What would you do?

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As you may or may not know I considering getting a puppy. Have been looking on the internet and fell in love with a Golden Retriever cross springer spaniel but unfortuately when I rang up about them they were all gone. Continued looking and found some lab cross puppies. The pictures were adorable and so went to see them. Did love the bitch that Id fallen in love with from the pictures and she herself ticked all the boxes but didnt like either Mum or Dad and didnt particulary like the place where they were. Anyway left her behind but now cant help but compare anything I see to her. How much do pups take after their parents. I.e. we were assured the father had a good temp but the woman wouldnt let go of him with us in the room and we couldnt stroke him and he did nothing but bark at us fairly agresively. This added to the fact that the puppies were yappy and she didnt seem to have aready sold any set alarm bells ringing. Sorry long one. What would you have done.
 
I think you did absolutely the right thing - if the parents have a dodgy temperament then it is likely that the pups wont be brilliant either (although I know it is the nature/nurture debate there!) so I would 100% have walked away.

I know pups are so appealing and sweet, but there are plenty out there and you need to be happy with parents, conditions they are raised in etc
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You did the right thing. Very hard to walk away but as Splotchy says there are plenty of pups whose parents have lovely temperaments out there. Good luck with your search, when you find your perfect pup it will be well worth the wait.
 
Walk away!! An aggressive dog is such a nightmare! These people should not be breeding from an aggressive dog and you don't need this kind of trouble.
 
id say you were right to walk away!!
esp if you didnt like the parents or the way they were being kept...
.....temperment is inheritable both genetically and learned so you might have dodged a bullet here!!.......tho id be more concerned about the mothers temperment than the fathers because pups learn more from mom than dad

as regards to the father being aggressive did he interact with anyone but you or his owner when ye were there?
some dogs are territorial and some breeds more than others but most when introduced to a new person by there owner will settle down(our old lab was like that put on a great show of barking and snarling until you said his name then he was all friendly and waggy tailed!)but the fact that ye didnt get to pet or interact with him would make me very worried!
id say keep looking for a new pup from better stock theres plenty of dogs out there in need of a home
 
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As you may or may not know I considering getting a puppy. Have been looking on the internet and fell in love with a Golden Retriever cross springer spaniel but unfortuately when I rang up about them they were all gone. Continued looking and found some lab cross puppies. The pictures were adorable and so went to see them. Did love the bitch that Id fallen in love with from the pictures and she herself ticked all the boxes but didnt like either Mum or Dad and didnt particulary like the place where they were. Anyway left her behind but now cant help but compare anything I see to her.How much do pups take after their parents. I.e. we were assured the father had a good temp but the woman wouldnt let go of him with us in the room and we couldnt stroke him and he did nothing but bark at us fairly agresively. This added to the fact that the puppies were yappy and she didnt seem to have aready sold any set alarm bells ringing. Sorry long one. What would you have done.

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Bravo! It's so nice to hear about a responsible puppy-buyer who doesn't leave their brain at home. Though I would probably do the same as you, once at home I would have difficulties with forgetting, thinking what if, think that maybe the parents wasn't so bad as I first thought etc...


I've heard that different parts of the temperament have different heritability, such as f. ex. puppies with one aggressive parent and one not aggressive parent are more likely to inherit the aggressiveness, than the not aggressiveness.
But besides the inherited part of their temperament, the first ones they train and learn their behaviour from/with is the brood bitch and their siblings. That can make it a little difficult to determine whether the puppies have inherited so and so from their mothers temperament or if it is something she has taught them. If there's other dogs in the home, their impact on the puppies inherited behaviour depends on how much time they've spent with the puppies.

I'm a firm believer in that puppies kept in a good and interesting environment have easier to adjust to living in their new home. I don't think it's something that cures a bad inherited temperament, but I think it can enhance a good inherited temperament.


You made a good choice for both yourself and the future dog world to walk away, I'm afraid that usually the only thing that these people understand is when money talks, if they don't get any money they don't breed, if they get money they continue breeding.
 
I would recommend hitting your nearest rescues/rehoming centres - there is an ever increasing number of dogs needing new homes (many of which are lab crosses, springer crosses and of course the ever-popular bull dog crosses) so if you're after something like a springer cross or lab cross or anything then rescue is the way forward - plus you'll be doing a really good deed. It isn't always easy to find young pups (i.e. under 5-6 months ish) but you can often pick 8-10 month old pups up quite easily and so long as you're not in a drastic rush, many will let you call daily to ask if they've got any little pups in.

I work for the RSPCA and the news about a 57%+ increase in dogs, cats, puppies, kittens and small animals being dumped and/or neglected appears to be true. So the higher the figure gets, the more pups there'll be in rescue. Its sad but on the plus side it means they get a good second chance in life and also works out financially a lot cheaper for you as the adopter as they'll usually be cheaper than you'd pay privately plus they'll be neutered, vaccinated, microchipped, wormed, treated for fleas and will have also had thorough health check(s) done on them too.

Good luck!
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