PSA: Don't buy your dog from a commercial pet store. Also involved: puppy mills. - General

I got my dog from a person who was selling the puppies, they kept them in very good condition when I adopted mine.

I got my beautiful dog named Sandy from a previous friend, she is tan colored, like sand and white paws and tail. we bred her with a beagle and she gave birth to 5 equally beautiful puppies, we kept two of them and gave the rest away. i can't even imagine what it would be like without my Sandy. I hope that such a tragedy does not happen to you twice.

we adopted our dog because of this

My golden retriever just showed up at our door one day. We put out a notice for a lost dog and never heard anything, so we decided to keep her. She was already a grown dog when we found her and we've had her for about 10 years now, so we speculate she's 13-14 years old. When we first got her, she was deathly afraid of hoses so we suspect her previous owner sprayed her as punishment, which I can't imagine someone doing because she's the nicest dog ever. Hasn't bitten anyone or anything in the entire time we've had her. [img]http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/155878_455747187665_505862665_5676163_4389625_n.jpg[/img] She's completely deaf nowadays and has a tumor on her side, but we're not going to put her down until she doesn't seem happy. She still loves to be around us and everything, just doesn't move around very quickly. We also have a younger dog (around 9-10 years old) that's a black lab mixed with some other stuff. She's super nice as well, we rescued her from a shelter.

I love golden retrievers. A friend has one. They are about as loyal as they come. The nice thing about dogs is how much better they are at adapting to adversity then humans are. She may be deaf, but I doubt it bothers her much. I like your thought process on the Euthanasia. As hard as it was for me to put Betty down first, I knew deep down I owed it to her, it was the least I could do.

My other dog does a good job at helping her out. When we call them to give them food, my black lab runs to get my retriever if she isn't within eyeshot of us.

[QUOTE=MaverickIB;28866026]My other dog does a good job at helping her out. When we call them to give them food, my black lab runs to get my retriever if she isn't within eyeshot of us.[/QUOTE] Reminds me of the day after Betty had her stroke my husky kept bringing her food and piling it by her face trying to get her to eat. I like how dogs help each other.

Oh my.. This happened to me a week ago. My 1 year old Shih-Tzu was hit by a car and died almost on the spot by some asshole who didn't stop. We quickly decided to buy two new dogs in an attempt to patch our hearts. We heard about a puppy breeder who breeded Shih-Tzus outside of town and we went to her house. We placed money down on 2 dogs (400 dollars each) Now, when I went in her house, I automatically knew that she wasn't professional (I'm not trying to be an asshat in saying this, or seem spoiled) but she lived in a trailer and was breeding the same dog only a couple weeks or months after its previous birthing. The carpet reeked of piss and shit, and mold covered the windows. The Trailer had no air conditioner units, dogs were extremely nappy, tangled, and dirt-ridden. Now we got our first dog a week before the 2nd. We got him and we found scabs [b]all over his body[/b] and fleas AND tics. We immediately placed medicine on him and he got all fixed up perfectly fine. Oh, he also had worms, but that is fixed now too. We get our 2nd dog, same ordeal. REALLY bad worms, like REALLY bad. We automatically start giving her medicine and I hope she will turn out okay. Overall people who own a trailer with little amount of space, time, and ability to take care of a dog, or really care for the dogs other than just because they want money really need to be fined and some sort of justice pursued after them. It is [b]sick[/b] what the lady's trailer looked of, I'm usually not a person that bashes on the poor, but this sick bitch had trash lying EVERYWHERE it was just DISGUSTING. Mold was EVERYWHERE.

My family owns two shetland sheepdogs, one we bought from a private breeder (who was excellent) and another we received from my friends grandfather. Apparently, she (the dog on the right) was locked in a closet when the original owners would go on week long trips; something they did often. I'm not sure how my friends grandfather came about her. Anyway, when we took her in, she was a bit goofy, which was due to the original owners treatment. However, she is now 14 (7 when we first received her, 11 in the picture) and in much better shape. Oh yeah, our breeder dog is also a midget... literally, he isn't suppose to be as small as he is (9 years in the picture). As you can see, he is also very lazy. [IMG]http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4814/0213091519.jpg[/IMG] As to buying a dog, I would strongly strongly recommend talking to the breeder about their process, for obvious reasons. Or to swing by the shelter, which is always a great thing. I plan to do the same as my family in the future, one dog from a trusty breeder, another from the shelter.

