Yorkies at local pet store

[Tammyh]

Yesterday I stopped in at the local Pet Store (small business, not a chain) and they had two adorable little Yorkie pups. They were only 7 weeks old, and the sign said "Teacup" Yorkies. They're asking $1995.00 and giving a 3-day health guarantee. I felt so sad for the pups, they're so young! I asked one of the workers where they get they're puppies and of course she said a local breeder. A woman was looking at them and I could tell she was tempted. Luckily she started a conversation with me asking what "Teacup" meant. From there I was able to give her a little advise as far as purchasing from a reputable breeder, getting an older pup, the fact that there is no such thing as "Teacup" as far as AKC standards, etc. It's been bugging me, what breeder would let a puppy go at 7 weeks? And if it was a reputable breeder they would offer a 1-year health guarantee, especially at that price! Those pups were getting a lot of attention, I can't imagine paying that much for a puppy with a 3-day health guarantee. It's the impulse buyer that'll do it and not really think about what they're doing.
Sorry to go on about it, it's just been bugging me. I guess I just had to vent Those poor babies should still be with their mommy

[blondflava]

Unfortunately, as it is a Holiday Season, there are plenty of puppies in pet stores right now . And they don't come from a reputable breeder....

[MyFairLacy]

Petstores love to get puppies that young...they are so tiny, cute, and helpless. Employees tell people they are "teacups" and aren't going to get much bigger. And then those "teacups" usually get to be 10-15lbs!

[Misti1]

Originally Posted by Tammyh

Yesterday I stopped in at the local Pet Store (small business, not a chain) and they had two adorable little Yorkie pups. They were only 7 weeks old, and the sign said "Teacup" Yorkies. They're asking $1995.00 and giving a 3-day health guarantee. I felt so sad for the pups, they're so young! I asked one of the workers where they get they're puppies and of course she said a local breeder. A woman was looking at them and I could tell she was tempted. Luckily she started a conversation with me asking what "Teacup" meant. From there I was able to give her a little advise as far as purchasing from a reputable breeder, getting an older pup, the fact that there is no such thing as "Teacup" as far as AKC standards, etc. It's been bugging me, what breeder would let a puppy go at 7 weeks? And if it was a reputable breeder they would offer a 1-year health guarantee, especially at that price! Those pups were getting a lot of attention, I can't imagine paying that much for a puppy with a 3-day health guarantee. It's the impulse buyer that'll do it and not really think about what they're doing.
Sorry to go on about it, it's just been bugging me. I guess I just had to vent Those poor babies should still be with their mommy

Back in 1991 I got Rocky under these circumstances "saving' him from a pet store, then in 1993, Mercedes. I was determined that my next one would come from a breeder, but I got Mika in August from a pet store, then rescued Kaya from yet another one last month. I just can't stand to see them in those places, and lord that is expensive....they take you to the cleaners in those places.

[Misti1]

Originally Posted by MyFairLacy

Petstores love to get puppies that young...they are so tiny, cute, and helpless. Employees tell people they are "teacups" and aren't going to get much bigger. And then those "teacups" usually get to be 10-15lbs!

Yeah you are telling the truth, Mika was supposed to stay small and she's pushing 10 pounds.

[MyFairLacy]

Originally Posted by Misti1

Back in 1991 I got Rocky under these circumstances "saving' him from a pet store, then in 1993, Mercedes. I was determined that my next one would come from a breeder, but I got Mika in August from a pet store, then rescued Kaya from yet another one last month. I just can't stand to see them in those places, and lord that is expensive....they take you to the cleaners in those places.

Petstores bank on people feeling sorry for the puppies as well. They put them in small cages with no blankets and they know people will feel sorry for them and "rescue" them. They don't care WHY people buy them..as long as they get sold. "rescuing" these puppies only keeps petstores in business. You may save that one puppy but they only get replaced by another. Buying from petstores keeps puppymills in business, as well as petstores. Next time I suggest adopting a puppymill rescue from a reputable rescue group or shelter if you want to save one.

[Ladymom]

Originally Posted by MyFairLacy

Petstores bank on people feeling sorry for the puppies as well. They put them in small cages with no blankets and they know people will feel sorry for them and "rescue" them. They don't care WHY people buy them..as long as they get sold. "rescuing" these puppies only keeps petstores in business. You may save that one puppy but they only get replaced by another. Buying from petstores keeps puppymills in business, as well as petstores. Next time I suggest adopting a puppymill rescue from a reputable rescue group or shelter if you want to save one.

Please don't "rescue" puppies from pet stores. The only thing you are doing is guaranteeing that another one will take her place.

