Buying a puppy

Got our dog from https://www.lastchanceanimalrescue.co.uk near Edenbridge

Young Jack Russell cross, best thing I ever did, she was in a terrible state, but happy and healthy now.

No offence taken at all, it's a valid question.  I suppose I just I don't really think of dogs as having a nationality and the problems with abandoned/stray dogs are far more acute in Romania than they are in the UK. Under the communist regime in the 70s and 80s in Romania, houses were demolished and everyone had to move into tower blocks with no dogs allowed. People let their dogs go rather than kill them. They went on to breed giving rise to a huge feral dog problem in Romania which instituted an euthanisation policy. Hundreds of thousands are killed each year. 

Carter said:

Something else to bear in mind that a few people have said is dogs are genuinely a gift. They are marvellous animals however they can be c*nts. They have no concept of ownership at times, for example its hilarious when puppies are delicately chewing at shoelaces and slippers but less funny when your pair of week old Gazelles have been torn to shreds by a bored GSD. Same for furniture, skirting boards, doors, sky boxes, remote controls, mobile phones, kick boards on kitchen units, kitchen units, door mats, carpets, any soft furnishings come to that. And your car, forget that ever smelling nice or being clean again. 

Dogs truly are amazing, so are cats but now we only have cats I'm not sure I'd have another dog now I have new furniture and less desire to pick up a massive, warm, wet shit at 5am and carry it back home and repeat the process in the evening. 

Also and this is a serious point, the standard of dog ownership in this country is appalling, I mean truly terrifying. The same people who you see in the shops in pyjamas and dressing gowns will think nothing of buying a Staffordshire bull terrier to get fat indoors or to be left outside to be sad and bark its head off until it gets yelled at. 

I should imagine like a lot of people I laughed at @Carter post but there so much common sense in that post alone. The amount of people that say to me, my puppy destroyed their best shoes/trainers etc and when you ask what they have to entertain themselves they tell you they've given them an old Reebok classic which incidentally are still trending down here , they cannot tell the difference between an old pair and your besties so why steer them down that road. Although I did wonder at first what @Carter was doing with a couple of young Antelope in his gaff, but maybe that's one for the "You know you're getting old " thread    I had a lady come to me with a Shep for training, she was a single mum with a young son, the dog a year adolescent male was horrible bastard, to walk and to talk too, everything about said "wrong'un" She'd came to me a couple of times, the 3rd time he'd put her on her arse in the lane outside my fields she'd hurt herself and was talk about giving him. I asked her to go away get a cup of tea and leave him with me for an hours "boot camp" she still has him to this day, 3 years later, I love my dogs but they get away with feck all.
The same lady used to cuddle up on the sofa with the dog when her son had gone to bed, she met a fella and invited him home. The son went to bed, the boyfriend got out his chair to sit next to her when she arrived back with drinks the dog bit him, my explanation. You come to my house and sit in my comfy space, I'll fecking bite you.
We put our dogs in impossible situations and when it goes wrong the dog is at fault, my pet hate children laying all over dogs or worse riding their backs for that "cute photo" mum or dad slip out of the room, the child decides to sit on the dog the dog doesn't particularly feel great that day and tears a lump out of the Childs face, Why? Because we wanted a "cute photo" we now have a disfigured child or worse and a dead dog. Our response "he's never done that before!
As for picking up dog shite, I always check it first to make sure my dogs are healthy before knotting the bag and with one in each pocket "natures hand warmers"  
 

WelshAddick said:

We got Kevin at 6 weeks. He was the runt and wasn’t getting fed properly. We are home all the time so we could train him.  I stayed downstairs and slept with him for 6 weeks.  We got him from a home. 

Your dog supports Burnley?

T_C_E said:

Carter said:

Something else to bear in mind that a few people have said is dogs are genuinely a gift. They are marvellous animals however they can be c*nts. They have no concept of ownership at times, for example its hilarious when puppies are delicately chewing at shoelaces and slippers but less funny when your pair of week old Gazelles have been torn to shreds by a bored GSD. Same for furniture, skirting boards, doors, sky boxes, remote controls, mobile phones, kick boards on kitchen units, kitchen units, door mats, carpets, any soft furnishings come to that. And your car, forget that ever smelling nice or being clean again. 

