Anyone who buys a puppy needs to look closely at the health guarantee. Keep in mind that if you find a health issue at the age of 9 months you do not want your only option to be giving the puppy back for a new one. By then you hopefully are so in love with that pup that you are not going to want to give it back but you may be faced with very large vet bills. Most of the so called "guarantees" offered by pet shops, puppy mills and backyard breeders are written to protect the breeder not the new owner.
The health guarantee needs to be very specific about what diseases and genetic weakness it covers and how the breeder will deal with them A new owner should also look at what testing the breeder has done concerning genetic defects.
Due to the very haphazard breeding practices of people who know and care nothing about the genetic issues of purebreds there are MANY genetic issues in purebred dogs today. Buyer beware. The cost of seeing a vet continues to rise. Just routine care is costly. You don't want to see what a real problem will set you back. |