Not trying to get anyone started bashing people or their dogs and where they got them, just wanted to use my story to possibly educate. I know there are a lot of people like me who have dogs from the unmentionable places.
(In my case, a BYB)
When I was younger, I lost a puppy named Rosie. She was a little sheltie girl, 3 months old, and I was devastated. About 4 months later, I wanted another dog. I began looking around and finally came upon a newspaper add for 6 week old sheltie pups. We drove out to meet the people and see the litter. There had been four pups, only three were left. The couple was young and they had two pretty AKC registered shelties. The pups were completely ADORABLE. Two male and one female. I of course, picked up the runt. They warned me she was onery, but we hit it off right away. No interviews, they assured she was healthy and $250 later I had a puppy coming home with me.
For the longest time, I thought nothing of it. We got our male sheltie from a reputable breeder. I'd defend the people that bred Nik. They seemed nice enough, but looking back on it they were nice people who didn't need to produce dogs. What would have happened to Nik had we not gotten her? We're a serious family who was dedicated to her, fortunately. There was no contract stating we were to return her. What would have happened to her? She'd probably ended up in the shelter. Would she have made it out of the shelter, probably. But she's a bit snappy- not like a usual sheltie. She has resource guarding issues- she's much better now though. Luckily, she was also healthy. No screening done on her and we're lucky we've gone 11 years with no major crisises other than old age.
So the conclusion- should I have gotten her from that source? Nope. Do I ever regret getting her? Nope. People on here with dogs from a less than reputable source, love them and take care of them. Don't ever feel ashamed. Just learn from your experiences and use them to help educate other people.
And here's my 11 year old angel:
Here Trey and her are at 1 1/2 years. You can tell the difference in quality in them right away. Nik's not exactly to standard...
Here they are at 10 years.
Anyways, if anyone else has any stories/pictures of their BYB/pet store pups they want to share, I'm all for it.