Thanks from Your Local Pet Store Owner

Thank you so much for buying a puppy from my pet store. Your business is important to me. After all, selling puppies is how I make my living. Every person deserves to make a living, don't they? I've gotta tell you, the pet store business is a tough one. With live merchandise you have all these extra rules and regulations the do gooders forced on us. Well they didn't make me do anything different, except now I gotta fill out a lot more paperwork. But is worth it. Puppies and kittens are important to my business and there are plenty of buyers out there.

Some people are trying to make out like pet stores are evil or something. I always get a big snicker from the sanctimonious twits who talk bad about pet shops but are always coming into my store to see the "poor puppies." They just can't seem to stop themselves. And they almost never leave without buying something. Having puppies in the store is an important part of selling the other merchandise. I try to put the puppies where people can see them as they walk by the store. That draws them in. I can make money without even selling the puppies.

I don't see why selling puppies in my pet store is any worse than raising any other kind of livestock. At least most of my puppies live longer than eight weeks! I've heard that most pet store puppies live one or two years and some much longer, eight or ten years! Much longer than chickens. I treat my puppies very well while they are here. And I use approved methods for disposing of the unsalable ones. I care about these puppies and don't want them to suffer, you know.

Do I support "puppy lemon laws"? Well they are a bit of nuisance but they don't really affect my business. It's not like a guarantee on a toaster you know. People get attached. They don't want to return the puppy. Anyway contagious disease isn't a big problem.

If I get something really contagious like Parvo I take quick action. All the puppies in the store are put down right away. Everything is disinfected and a new supply of puppies brought in. Often I have to fill the empty space with puppies from another breeder but quick action limits my costs and means I won't end up on the hook for a lot of vet bills.

As for other kinds of disease like hip dysplasia and such well frankly it just isn't a big concern. Most of this stuff doesn't show up for a long time. And the legislation doesn't cover it because it can happen even to the hobby breeder. Someone once asked me why I didn't check for genetic disease. It was all I could do not to call the person an idiot! Why should I check for genetic disease? It's expensive and almost no one ever asks so obviously they don't care. And anyway I give a six month guarantee. Pretty generous!

Not that I've ever had to pay off or anything. I have had a couple people complain but I always make sure to carefully explain that the best thing to do for their poor suffering puppy is to "put it to sleep." Most people will take the puppy away and not bother me any more about it.

Any one who walks into my store and wants to know about the health of my puppies I just tell them that they are very healthy! Of course if they want to know about genetic diseases I have to use a different strategy. First I try to explain that its always the fault of the owner if a dog gets something like patellar luxation or hip dysplasia. If they get nasty or something I ask them if they really want to buy a dog from a hobby breeder? I'm a professional, I make my living off of dogs. I breed lots and lots of puppies. I sell most of them. After all its very hard to resist that cute little puppy in the cage.

It's very simple. Every time someone buys a puppy I make at least $100, quite a bit more if they buy the puppy when its little. Yeah, puppies are cute, but you can't afford to get too sentimental. Puppy selling is a business and if you don't treat it as such then you can't stay in the game. It's all about cost/risk/benefit. If you lose sight of that you better get out of the business, just sell supplies or something.

Despite what everyone says there is a large market out there for pet store puppies. There is absolutely no need to waste good money of hip tests and other such crap. The truth is simple. Even when people know better the puppies are so cute that they just can't help themselves so they buy them. Heee hee Pretty cool. It doesn't look good to have lots of empty cages so I make sure I always have puppies on the way. Sometimes I get a bit of a scare, though. Like last year.

There was a lot a bad press about pet stores and all of the sudden no one was buying. Well of course if I'm not selling the ones in the store its pretty stupid to be breeding more, so I told my staff to hold back a bit. I was afraid for a short time that I was going to actually have to stop breeding entirely. No point in breeding if you aren't selling. Fortunately as the puppies that we had for sale got older some of those do gooder types started to get worried. I made sure my staff played off on this. They were told that if anyone asked what happened to the unsold puppies that they should just look real sad and say that they were "taken care of." I liked that. A real noncommittal answer and the absolute truth too!

I told the staff not to use a larger cage too, that would make the puppies look bigger and sadder. So of course the puppies were "rescued" from my shop. I got enough money to cover the costs of keeping them, a small profit, and the scare was over. Back to breeding. As long as there are buyers I'm going to keep raising puppies and selling them in my store. No reason not to.

http://www.dogplay.com/GettingDog/petshop1.html

[Misti1]

Originally Posted by Ladymom

Please don't "rescue" puppies from pet stores. The only thing you are doing is guaranteeing that another one will take her place.

