Adoption VS Buying
 

I got soooo much s**t from people when I announced I was purchasing from a breeder and not adopting from a shelter. If you bought from a breeder and had bad reactions, how did you handle it?

Off topic, but I just realized they censor cuss words on here. I'm dying of laughter!!

I buy from breeders and make no apology, although I have not been censored for it from the general populance.

I think what I would say, this was a choice I made that was right for me and my family. I would also add in that I believe in supporting good breeders who breed for health and temperament of the purebred dog.

There will always be people out there that will criticize you for buying from a breeder, and there is nothing you can say to make them happy so I wouldn't even bother trying to explain it to them. I always hate when someone asks, " oh, where did you get her from?" b/c I'm not sure what their reaction will be. So far no one has giving me any crap about it...

I also agree it is a personal decision - just ignore those that are negative. All mine have been rescues or rehomed. But I had thought about buying one from a reputable breeder, the rescue Yorkies just seem to come into my life just when I need them to, and I do prefer rescuing to buying but that's just me. Of my 4 dogs, 1 I took from an abusive owner, one I got from a breeder but only because she had contacted Poodle Rescue with a puppy that had broken it's leg (2 of my 4 dogs are Standard Poodles), my Yorkie was rehomed by a family that decided it was best to find him a home that had more time for him - but my IG I bred myself back when I use to be very involved with showing. Her dad was in the top 10 all 3 years I showed him. So clearly - I have nothing against breeders that are doing things right and breeding to better the breed. I only have problems with breeders that breed for money and don't do all the appropriate health testing before breeding!

Buying a puppy or adopting from a shelter depends on the person. I see no reason anyone should receive flack for getting a puppy. I have over my life time had 7 puppies, went through the crying at night, chewing of furniture, lamp wires, paper training, house breaking. training to leash walk. Over the years I have seen more and more about shelter dogs that have been abused, beaten, starved, disgusting living conditions, just broke my heart, made me sick to think ppl would treat dogs like that. I vowed if I ever got another dog, it would be a rescue one, and I would spoil and loved it and give it the life it deserved, but, I am older now then when I was when I got my first baby. When you rescue you don't know what you are getting, when you buy a puppy you raise it the way you want to, big difference. I LOVE puppies. I adopted a lil 3 y/o boy several months ago, he was a surrender, he was much loved and spoiled rotten. He had to be re-homed for financial reason, he didn't come to me with a lot of baggage. He is a true blessing. House broken, trained, just perfect. If he had come to me with baggage I would have taken him anyway. I ask to rescue, if ppl prefer to buy a puppy that's ok also. It's beautiful to see a lil baby grow into an adult, rewarding to train and see your results, puppies are way tooo much fun. It all depends on the person, freedom to choose. One day you may rescue or buy another puppy, but that will be up to you. I don't know why you should receive any flack over your decision. Your lil MJ is a BEAUTIFUL lil guy, just enjoy him and ignore comments.

Sadly there are many people who do that ... just enjoy your puppy and ignore people who have nothing nice to say.

It is no one's business where you get your pup unless you stole it from them!

You guys are awesome! Thanks for being so positive at a time where everyone else isn't.
I did look at EVERY shelter in 3 different states and had no luck finding what I wanted. I assume small, healthy, young, yorkies are very hard to find at a shelter. Sometimes you just want what you want and every puppy needs a mom no matter where they come from.

It all depends on where you live. There are a lot of homeless yorkies in your state but many times they go to rescues. Also, they are not in every shelter.
Bottom line though is that you owe no one an explanation for your choice to purchase a puppy.

I have not encountered any negativity about my Yorkies coming from a breeder. Sorry to hear people are giving you a hard time.

I believe the thing that matters most is that you make a commitment to your pets to take proper care of them for life.

I once knew girl that thought all breeders were in it for just the money and they were all puppy mills. I disagreed and still do. I believe in both adopting from a rescue or shelter and/or purchasing from a reputable breeder. I think it's up to each of us to decide what is best for us and the new family member we bring into our home. I strongly believe it's a life long decision regardless. Ignore them and be happy with your future little movie star!

I have no qualms with supporting a reputable breeder. An actual reputable breeder who breeds to better the breed, and not just one who knows how to pretend she is reputable. The problem I have is when people buy from brokers, unscrupulous breeders, from out of the country (Asia for example), or have them shipped across the country at 8-10 weeks old sight unseen with the click of a mouse and a credit card from some website.

ETA: I have one that I bought from what I now know was a broker and one that I adopted from the rescue I volunteer for. Once I found out about the broker I felt devastated and then decided I wanted to volunteer with our rescue. Been doing it about 5 years now.

