Originally posted by mdowling
That's the point i'm getting at, I want a dog for my family not to show in Westminster. If you love showing your dog that's great for you. I have no intentions of doing it, I don't feel it should be necessary to pay $900 for a dog with a fifth generation pedigree. To play fetch with in the park, and do all the things people do with their pets.
Like I said before, the breeders that charge the $900 for puppies are normally the ones that do all of the appropriate testing, such as testing the heart and hips (joints). So in reality, that $900 would ensure that you'd be able to play fetch in the park throughout your dogs life. Not just when he's a puppy.
To answer some questions about bringing home a grown dog from rescue with my 15 month old son. A grown dog could physically kill my son if he snapped. A puppy couldn't, when you take a dog home from rescue you'll never know that dogs tempermant. With a puppy I have the opportunity to develop the puppies tempermant as much as possible. Plus as he grows with my son into a grown dog he'll be well adjusted to my son.
It is to my understanding that dogs brought into rescues are tested with different situations to see what their reactions are. If they even once made a hint that they woud not be good with children, they would not adopt out to a family with young kids. I'd also like to say that puppies may not be able to kill your son, but a puppy can still do serious damage if left unsupervised. Not to mention responsible breeders (not BYB) won't breed dogs with a bad temperment. Many BYB'ers will without giving it a second thought.
A puppy is a product of his parents, and his grandparents, and great grandparents, etc. Each dog passes genes down to the next generation. Without having the testing and evalulations done, how do you know that he doesn't bad temperments in his lines?? How do you KNOW that he will never snap at one point??
I'll tell a quick story about my father bringing home a dog from the shelter when I was kid. The dog was a doberman pinscher, lived with a family with children for six years. No i'll tempermant, no behavioral problems, overall an excellent dog. Two hours after my dad let the dog in our house it bit my babysitter, and my brother very badly, the dog had snapped it was later put to sleep. So while there are many people with wonderful stories of animals that worked great from rescue. You have to realize there are some that don't work out. And that's a risk I'm not willing to take with my son. When he's older sure I would adopt a dog but when they're babies I want the puppies to be raised alongside my children.
I'm sorry to hear about that tragic story, but that's certainly not an every day event. I've never heard of a story ending like that, but I've heard numorous stories about successful adoptions.