'Where did you get them?'

[stafinois]

I get it a lot and just give the state name that they came from. I get asked about price as well. Then they go on to say Pits are great and it's all in how you raise them, or tell me about their childhood Boxers and GSDs. Oh well.

[Flyinsbt]

I say yes, they are expensive, and that their breeder is in California. Which is technically sort of true, though I actually bred both of them, they have a co-breeder who lives in CA. I think if I told these people (just random people in a park or wherever) what a pup of this breed typically goes for, they'd keel over in shock.

[Catsi]

Yes I do. I use it as an opportunity to warn people against bybs and purchasing a dog when you don't know the full history, didn't meet the parents etc.

Grace is the family dog from a BYB. She turned out wonderfully, both in temperament and health (generally, bar cruciate ligament that required surgery) and knowing what I know now I thank my lucky stars nearly every day.

Abby - goodness I was so naive when I bought her. I honestly thought it was all in how you raised them. I thought that breeders were fairly similar - except that some bred show dogs. I fell in love with a photo and that was the end of it.

As I became more addicted to dogs in general - behaviour (through necessity really, having a reactive and highly strung dog of my own that I didn't know how to best manage/handle), training, health etc, I became more aware of ethical breeding issues. Temperament and health and how to best mitigate potential disasters is something that I really care about. Until I had a dog with 'issues', I thought dogs were all the same and it only mattered how you bought them up.

I'm not saying my inexperience did not contribute to how Abby turned out either. There are things I'd do differently and I would have addressed issues sooner rather than later. I really try to use Abby and our story to promote ethical breeding and rescue when I can, to anyone who is interested. Seeing that the message is coming from someone who didn't done the research and didn't 'done the right thing', I hope that when I speak to people I can connect with them. I don't know everything. I've learned a lot and dogs and dog people can teach you a whole lot if you let them!

Thankfully for us it all worked out ok in the end, but I'd so much rather that dogs didn't have to suffer and that no one had to deal with the heartbreak of struggling with and possibly losing a dog through temperament or health issues.

[CaliTerp07]

People ask me all the time. I ask people often. It's VERY common in NoVA to have rescue dogs, so it's a popular question--basically, "did your dog possibly come from the same rescue as one of my dogs?"

When people ask, I say she came from the Alexandria shelter. 'cause she did

[sassafras]

I don't know that I've ever been asked that that I remember. I think if you don't have a purebred dog around here, people assume they came from a shelter or rescue group. Occasionally when I start talking about Squash's mom/litter people get a look on their face like "not.... rescue?" but rarely actually ask about it.

[Shai]

Originally Posted by sassafras

Occasionally when I start talking about Squash's mom/litter people get a look on their face like "not.... rescue?" but rarely actually ask about it.

Squash came from Krypton. It is known.

[AdrianneIsabel]

I ask it and mean what breeder/rescue.

[Red.Apricot]

When people ask at dog shows they get her kennel name, when they ask in real life they get the city.

People who ask how much she cost usually get told 'quite a bit.' I'm not comfortable talking about that with strangers.

[Rach]

We occasionally get asked about price on Godric and where he came from. With Tulip I get asked "What kind of dog is that?"

[sassafras]

Originally Posted by Shai

Squash came from Krypton. It is known.

People seem to glaze over when I mention the space ship.