Puppy For Christmas

[anthro-nerd]

A friend of mine is getting a puppy for Christmas, well picking the pup up a few days before. I once heard that reputable breeders refuse to breed pups in time for Christmas to reduce the chance of them needing to get rehomed by people seduced by having a puppy at this time of year but not realising what a commitment it is.

Whilst my friend is going to make an excellent 'dog father' I wondered what everyone else's thoughts were on this. Should puppies be allowed as Christmas presents?

[Tilly2]

No, they shouldn't but there's not a lot that can be done about it. There will always be someone prepared to provide a little puppy.

[wolf63]

I think that part of the argument is that for a young puppy to join a household with kids, noise and chaos might be overwhelming for the pup.

[anthro-nerd]

Wolf that's a good point, a puppy needs time to adjust in it's new home, that's scary enough without adding the chaos of Christmas.

[jakep]

No

[anneasquith]

To responsible households, yes .

[Tilly2]

If I was looking for a puppy, I would want one that was born in Springtime. Who wants to be taking a puppy outside every hour in the chill of mid winter. Stupid.

[queenofmean]

No, all or most of the rehoming places I know of stop rehoming this week until after new year. The same should apply to those breeding animals.

[anthro-nerd]

Tilly, exactly! Puppy training is hard enough, might as well do it when the weather is on side!!

And Queen, yes I think that's an excellent policy.

[woofgang]

Difficult one. I don't believe that any breeder who is in any way a good caring person will breed litters for Christmas sale. I can see why many rescues won't rehome during the Christmas period, especially those who are wholly or mostly run by volunteers as they are entitled to time off too and shouldn't have to be available for home checks, advice etcetera. And of course every puppy should be a much wanted and seriously considered addition to the family and not a treat or a surprise, BUT there are many people like myself who only ever have quiet Christmasses, have had dogs before, and would find it very easy to have a very successful puppy (or rescue dog) friendly Christmas. Down here in the south, its the norm to have mild winters and the recent summers have been impossibly wet so no easier or more difficult to housetrain. Also if I was looking for a dog of any age (which I am not) then I would take the right dog no matter what the time of year. We got my current dogs in mid december which meant that my husband was at home with me for the first three weeks we had them (I had retired and he had not) which was a huge bonus and may also be a consideration.

As I have said, I do get why rescues cease rehoming for the Christmas period, but given that they are always full to bursting at that time, maybe there is an argument for rehoming appropriate dogs to appropriate pre approved homes?

[anthro-nerd]

Woofgang, oh yes I completely agre, pre approved homes definitely. I guess with breeders it's trying to avoid the 'Christmas present' puppy by not breeding for that time of year, I guess if there are pre approved homes for puppies too, then it doesn't matter either :-)

[Islay]

No no no no
But if he is adamant on getting it - how many times has he been to view the puppy, how many times has he seen the parents?
Is it kennel registered
The noise at Christmas will terrify this pup.

[woofgang]

The lady we had all of our dogs off, except the last two because the lady died, only ever bred when she had a longer waiting list than the number of pups she expected to get and there was a long tough application process to get on the waiting list. Even if you were on the list, if there wasn't a suitable pup in the litter for you then she would sell the pups to others...anybody who didn't like it was welcome to look elsewhere.

[jourdain2]

My sister knew a chap whose *** (mostly Border Collie) had produced an unexpected litter (mainly German Shepherd). My dear old Lab. needed a companion to share the attention of 6 & 10 year-olds. The pup arrived on Christmas Eve, having been sick in the car and stinking of the stable in which she had been living with her mum and goats.
She was the cleverest dog I've ever owned and lived happily with us for 17 years. Sometimes a puppy can be good at Christmas, we were all at hand to look after her and we weren't a noisy, partying family.

[Baldric]

We took on our Rescue Rottie/Staffie Cross as a 3 year old in early Dec. last year. We are a household of 3 sensible Adults and 1 other mature dog. He was very nervous even in a calm situation, goodness knows how he would have been had we left it 'til Xmas and had been a 'Mad' house full of kids and partying adults, he'd have had a breakdown.
He's now settled to be being one of the nicest dogs we've had ;o)

[Islay]

That's lovely to hear Baldric - mad time to get a puppy imo

[paddywak]

We were due to collect to collect Max on the 3rd of Jan but were asked if we could collect him on New Years Eve due to the breeder having a family crisis.As we usually don't do anything special off we went to get him.When he arrived home he did a bit of exploring and soon found his spot and settled down.Strangely enough virtually all the family happened to be "just passing" and called in.Max took all the fuss in his stride and when he'd had enough he came yapping at me to be picked up and went to sleep on my knee, satisfied everybody knew there was a new boss in the house.Funnily even when he was an adult if he thought there were too many people in the house he'd try and sit on my knee,and when he couldn't he'd give me such a look,I mean a full grown GSD

[emmie]

did you not see the programme, possibly it was on the news about puppy farms and how dogs in particular are just dumped onto the roadway, or in the trash, all from illegal breeding farms, it was heartbreaking to see these animals wasting away or being dumped because they were bred too much..

[EcclesCake]

Who looks after Jody when you go on your extended holidays Jordan, that's not a dig just a question I've been meaning to ask for a long time.