem, leaving rescue to care for the dogs who genuinely need it due to family break ups, severe illness and bereavement and genuine animal cruelty cases.

Anything which forces small scale hobby breeders out of the market place will only have a negative impact on the dog market and could well see a major increase in the number of dogs ending up in rescue

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What you need to know before buying a Labrador puppy

The only way I can see to stamp out puppy farmers is for all reputable agencies to pull together, The Kennel Club Assured Breeder Scheme is a huge step forward, even if it was a long time coming. This scheme is starting to iron out some of the bad practices. Breed Clubs, Breed Councils, Local Councils, Vets, The RSPCA and the media, including all animal related websites, magazines etc. need to come together in extensively advertising and publishing information on puppy farmers.
If I was about to buy my first dog and didn't have any connections to the world of dogs I wouldn't know where to start researching properly as there still is not enough public guidance out there for Joe Bloggs.

I personally am sick of getting phone calls, and one just last week where people havn't a clue, and are still unknowingly buying from puppy farmers, and sick of reputable breeders taking the brunt as usual.

As an ABS member, I am well aware of it's shortcomings and advantages and know it simply HAS to work.

As for all those bodies coming together - rightly or wrongly, you would probably get better odds on the Mayan calendar being correct in it's predictions for 2012

It's not difficult to do research on practically anything these days

The majority of people wouldn't buy a 12 month car insurance policy or a £200 washing machine without doing a lot of research first.

Yet when it comes to spending £500 + on a living creature which will hopefully be a valued member of their family for the next 8 to 18 years (dependent on breed) - so many do absolutely NO research

Puppy buyers DO have a role to play.

Within that comes the courage to be able to walk away - most don't seem to realise that by saving one puppy from it's horrible surroundings, they are consigning so many more to similar or worse fates - when all it would take for most PF and BYB is to have just one or two litters than don't sell to make them realise it's not working any more.

Don't even go there most of the puppy enquiries I get these days are from relatively well informed prospective owners, which is fab - unfortunately, I can't say the same for some of the stud enquiries I get

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What you need to know before buying a Labrador puppy