I've only had one person get really nasty about it. On Lola's first trip to petsmart when she was 12 weeks old a dog food rep came up and started lecturing me about the evils if puppy mills and that I was horrible for not rescuing a dog. Her apron was full of pins saying similar things.
Other people have gotten snotty and superior about the fact that they adopted their dog and I didn't. Usually they don't even bother asking where I got Lola, they just assume she's a puppy mill dog.

I tried to adopt, but small dogs are adopted as soon as they arrive at shelters and I didn't want to wait 2-3 years for an older, bigger than I wanted, poorly bred dog from a rescue (not all rescue dogs fit that mold but that's what I saw on their sites).

Luckily these encounters are happening less now that Lola doesn't look as much like a puppy.

When it does happen I just stand there and ignore them or walk away, usually they're too self righteous to listen anyway.

Small yorkies do in fact come thru shelters and rescues. In my few years of volunteering I have had two smaller than average. Scrappy was almost 4 lbs and came in as a stray in a San Diego shelter. Lily was an owner surrender and was also almost 4 lbs.

Now I have Toto who is "bigger" at 6 lbs, also an owner surrender, who has long silky hair, big round eyes (I call them Spongebob eyes) and perfectly healthy. His muzzle looks shorter than Uni's but when measured, they are exactly the same. It's the eye socket positioning that makes all the difference.

I have had a total of 11 Yorkies, and of those 3 I bought and the rest were rescue's I adopted from Rescue Groups. Oh I did take one in that was being re-homed. A YT member posted here she had a neighbor that was looking for a home for his little girl and I was the lucky one to be chosen to have Luci come live with me.

I would also without a doubt if I was wanting to, buy a Yorkie Puppy from a REPUTABLE Breeder and have no problem doing that.

I support both Rescue and Buying from a Reputable Breeder.

Keep in mind I live a few hours from Lancaster PA, so a lot of dogs around here are from puppy mills. Most of the yorkies I see are well over 10lbs and don't look like yorkies. Or they're very tiny and look very sickly.

On the rescue sites for my area most of the yorkies were 10-15lbs, 7 years or older, and not the best looking. I said not all rescues are like that, but that's what I saw. My area doesn't have tons of small dogs for adoption.
I was looking for a yorkie under 3 years old, 5-7lbs, and actually looks like a yorkie.

I purchased from a breeder because all three of my kids have allergies. My oldest has it the worse. So adopting was not an option because I need a pure bred hypoallergenic pup. But you are saving a dog either way. People are going to breed regardless and the puppies need good homes.

There are lot of yorkies that need homes, I work at an animal shelter and see them all the time but even I would not think badly of someone wanting to buy from a breeder as long as they researched a good breeder. I got my first dog from a breeder after looking at rescues for over a year and not finding what I was looking for. I say I pre-rescued him because he has lots of health issues that I am sure no one else would have put up with and the other person who wanted him was going to use him to breed. I think its a personal decision that you should not have to validate. Do what is right for you.

I don't have a problem with people buying from a breeder rather then rescuing as long as it's a reputable breeder and there not supporting a terrible breeder or puppy mill. I bought Callie but will probably stick to adopting in the future. Never had anyone say anything about it.

Benjamin (less then 3 lbs) came from a kill shelter in Las Vegas. California Lily (4 lbs) came from a kill shelter near Los Angeles. So there are small rescue Yorkies in and near California. However both Benjamin and Lily where "Rescue Only", meaning if I had not been part of a rescue organization, I couldn't have gotten either one of them out. Benjamin was about 5 we think when I rescue him. Lily we thing was probably somewhere between 10 and 12, but hard to say exactly, so she was older. Regardless, there are pros and cons both ways. With a rescue, you adopt them because you love them, but you really have no idea health wise what you might be getting or run into down the road. A puppy from a reputable breeder you are going to have a much better idea because they will have done their research on what problems have shown up anywhere in their bloodline, they will have done proper health testing on the parents, and they will let you know if anything develops anytime during your dog's life. Just one angle to look at. While I have chosen to rescue, or in my current Yorkie's case take in a dog someone was rehoming, that's my choice based on my lifestyle and what was a good match for me. Honestly I think if Louie had not come into my life, I probably would have gone to a good friend of mine that has bred Yorkies for many years and gotten a yorkie from her. No right or wrong, just a personal choice, and I probably will get a Yorkie from my friend in the future (she usually has a 2-3 year waiting list at least! Although I personally prefer adults since I'm in a wheelchair and find puppies a bit hard for me to handle, so I would probably take a dog she either decided not to use in her breeding program or that has retired from her breeding program).

There are many pure breeds in rescues. The probablem with buying puppies from bad breeders and puppy mills though is it keeps them in business which is not good for the breed or the poor parent dogs who suffer. Even with AKC papers though you might not always be getting a pure bred yorkie people do frorge papers all the time.

