I once adopted a Shih Tsu from a family who got a cute puppy for the kids and the kids got bored with it. He was 9 months old and adorable.
Sparky was the reason I was so careful in choosing my yorkies. I felt like he was a badly bred, puppy-mill type puppy (I really don't know where he came from originally.) I always kept his body shaved down and brushed him daily. By the time he was 2.5 years old, he was deaf and mostly blind. He scared easily and would bite. I had small children at the time, he was actually my 4 year old son's dog. I was terrified that he would bite a child and marr them for life.
This is my fear for all 'cute' or 'popular' dogs. If they are misbred, in-bred, to get a bad temperment is so horrible for the owners, especially if you have children, as they also have friends around - which the dog is usually worse with them.
