My wife and I are buying a purebred dog...why is there a stigma

aaaaa wrote:

Call of the Wild wrote:

What if it attacked children and was a serial crotch sniffer and leg humper?

Then I would be a pretty bad dog owner wouldn't I?

I have no idea if you or your dog are pretty.

People are concerned that you might be getting ripped off by as much as $1k, which is a large sum of money. Of course the breeder might cite court costs, getting the dog's sworn witness statement etc...but that should be no more than $500.

Nike Marketing Team wrote:

My wife and I are purchasing our first dog and have decided to purchase a purebred Golden Retriever. It is from a reputable breeder that conducts genetic testing and provides a 2 year warranty on the dog. We have two cats at home and have read that GRs are one of the best dogs for interacting with cats.

I was interacting with some people at a social gathering and informed that we were paying $1500.00 dollars for the dog. Each of them looked at me as if I were crazy. One said "I would never pay that much for a dog, the humane society has them for a hundred bucks."

We wanted a purebred to avoid issues with our other pets and love golden retrievers.

Why do so many people look down on family's that buy purebred dogs? It's my money.

You are in the right.

Shelter dogs are there for a reason. People don't give good dogs away. When you want a good meal do you go to the soup kitchen?

Not all pure breed dogs have health problems. Goldens are prone to hip, elbow issues and certain cancers.

If you want a pure bread that doesn't have too many health issues look at a poodle. If you go medium sized (20-35 lbs) they can easily live 14-16 years and are excellent family companions. They do need a lot of exercise though.

There are people who believe that as long as there are homeless dogs waiting to be adopted in animal shelters, it is wrong to buy a puppy that was deliberately bred. I say nonsense. It is a tragedy that there are so many unwanted animals around, but it is not your responsibility to save them all. You are presumably getting a dog to be a value member of your family. A well-bred puppy from a careful breeder is more likely to be that than some random dog with an unknown background acquired from the pound (although there are no guarantees).

Saying you shouldn't buy a purebred puppy because there are homeless dogs in animal shelters is like saying you shouldn't have kids because there are homeless children in orphanages. I don't buy either argument.

Don't worry about what some social justice warrior thinks. Buy whatever dog you want. Let the sissies with their civil war beards, limp wrists, and fu-fu lattes whine all they want. The real reason they're angry is because they don't have any money. Period. lol

10/10 bravo

You own a mutt

I work at a dog boarding place in an affluent area. There are purebreds, there are mutts. The stigma has almost nothing to do with purebreds themselves - it's the images of the owner that are evoked.

Purebred owners in my area overwhelmingly tend to:

- Believe the cost of their dog makes it more valuable than others

- Believe their dog's breed characteristics make basic training unnecessary (golden retrievers have a pretty high bite rate, probably due in part to this)

- Have dogs as a statement piece, a well-groomed pup who is part of the family image, but is not taken care of as the individual being it is. It's the dog who lays on his dog bed bored all day, and has access to the backyard, and the owners walk by every few hours and pet and manhandle the dog, and think they're giving the dog everything it could ever want.

- Keep their dog at home rather than exposing it to new places, dogs, or people. When I'm out and about, it's the mutts who get to come along and go places. When I run through the suburban neighborhoods, it's the purebreds who are losing their minds barking from the window or the yard, bored to death.

On top of that, there is a popular opinion that it makes no sense to buy a dog from a breeder. I have to admit, breeders are not solving a dog-demand problem, so I question their utility overall. They seem to mainly be standard-bearers for the american notion of what their dog breed should be.

To boil it down, the stigma is this: buying a purebred is a calculated decision made by wealthy folks in their own interest, and adopting a mutt is an act of love done in the interest of the dog. It's not that clear-cut, but there's the stigma.

We've had several breeds over the years, including mutts.

Golden Retrievers are incredible on all levels. They are insanely affectionate, super empathetic, and are utterly hilarious.

Don't let society guilt you into adopting somebody else's impulsive or bad decision. Tell them if you or somebody doesn't buy the GR puppy, it too might end up in a shelter or Humane Society.

Feel free to make a donation to the local shelter or Humane Society as well - we do annually, but enjoy the hell out of our GR.

Good luck...what will you name her/him?

The Golden Retrieve "bite rate" is urban myth! Been around for quite some time.

Ok, I guess we have not kicked 3 golden retrievers out of the daycare for biting since I started working there. Dog bit statistics are notoriously hard to interpret, but I'm happy to take a look at your sources if you have any in mind.

Golden Breed wrote:

Good luck...what will you name her/him?

Male: Moose. Kona. Bear. Tucker.

Femal: Lilly. Lucy. Luna. Lola. Bailey. Bella. Stella.

Choose.

Dog Daycare Employee wrote:

Golden Breed wrote:

Good luck...what will you name her/him?

Male: Moose. Kona. Bear. Tucker.

Femal: Lilly. Lucy. Luna. Lola. Bailey. Bella. Stella.

Choose.

I vote Tucker for Male; Luna for Female.

You're creating a market for dog breeders to mess about with genetics to create high-status playthings. Pure-breds are like pit bulls for a different demographic.

I was just joking, these are the most common names for goldens at my facility. Each name corresponds to about 10 different dogs who come in regularly.

glue factory wrote:

Not good wrote:

Fair point.

I once stayed at a place that at breeds huskies in Norway. There they would take the young pups for long walks to quickly identify which couldn't keep up. The slow/weak ones were "removed". This is clearly an extreme example.

This.

The guy saying breeders *prevent* shelter dogs is dead wrong; it's the opposite.

I adopted a gorgeous purebred husky from a shelter for $200. Why was she in a shelter? Born with one eye missing (common in inbred dogs) and the breeder abandoned the poor thing in the countryside.

Sheltered and adopters are cleaning up the mess made by the whole purebred fixation industry.

Huskies were also extremely popular in the US during the first few seasons of GoT. I volunteered at a husky rescue that couldn't keep up with the amount of pure bred huskies sent to us from families that dropped $2000 on what they thought would basically be a golden retriever in a wolf's body (and anyone who has a had a husky knows this is a big lol).

If you need a dog that actually works (e.g. certain cattle dogs, shepherd dogs constantly on guard duty, racing sled dogs, etc) then I could see a justifiable argument for going to a breeder because temperament and genetic quality will be most important. Otherwise, I recommend adoption, and you can find almost any breed available for adoption if you look hard enough.

Anyone who tells me they dropped $1500 on a dog, I instantly assume they did it to boost the number of Instagram followers they have more than anything else.

I called a reputable breeder, and asked her if she had an adult dog that she could not sell for one reason or another. She did - a one year old femaie. I paid equivalent to a donation fee at the shelter. She is a wonderful dog, as sweet and gentle as can be, and a great dog outdoors (a Llewellin Setter). I did not buy for status, but rather because the breed is known to be unusually sweet and gentle and loving. I am not sure the generalizations above are useful. My dog is a companion, and my goal is to develop a deep trust relationship with her. A dog is a member of the family, and be capable of treating one as ssuch.