Careful with comments, a Gremlin, a Helfie and a Hippy chick

This morning I opened my email inbox to see that I had a comment submitted for my blog that I published on the 24/08/2014 "Puppy Awarness Week (PAW) 2014" and the blog is about making people aware of the puppy farming trade. Sadly I feel unable to publish the comment submitted and I have not published a few comments over the four years I have had a blog up and running, but these have been people trying to get a link on my website or trying to sell their puppies through my website, but not publishing this comment hurts and why  ?, you may ask.

It hurts because it is about an establishment the person contacting me believes is a puppy farm and as much as I feel their frustration, you have to be careful when making accusations about someone or something, the internet is a wonderful thing, which can build a reputation and with one accusation true or false, rip it apart.  After looking at their website though I pretty much get the feeling that this is a big commercial breeder and with the Eastern Europen staff a front for imported pups from that area, but I lack evidence to back that feeling and that is where the problem lies. The establishment is a very big concern and publishing details of them and calling them out as a puppy farm without concrete evidence, at best I could look like a dog breeder with sour grapes against another dog breeder and at worst have a libel action against me. They are probably working within the law, as the law does not care much for the mental health of a dog, just that it has very basic comfort. That is were you the public can shut down such establishments by just not buying from them, so homework is needed and patience in getting a puppy.  

The fact that they cross Pugs with the Cavalier to produce a dog they call cutely (That's sarcasm) a Pugalier shows they know very little of health and this is purely about supplying a market, these two breeds are two of the breeds with the highest occurance of Mitrial Valve Degeneration (MVD) and Chiari Malformation/Syringomyelia (CM/SM), they are breeding  health issue time bombs. Crossing these two breeds I would expect no improvement in the occurance of MVD or CM/SM. I have emailed the person back to tell her why I will not be publishing her comment,


Dear Mrs Turner,
 
I have just read your comment submitted to my website. I am sorry but I will not be publishing it and understand that this may be upsetting for you. The reason for this decision is because I don't know who you are and have no proof of what you say they are, believe me looking at their website they pretty well look like they are puppy farmers, but as I am also a dog breeder, your comments on a dog breeders site about another dog breeder might look like sour grapes between two dog breeders and without proof of what you say and publishing your comment, I could at worse end up with a court summons for libel. 

You would be better to spread the word on social media such as Facebook and Twitter, try and find others that have had problems after getting a puppy from them, and contact their local council and
report your worries and what happened with your puppy to them. If they are using the Kennel Club registery with their purebreeds, also report your worries to them.
 
I am sorry for the heartache you had with your puppy you got from these people and feel your frustration with the situation. If you really want to stop this establishment gather evidence and keep reporting it to their council and the Kennel Club.
 
I wish you all the best and I am truly sorry that I cannot help you more with this.
 
Kind regards
 
Jane Howarth  

I hope Mrs Turner understands my concerns and I why I cannot publish such comments without the concrete evidence to back the accusations in them. It's frustrating but I feel social media such as Facebook or Twitter would be a better place to find others that have dealt with this establishment in Lincoln and to compile evidence and a case against them, so the Council can investigate them. If you have any concerns about a breeders you should report those concerns to their local council and as in this case if they are breeding Kennel Club registered dogs as well, also report it to the Kennel Club.

One tip for spotting puppy farming and the selling of imported puppy farmed puppies are breeding establishments that have several breeds and several litters. The breeder mentioned in the comment I am unable to publish, on their website today they have fifteen different breed stud dogs, they have pups from litters being sold from seven different purebreeds and pups also available from litters of eleven different crossbreeds. This for me would start to ring a very  big alarm bell. Do you think that they can give each pup a lot of time ? 

They have from their website alone at this time, pups from eighteen individual litters. So let's just think about this. They have fourteen stud dogs, with eighteen litters on the place at the moment, we have to guess they have at least eighteen breeding bitches and say an average of four pups a litter, that makes before any were sold, 72 pups, so add dogs, bitches and pups together, that's 104 dogs ranging from pups to adults we know about. They say they employ ten people, some of those are employed for office administration and telesales as this is a big concern, do you think with 104 dogs, 72 of that number are pups, before leaving this breeder those 72 pups will be well handled and well socialised with humans ? 

When looking at a dog breeders website, do the maths !

We have eleven dogs and with my husband and our children, that makes eight of us giving them time and love, and I worry we don't give them enough, so how the hell do ten people (some of those work in office administration and telesales) supply enough time and love to 104 dogs and pups for them to be properly socialised. The answer is they don't. Unfortunately having a Council Licence does not reflect socialisation needs of dogs and is still basically only about the dog being fed, cleaned and having clean water.