Dogs truly are amazing, so are cats but now we only have cats I'm not sure I'd have another dog now I have new furniture and less desire to pick up a massive, warm, wet shit at 5am and carry it back home and repeat the process in the evening. 

Also and this is a serious point, the standard of dog ownership in this country is appalling, I mean truly terrifying. The same people who you see in the shops in pyjamas and dressing gowns will think nothing of buying a Staffordshire bull terrier to get fat indoors or to be left outside to be sad and bark its head off until it gets yelled at. 

I should imagine like a lot of people I laughed at @Carter post but there so much common sense in that post alone. The amount of people that say to me, my puppy destroyed their best shoes/trainers etc and when you ask what they have to entertain themselves they tell you they've given them an old Reebok classic which incidentally are still trending down here , they cannot tell the difference between an old pair and your besties so why steer them down that road. Although I did wonder at first what @Carter was doing with a couple of young Antelope in his gaff, but maybe that's one for the "You know you're getting old " thread    I had a lady come to me with a Shep for training, she was a single mum with a young son, the dog a year adolescent male was horrible bastard, to walk and to talk too, everything about said "wrong'un" She'd came to me a couple of times, the 3rd time he'd put her on her arse in the lane outside my fields she'd hurt herself and was talk about giving him. I asked her to go away get a cup of tea and leave him with me for an hours "boot camp" she still has him to this day, 3 years later, I love my dogs but they get away with feck all.
The same lady used to cuddle up on the sofa with the dog when her son had gone to bed, she met a fella and invited him home. The son went to bed, the boyfriend got out his chair to sit next to her when she arrived back with drinks the dog bit him, my explanation. You come to my house and sit in my comfy space, I'll fecking bite you.
We put our dogs in impossible situations and when it goes wrong the dog is at fault, my pet hate children laying all over dogs or worse riding their backs for that "cute photo" mum or dad slip out of the room, the child decides to sit on the dog the dog doesn't particularly feel great that day and tears a lump out of the Childs face, Why? Because we wanted a "cute photo" we now have a disfigured child or worse and a dead dog. Our response "he's never done that before!
As for picking up dog shite, I always check it first to make sure my dogs are healthy before knotting the bag and with one in each pocket "natures hand warmers"  
 

Totally, its a bit different talking dogs with you as you are well and truly an excellent dog owner who has done dog ownership the right way, put a huge amount of effort and time in. I reckon you would agree with me though if you and your wife were both working full time and living in London having a dog like Bailey would have resulted in your home receiving a makeover no human would want. GSD and Collies are my guys but they are working dogs really and need a lot of time, boundaries sometimes involving showing them who is the alpha and staying on top of that. 

My mate always brought his dog, an enormous English bulldog called tank to work and whilst it was good as gold with us and would be in the van happily with him it was probe to boredom and the devil makes work for bored dogs. It ate the entire seat belt including buckle as well as the steering wheel setting off the airbag and subsequently eating that too. All because my mate left him while we got a breakfast 

None of this is to put people off but having a dog is as exhaustive as having children as far as I'm concerned 

Carter said:

T_C_E said:

Carter said:

Something else to bear in mind that a few people have said is dogs are genuinely a gift. They are marvellous animals however they can be c*nts. They have no concept of ownership at times, for example its hilarious when puppies are delicately chewing at shoelaces and slippers but less funny when your pair of week old Gazelles have been torn to shreds by a bored GSD. Same for furniture, skirting boards, doors, sky boxes, remote controls, mobile phones, kick boards on kitchen units, kitchen units, door mats, carpets, any soft furnishings come to that. And your car, forget that ever smelling nice or being clean again. 

Dogs truly are amazing, so are cats but now we only have cats I'm not sure I'd have another dog now I have new furniture and less desire to pick up a massive, warm, wet shit at 5am and carry it back home and repeat the process in the evening. 

Also and this is a serious point, the standard of dog ownership in this country is appalling, I mean truly terrifying. The same people who you see in the shops in pyjamas and dressing gowns will think nothing of buying a Staffordshire bull terrier to get fat indoors or to be left outside to be sad and bark its head off until it gets yelled at. 