Thanks from Your Local Pet Store Owner

Thank you so much for buying a puppy from my pet store. Your business is important to me. After all, selling puppies is how I make my living. Every person deserves to make a living, don't they? I've gotta tell you, the pet store business is a tough one. With live merchandise you have all these extra rules and regulations the do gooders forced on us. Well they didn't make me do anything different, except now I gotta fill out a lot more paperwork. But is worth it. Puppies and kittens are important to my business and there are plenty of buyers out there.

Some people are trying to make out like pet stores are evil or something. I always get a big snicker from the sanctimonious twits who talk bad about pet shops but are always coming into my store to see the "poor puppies." They just can't seem to stop themselves. And they almost never leave without buying something. Having puppies in the store is an important part of selling the other merchandise. I try to put the puppies where people can see them as they walk by the store. That draws them in. I can make money without even selling the puppies.

I don't see why selling puppies in my pet store is any worse than raising any other kind of livestock. At least most of my puppies live longer than eight weeks! I've heard that most pet store puppies live one or two years and some much longer, eight or ten years! Much longer than chickens. I treat my puppies very well while they are here. And I use approved methods for disposing of the unsalable ones. I care about these puppies and don't want them to suffer, you know.

Do I support "puppy lemon laws"? Well they are a bit of nuisance but they don't really affect my business. It's not like a guarantee on a toaster you know. People get attached. They don't want to return the puppy. Anyway contagious disease isn't a big problem.

If I get something really contagious like Parvo I take quick action. All the puppies in the store are put down right away. Everything is disinfected and a new supply of puppies brought in. Often I have to fill the empty space with puppies from another breeder but quick action limits my costs and means I won't end up on the hook for a lot of vet bills.

As for other kinds of disease like hip dysplasia and such well frankly it just isn't a big concern. Most of this stuff doesn't show up for a long time. And the legislation doesn't cover it because it can happen even to the hobby breeder. Someone once asked me why I didn't check for genetic disease. It was all I could do not to call the person an idiot! Why should I check for genetic disease? It's expensive and almost no one ever asks so obviously they don't care. And anyway I give a six month guarantee. Pretty generous!

Not that I've ever had to pay off or anything. I have had a couple people complain but I always make sure to carefully explain that the best thing to do for their poor suffering puppy is to "put it to sleep." Most people will take the puppy away and not bother me any more about it.

Any one who walks into my store and wants to know about the health of my puppies I just tell them that they are very healthy! Of course if they want to know about genetic diseases I have to use a different strategy. First I try to explain that its always the fault of the owner if a dog gets something like patellar luxation or hip dysplasia. If they get nasty or something I ask them if they really want to buy a dog from a hobby breeder? I'm a professional, I make my living off of dogs. I breed lots and lots of puppies. I sell most of them. After all its very hard to resist that cute little puppy in the cage.

It's very simple. Every time someone buys a puppy I make at least $100, quite a bit more if they buy the puppy when its little. Yeah, puppies are cute, but you can't afford to get too sentimental. Puppy selling is a business and if you don't treat it as such then you can't stay in the game. It's all about cost/risk/benefit. If you lose sight of that you better get out of the business, just sell supplies or something.

Despite what everyone says there is a large market out there for pet store puppies. There is absolutely no need to waste good money of hip tests and other such crap. The truth is simple. Even when people know better the puppies are so cute that they just can't help themselves so they buy them. Heee hee Pretty cool. It doesn't look good to have lots of empty cages so I make sure I always have puppies on the way. Sometimes I get a bit of a scare, though. Like last year.

There was a lot a bad press about pet stores and all of the sudden no one was buying. Well of course if I'm not selling the ones in the store its pretty stupid to be breeding more, so I told my staff to hold back a bit. I was afraid for a short time that I was going to actually have to stop breeding entirely. No point in breeding if you aren't selling. Fortunately as the puppies that we had for sale got older some of those do gooder types started to get worried. I made sure my staff played off on this. They were told that if anyone asked what happened to the unsold puppies that they should just look real sad and say that they were "taken care of." I liked that. A real noncommittal answer and the absolute truth too!

I told the staff not to use a larger cage too, that would make the puppies look bigger and sadder. So of course the puppies were "rescued" from my shop. I got enough money to cover the costs of keeping them, a small profit, and the scare was over. Back to breeding. As long as there are buyers I'm going to keep raising puppies and selling them in my store. No reason not to.

http://www.dogplay.com/GettingDog/petshop1.html

O h lord how eye opending...but the good news is that almost everyone in Memphis has gone out of business... puppy wise I mean, some are doing birds and fish and that's it. Just about the only one still doing puppies is puppy choral which is where I "rescued" Kaya.