One more tip, when they have a video of pups available, take a real close look. The bog standard puppy farm video is a pen area that looks lovely and clean with a dog bed, that is a dog bed that looks often like a human bed (they must really love their dogs, if they let them have a dog bed, that looks like a human bed, hope you're getting the sarcasm with that) and lots of toys placed around the pen, now look at the pups, if they are around eight weeks old and this is their pen and they have just been given their toys to play with, they should be bombing about, play fighting, tugging toys about, leaping on toys, basically being active and out going. If they are just sitting their nervously touching the toys and withdrawing if the toy moves at first and seem to huddle together, it's because it's probably the first time they have been in that pen, they use for show and often is the first time they have been in another pen, than the one they were born in. Pups at eight weeks old should be naturally curious and full of play. Please look back through my blog and you will find videos of our pups at various ages, once they are around eight weeks old a puppy should have two modes asleep or bombing about playing, investigating everything.

I hope this helps some and anyone who needs some help, as just starting out on the road to finding a pup, I'm here and happy to answer any questions you have. Yes, even though you won't be getting a puppy from me. Often websites by puppy farming establishments give you alot of information, that actually gives you no real information. Puppy farm breeders are often clever and come over as very likeable individuals, as often people do, that deceive. Finding a puppy from a good breeder, looking on the internet you often can't see the wood from the trees, hopefully I can help some people to see the wood.

Smudge doing an impersonation of a Gremlin

Now for some funny photos of Smudge looking like a Gremlin. Smudge is such a lovely dog, just like her Mum, Millie, Very laid back and very cuddly.

When I look at the photos on the camera, there often is more of Henry than any other dog. Why ? He's not my obsession, but that of our son, Bert. That is because our oldest son Bert and him are best mates and Bert has even started taking selfies with Henry, so I suppose we could call them Helfies.

Henry is turning out to be a bit special and seems to be starting to morph into our old boy Smidge who passed away back in 2010 and a few of us had a tear in our eyes the other night with something he done, which our old boy Smidge used to do.The thing that Smidge used to do that Henry did the other night will either make you go, "ahh !" or "yuk !"

Thursday my husband, arrived home from work as normal around 8 pm. I had eaten earlier with the children, a curry I had made with lamb left over from the leg of lamb we had the previous Sunday. It was even if I say so, having made the curry, a curry that was exceptionally nice, more sweet than hot and this was reflected in a clean plate from each of our children. My husband warmed his plate up in the micro wave and the rest of us were sat down around the fireplace, as my husband does not like eating alone at the table, he joined us sitting on the sofa with his food. The dogs promptly positioned themselves to watch him and wait for any signs of weakness, such as slowing up eating or the tell tale scrap of the fork or knive on the plate, that indicates an oppurtunity to lick a plate is imminent.

David was sat eating his curry, with his legs up on the end of the L shaped sofa and Henry had his back legs on the floor with his front half lying beside David. As David neared the end of eating,  for the first time we have ever noticed Henry doing this, he was drooling and as David scrapped the last morsels from his plate, Henry then started to make little rumble like sounds from his mouth, the drooling and the rumbling sounds were like going back in time and watching Smidge doing the exact same things with David. Good memories, that often irritate the eyes though, remembering a much loved canine family member no longer with us.

Our oldest four children all recognised the similarity between Smidge and Henry, in fact it was our son, Bert who shouted at us to look and see what Henry was doing, saying, "He's just like Smidge." Although our youngest two would of all known Smidge and he would of steadied each of them as they took their first steps, with their little hands using his back for balast, they were a bit young when he passed away in 2010 to remember this about him. Henry obviously liked the smell very much of the curry I had made and I also got a random kiss from David and a "That was lovely darling." Don't mean to blow my own trumpet, but I'm a fairly good cook, so our family eat what I would say, "tasty good food every day", so it tends to have to be pretty exceptional to be commented on. Lol

In the photos below it may be noticed that our daughter is sporting a rather short fridge and some may recall me blogging a few months back, when she cut her own hair and to tidy it the only option was to cut it short. This time the culprit was not Tilly but her sister Molly, who did the deed and it was on my husbands watch, as I was milking and he was looking after them or not as the evidence points in that direction.Lol.

Luckily, Tilly I think looks very cute with her short hair, obviously inheriting all that cutness from her mother. Someone actually said, "she looks very hippy chick", and I replied, "I know some would pay good money to have their fringe cut like that." So if you want a hippy chick haircut for your child, you know where to come.Lol