That dosent mean they don't deserve love and a home.

I never said they didn't, there are plenty of people in this area to adopt them. It's a long and hard process to find and adopt a small dog, much less a purebred yorkie, in this part of the country.
It's not like Texas where there's an abundance.

Also the rescues wouldn't allow me to adopt, I'm 24 and my yard wouldn't pass their standards (Lola goes out on a leash). The rescues here are super picky, I was talking to a couple in their 50's, they wanted to adopt a cavalier king charles spaniel and were turned down because their 10 year old grand kid visits once a year.


I looked at a lot of yorkies, puppies and adults, and Lola is the only one who spoke to me. She's exactly the dog I wanted and I'm thrilled with her and my choices.

All of my pups have been rescues, I have never purchased a pup from a breeder. It started when my boys were small & I wanted a "teapot". After that, all of my pups sort of fell into my lap. I would love to someday buy a pup from a REPUTABLE BREEDER. It seems that every time I'm getting ready to & starting to research breeders, a rescue pup comes into my life. I guess that's just how it's meant to be for me!


I don't think anyone has the right to judge whether you go to a shelter or a breeder for your pup. You need to do whatever is right for your family.

You would be surprised by how many don't get adopted but I do understand what your saying and rescues rant for everyone.

I really do not think it is anyone's business, so ignore critics. I have both and love them all!

I remember mentioning trying to look for a breeder when I was looking for my current yorkie. I've hadn't had so much as a negative reaction as to suggesting I look for rescues or adoption shelters. I didn't really want to because what I was looking for was extremely difficult to find because they'd be taken as soon as they post. Most of the yorkies I've seen on the shelter sites were either too old (averaging 10-14 yrs) or had lots of health issues that comes with them. I say to them, I want a dog that'll be with me for as long as possible and won't be come with immediate or potentially high financial problems from health. There were some that might be considered like the younger ranges of 3-7 yrs, but again, I wanted the longest time with them.
Considering the circumstance of obtaining my current yorkie pup, Kimchi, I consider it fate :D

I don't know why people assume that a pup in a shelter or rescue is more prone to medical issues. They also are not always older. There are many, many yorkies looking for homes now. People are surrendering them and dumping them right and left. I field emails every single day and trust me, it is becoming close to epidemic.

The bottom line, if a person purchases a yorkie, it is extremely important to know who you are purchasing from and the track record of that breeder in terms of the health of their pups. All of the yorkies with health issues came from some breeder. People should keep that in mind.

This has nothing to do with Kimchi...I wish you many years of health and happiness. Just wanted to be clear about the fact that illness often begins with the breeder and/or who they place their pups with. Many sell to just anyone and "anyone" does not properly care for them, leaving them subject to health issues and accidents.

ladyjane: I totally understand. It's not that I think all sheltered/rescue dogs have health issues, sorry if that seem to come across that way. It's just that the search for my area/state (at least when searching online at the time) are mostly elderly (or past the age I was looking for) and/or have (or have had) some kind of health problem that will require a little more care/finance than I can deal with upfront. Granted, I was really tempted by a dorkie puppy I've seen ^_^ but was really wanting a traditional yorkie.
I also agree the breeder makes a huge difference, as I know from first hand, a yorkie I've had when growing up before (my brother had gotten her and our male) came from what I would call a backyard breeder. She had really bad health issues from the beginning and took a long time for her to recover from it and, though she lived a fairly decent long life at 12yrs, passed away quickly from some kind of health problem. Our male at the time came from a show quality line and had very little health issues all his life and passed away from old age (he was blind in the last few years, but lived long at almost 15yrs).
And thanks on the well wishes for my Kimchi ^^ (she's the first dog I actually bought, myself) Vet said she's looking very healthy. Right now she's trying to be dominate ^^;;

I'm in the same post as the OP and I totally get what you mean.

I take those moments as opportunities to educate the person giving me grief on why we decided to go the route we did.

We are very proud of our puppy-to-be and to quote someone on another thread on YT, "Buy your breeder first." We absolutely adore the breeder we're getting our pup from. She has made us feel like a part of her family and I feel confident if I was confused about something and needed advice in a month, a year, 5 years, 10 years - - she would be more than happy to chat on the phone for an hour.

This is a potentially a 15+ year commitment. It's a huge deal.

Rescuing is wonderful and I'm so thankful for everyone is able to do that. They're saving lives and that is extremely admirable.

As previously stated on this thread, if you're going the breeder route and can say confidently that you know your breeder is reputable, ethical and striving to improve the breed, you have nothing to be ashamed about.. now you just have to focus on being the best pack leader you can :)