I'm going to share a little bit about my experience of "before purebred dogs".
As a child, we had a dog here and there. Gus was a chihuahua cross that we got from the pound. He died of old age. Then there was Penny, a cock-a-poo that my parents bought - and promptly sold when she repeated pooped in the house (my mother couldn't handle that). I tried to tell her, at twelve years of age and knowing nothing about dogs other that that I LOVED them, that Penny was too young to know that she had to go outside. Mom didn't listen and resold her (ACK).
My next dog was a BC from the humane society - I was 14. Lady was a great dog, housetrained when we got her. She was my best friend. I did everything with her, told her my secrets, walked her, trained her, brushed her, loved her. She slept on my bed. We had no idea about crates. Lady managed to get out of our yard after two years, and we never did find her, even after putting ads in the paper, and regularly checking the SPCA.
Then there was life without dogs in our home. BUT, I made friends with every dog in the neighbourhood. Loved them, walked them, played with them, cried on their shoulders. There was one neighbour with a black lab named Duke. Duke was awesome, and I was with him as a teenaged as much as I possibly could be.
I grew up never knowing about puppy mills, never knowing about Breeders... when my parents did look for a dog, it was in the paper. But then, there was no internet back then either.
When I was 30-something, I was finally in a place to get a dog again. This time I wanted a Rottie. But, there are so many BYB Rottie's around here - I still didn't know that this was "bad", but I knew that with a breed as powerful as the Rottie, that I wanted a dog from someone who had been breeding for awhile, that knew their dogs and the temperaments they produced. That is when I was introduced to the world of the reputable breeder. I read, I researched, and read some more - learning and learning and learning. I soaked it all in like a sponge. All the myths I had learned from a child disappeared and I learned a new truth - the truth about reputable breeders, BYBs, and puppy mills. I ended up not getting a Rottie - I found the Tervuren.
My point is that there are a whole lot of GOOD people out there that DON'T KNOW. How many people on this board got their puppies from a BYB or a pet store, and now realize that was what it was? We don't call them bad for getting a puppy - but we are happy that they are here, and that they are learning! And that maybe they can help their friends and neighbours, or maybe even someone else that visits this board NOT make that purchase when THEY look at that cute puppy in a pet store.
I don't advertise litter plans or upcoming litters in the newspaper - but I do in my breed club newsletter, and I have only every advertised a puppy in the paper that ONE time that I talked about originally. That was extreme circumstances - my mother was DYING!