[Tammyh]

Originally Posted by Misti1

Back in 1991 I got Rocky under these circumstances "saving' him from a pet store, then in 1993, Mercedes. I was determined that my next one would come from a breeder, but I got Mika in August from a pet store, then rescued Kaya from yet another one last month. I just can't stand to see them in those places, and lord that is expensive....they take you to the cleaners in those places.

I know what you mean, you know they're probably from puppy mills and you want to make sure they have a good home especially since their lives most likely didn't start out very well. I just can't believe what they charge, I couldn't afford it especially with no health guarantee. Also, if you buy them you're supporting the situation. It's a tough decision. I'm glad you rescued your babies and have given them a loving and safe home

[Misti1]

Originally Posted by Tammyh

I know what you mean, you know they're probably from puppy mills and you want to make sure they have a good home especially since their lives most likely didn't start out very well. I just can't believe what they charge, I couldn't afford it especially with no health guarantee. Also, if you buy them you're supporting the situation. It's a tough decision. I'm glad you rescued your babies and have given them a loving and safe home

Actually the price is about comparable to what I have seen SOME breeders ask, though I know it is not as good a quality dog, so all of that equals out. But I dare say Mika is one healthy girl and she came from the sister store of Puppy Choral in Ark. Oh and in their defense these two stores have the first year of shots for the dog included and a health guarantee as well.

[Tammyh]

Originally Posted by MyFairLacy

Petstores love to get puppies that young...they are so tiny, cute, and helpless. Employees tell people they are "teacups" and aren't going to get much bigger. And then those "teacups" usually get to be 10-15lbs!

Yea, these puppies were small but for only 7 weeks old they didn't look like they're going to be "Teacup" size. This particular pet store always has puppies of many different breeds but for some reason seeing the Yorkies just got to me. At least the puppies that they have there always look very healthy and clean. The owners are Christian, they sell a lot of Christian stuff and gifts in addition to being a pet store so I like to hope that the puppies are at least taken well care of. I just keep thinking of where they may have come from and it just makes me sad.

[Tammyh]

Originally Posted by Misti1

Actually the price is about comparable to what I have seen SOME breeders ask, though I know it is not as good a quality dog, so all of that equals out. But I dare say Mika is one healthy girl and she came from the sister store of Puppy Choral in Ark. Oh and in their defense these two stores have the first year of shots for the dog included and a health guarantee as well.

I agree, the price is comparable to what I'd see around here through a breeder but these dogs only have a 3-day health guarantee. That's what amazes me. If I pay that much for a dog, I want some sort of health guarantee.

[Misti1]

Originally Posted by Tammyh

I agree, the price is comparable to what I'd see around here through a breeder but these dogs only have a 3-day health guarantee. That's what amazes me. If I pay that much for a dog, I want some sort of health guarantee.

Oh I see what you are saying, that the breeder will give you a bigger window on the health thing. Good point.

[Ladymom]

Even if you get a one year health guarantee you are still facing some huge vet bills with these puppies. My Lady is a poorly bred Maltese - a rescue so I am not her original owner. She was perfectly healthy for the first four years of her life until her genetic "time bombs" started going off. First it was epilepsy, then diabetes, then allergies and arthritis, then hypothyroidism and now Cushings. Her medications alone are between $250-300 per month. With that and the vet bills to monitor all her conditions, she costs me about $5,000 a year without a health problem. We usually have at least one of those a year which runs about $500-1,000.

Rescuing a poorly bred dog can be extremely expensive so you must be prepared financially to care for these dogs long term. Most people can't or won't make that commitment so these puppies face euthanasia as adults.

The only way to stop the cycle is to stop buying puppies from pet stores.

[MyFairLacy]

Originally Posted by Tammyh

Yea, these puppies were small but for only 7 weeks old they didn't look like they're going to be "Teacup" size. This particular pet store always has puppies of many different breeds but for some reason seeing the Yorkies just got to me. At least the puppies that they have there always look very healthy and clean. The owners are Christian, they sell a lot of Christian stuff and gifts in addition to being a pet store so I like to hope that the puppies are at least taken well care of. I just keep thinking of where they may have come from and it just makes me sad.

I don't think it's possible to love dogs an own a petstore..knowing that you're getting the puppies from puppymills and backyard breeders. I know the man that owns the petstore in College Station is not a dog lover..he's only in it for the money. He told one of his employees he hoped her dog died several times. He would't allow blankets in the cages with the puppies. There is just no way an animal lover could put those dogs and puppies through that...and they don't care where those puppies end up. Just care about making the money.

The amish are supposed to be good, Christian people too and they own the WORST puppymills in America. Anyone dealing in puppies isn't a good person in my eyes