All of my pets have been either adopted from a shelter, or were otherwise second-hand. I don't think that any of the Petsmart/Petcos around here actually sell cats and dogs. Whenever there are any, it's only for a day or two, and the animals are always from the Humane Society, or some other shelter. At one point (at least 8 years ago, when I adopted my dog), all of the smaller dogs/puppies were being sent out to adoption events so they couple make room for the bigger dogs in the regular shelters. We'd been looking in the Humane Society every day without any luck, then called them one morning and were told where they had the little dogs. That afternoon we were finally able to make it out to the Petsmart where the little dogs were. There were ten when we called, and there were only two left when we got there. It was a choice between a nippy little pomeranian/chihuahua mix and a shy gray ragmop of a shih-tzu/terrier mix named Missy. I fell in love with "Missy" (now Sayla) as soon as she was brought out to meet me. She was eight months old, and her previous owners didn't take that great of care of her. She had round worms and overgrown nails (eight years later, it's still hard to get them trimmed because the quick is so long that it's still getting trained back). Any animal from the Humane Society here come with two weeks of health insurance, which includes a vet visit and any follow ups. We confirmed the worms with the vet, and they gave us a prescription for the medicine. We took Sayla with us, not realizing that we had to get the medicine from the same place as where animals were surrendered. She'd been there exactly one week before when she was turned in. Something cool happened while we were waiting. There was an old woman sitting next to us with a chihuahua, and she and my mom started talking. Her apartment wouldn't allow her to keep her dog Sukie, and my mom said that that was the kind of dog she always wanted. The old lady asked my mom out to the parking lot, and we came home with two dogs instead of one. (My stepfather got mad when he saw Sukie, since he thought she was a young puppy that would need house training. She was four years old.)

We got both of our two dogs from breeders who we visited and spoke with extensively. It really helps to get to know them personally.

My family got our cairn terrier from a breeder, he woulda been a show-dog if he wasn't two-inches too long. [editline]28th March 2011[/editline] man that bitch (lol) said he wouldn't shed, what a load of bullcrap

My dog is from the shelter. He likes to watch tv and gnaw on my fingers.

[img]http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg289/Shalardon/IMG_4711-1-1.jpg[/img] This is Maggy :3: We rescued her about 2 years ago.

I have a shelter dog named Mamba (like the snake) who is a cocker spaniel Chow mix, we call her a "spow-spow". When we let her hair grow out she looks like a mini-chow coat wise, with a cocker head and ears. Usually thoguh she's shaved since we live in a hot weather climate, and she looks like a little Labrador puppy with a white muzzle (due to her age). We've had her about 7 years now. She used to be a bit of a grump but she loves us and hasn't ever bitten anyone... well any person, she HATES other dogs. She's loyal to a fault with us and scarcely likes to be left alone when we're home, but she doesn't need constant attention, just to know that she's part of the family, and she really is. Best dog ever.

Even though my Shih Tzu is only 6 months old I love him already, I also love our 3 other dogs even though they're strays I try my best to keep all of them happy. One of them is 11 years old and still pretty healthy.

I have a Jack Russel Terrier with has the name "Pølle" in english it means poop. Because he looks like a long little poop :s. We bought him from a shelter. In the beginning he was very afraid of everything, but we went to dog training with him and he became an angle poop. Will post pictures later.

my aunt runs a puppy mill, she is bat shit crazy

Got our dogs from breeders. Was kinda creepy to see the guy sat down jerking off his dog in his garden. I guess you could call our cats strays too seeing as a stray had kittens in our kitchen and we kept 2 which later had incest and we kept one of their kittens.

I've been telling people to never ever get puppies from a pet store, my dog was a stray my aunt found and gave us.

I have four dogs, two bought from my moms friend who breeds yorkies, and the other two were rescued. If anyone remembers my previous thread,([url]http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1067550-How-my-dad-found-a-puppy-and-now-it-lives-with-us?highlight=[/url]) yeah, that's one of them

My Chihuahua I bought from AKC Breeders, and my 2nd one from the paper. They're doing fine aside from the whole "domination" thing between two male dogs.

[QUOTE=Dragoshi1;28871779]My Chihuahua I bought from AKC Breeders, and my 2nd one from the paper. They're doing fine aside from the whole "domination" thing between two male dogs.[/QUOTE] So they hump each other and piss all over the place?

[QUOTE=lead_farmer;28860536]Good post OP. Both of my dogs are rescued dogs. People should adopt more and get their pets spade or neutered. (Bob Barker)[/QUOTE] A.Facepuch told me Thanks Babe for rating agree. B.I do the same with cats, we always pick up rescued kittens.

I went to a pet store near my family's home just out of curiosity and even without looking where they're supplied from I was unhappy, I saw about ten kittens in a cage that looked like it was suited for a ferret or chinchilla. There were puppies in tiny little cages too when I looked around too. That's horrible. Every cat I've owned I am 100% certain has not come from anyone who is mass producing kittens. If I ever get a dog I want to get a rescued dog so that it could have a good home and so I won't support cruel pet shops and puppy mills.

Thank god we don't have stores like that around in eastern Germany, at least not where I know of. We get our pets from shelters or professional breeders where you can see and control the circumstances.

Wait, is adopting free?

Anyone who knows if there are any rescues or shelters here in Sweden? :unsmith: [editline]29th March 2011[/editline] [QUOTE=garychencool;28872365]Wait, is adopting free?[/QUOTE] There usually is an adoption fee around 100$ or cheaper.

Both of my dogs are from northern Indiana from a real farm

[QUOTE=garychencool;28872365]Wait, is adopting free?[/QUOTE] Here you only have to pay for their vaccinations