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Healthy Pets - Purchasing a Pet
The best place to purchase your
new pet is from well known breeders with solid and well
founded reputations. A good place to find these breeders
is from The Royal NSW Canine Council
www.rnswcc.org.au ,
who list breeders of particular breeds or you can go to
a local dog or cat show where you can meet many
experienced breeders and see for yourself the standard
of animals they breed.
A good breeder will be choosy in
who the pups are sold to. You will need to check whether
the breeders dogs are all people friendly and well
trained and whether previous generations have lived to a
ripe old age free of breed specific diseases. Is the
breeder concerned with the dogs mental well being and
physical health than just good looks. You should be able
to see as many relatives to the puppies as possible.
Check that the puppies are brought up in the house not
kept down the back in kennels or runs and that mum and
relatives have access to the puppies.
Please avoid purchasing puppies
and kittens from newspaper advertisements, pet shops,
unregistered breeders, puppy and kitten mills where
there is no or little genetic history or protection
against genetic/hereditary diseases.
If puppies have been given no
toilet area and the entire area has been littered with
straw or shredded paper, the puppies will have learned
they may eliminate anywhere and everywhere, which is
what they will do in your home, The older the puppy
raised in these conditions the more difficult it will be
to housetrain.
Adopting an adult dog from an
animal shelter can be a marvellous alternative to
raising a puppy. Some shelter and rescue dogs are well
trained and simply in need of a home. Others have a few
behaviour problems and require their puppy education in
adulthood. Some dogs are purebred but most are crossed
breeds. The key is to take the time and select
carefully, most shelter staff are experienced in helping
people find suitable pets.
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