I should imagine like a lot of people I laughed at @Carter post but there so much common sense in that post alone. The amount of people that say to me, my puppy destroyed their best shoes/trainers etc and when you ask what they have to entertain themselves they tell you they've given them an old Reebok classic which incidentally are still trending down here , they cannot tell the difference between an old pair and your besties so why steer them down that road. Although I did wonder at first what @Carter was doing with a couple of young Antelope in his gaff, but maybe that's one for the "You know you're getting old " thread    I had a lady come to me with a Shep for training, she was a single mum with a young son, the dog a year adolescent male was horrible bastard, to walk and to talk too, everything about said "wrong'un" She'd came to me a couple of times, the 3rd time he'd put her on her arse in the lane outside my fields she'd hurt herself and was talk about giving him. I asked her to go away get a cup of tea and leave him with me for an hours "boot camp" she still has him to this day, 3 years later, I love my dogs but they get away with feck all.
The same lady used to cuddle up on the sofa with the dog when her son had gone to bed, she met a fella and invited him home. The son went to bed, the boyfriend got out his chair to sit next to her when she arrived back with drinks the dog bit him, my explanation. You come to my house and sit in my comfy space, I'll fecking bite you.
We put our dogs in impossible situations and when it goes wrong the dog is at fault, my pet hate children laying all over dogs or worse riding their backs for that "cute photo" mum or dad slip out of the room, the child decides to sit on the dog the dog doesn't particularly feel great that day and tears a lump out of the Childs face, Why? Because we wanted a "cute photo" we now have a disfigured child or worse and a dead dog. Our response "he's never done that before!
As for picking up dog shite, I always check it first to make sure my dogs are healthy before knotting the bag and with one in each pocket "natures hand warmers"  
 

Totally, its a bit different talking dogs with you as you are well and truly an excellent dog owner who has done dog ownership the right way, put a huge amount of effort and time in. I reckon you would agree with me though if you and your wife were both working full time and living in London having a dog like Bailey would have resulted in your home receiving a makeover no human would want. GSD and Collies are my guys but they are working dogs really and need a lot of time, boundaries sometimes involving showing them who is the alpha and staying on top of that. 

My mate always brought his dog, an enormous English bulldog called tank to work and whilst it was good as gold with us and would be in the van happily with him it was probe to boredom and the devil makes work for bored dogs. It ate the entire seat belt including buckle as well as the steering wheel setting off the airbag and subsequently eating that too. All because my mate left him while we got a breakfast 

None of this is to put people off but having a dog is as exhaustive as having children as far as I'm concerned 

Thank you, but I still get things wrong and am still very much learning about all of them, only the other day I posted something and took a b*ll*cking because I was holding a lead incorrectly. Having a senior dog in Bailey is very new to me, watching for signs of Dementia and things like that. He was at the vet Friday for his Thyroid level checks then the nurse said they were a little concerned that a dog of seven was starting to show his age, they had his age wrong and he's almost eleven. With which he said "oh, wow, he's looking fantastic" Nine foot long from tip to tail and 48kgs what could possible go wrong if he got bored? We'd come home and he's rearranged the furniture! Lol Our three eldest dogs all sleep loose upstairs at night while the youngest two are still crated although Valli is only crated because she doesnt like Xena. 
We were working when we got him, although my wife wasn't full time what I find is the amount of people who believe a 5/6 mile walk is all they need, dogs in particular working breeds need mental stimulation as well. Even something like a handful of treats thrown into the garden for them to use their nose keeps them busy. We lost an internet filter after a visiting engineer left a dodgy one on the coffee table and Bow rolled over while asleep and whacked his arse on a sharp corner of the skirting board and went full into attack mode because it hurt him, other than that no damage to the house or contents. Ive 11 people on Twitter, 14 on FB requesting tips and tricks with their dogs Ive never sad no to any of them, there's no such thing as a silly question people still answer my questions, people still offer me advice. As is known my JJ went away for some desensitisation training last February and got caught in the first lockdown I didn't get him back until June, the bill to my estimate should have been around 10k, I paid nothing. I was told they did for him and the money wasn't important. 

Have you thought about asking Lee Bowyer ? He was sold a few pups last summer !