Hi Jessbell, thanks for your great input as well.. seems you were writing while I was, lol.
Wow, 10 months to housetrain is a little scary! Our first dog took to training right away, we only had issues with him when we moved as he felt the need to mark the house and claim it. We got him at 4 weeks as well as his mom sadly passed away, so I'm surprised he took as well as he did to housetraining... I guess I will have to think about that and decide if I can handle 10 or so months of frustration.
Yeah, the money situation worrys me a bit. I don't have to start paying back my student loans until June though, so as long as i got the puppy fixed by then and up to date on its shots I think I'd be ok. I just don't want to rush into it thinking that I'd be ok and then find out that I'm not, as it will be the puppy that suffers and I won't let that happen. It's been nearly 4 years since we had to put Freeway down and I truly miss having a furball in the house. They bring so much joy that the costs are worth it!
Is insurance expensive? When our dog was 9 he was diagnosed with a tumor, and we opted to do the surgery. It cost us nearly $2000! Then 6 months later we found out the tumor had spread before we got to it, and this one was unoperable. We then spent close to another $600 to keep him alive for 3 months, even though he was only given one month to live. He was suffering, so I had him put down (hardest thing EVER) and that incured even more of a cost... so I definitely am thinking insurance might not be a bad idea if it's not insanely expensive.
Those are some great questions for breeders, thank you! I will print them out and make sure I ask them when I get to that point. I want to make sure I am not supporting those who really shouldn't be breeding in the first place. |