I read LJ, all the way to the end, and you guys are awesome :-)
Your breeder sounds perfect. I think when you find a person like that, you kind of get a pass on the buy vs. adopt debate because you are buying from a person who is strengthening the breed, and it is good to reinforce economic demand for healthier animals. That said, I totally understand the conundrum. I face it every time I get a ferret, all the more so because their life spans are so short--buy a baby from a big breeder, get a lifetime with that ferret but also encourage big breeding*, adopt an older no less awesome ferret but only get a few years at best. And they're all equally deserving of a good home. I try to alternate.
*which in ferrets is also resulting in genetic problems linked to "adorable" traits like white stripes on their heads, extra fluffy coats, squished faces, etc. Humanity seems to have a real knack for messing up perfectly good animals :-/
it's always a hard call...because on one hand there's a desire (i think maybe even moreso if you don't have or want kids) to get the optimal experience with your pet, and for some people that might mean choosing what they look like or having them from the time they're a baby...but yeah there's always that concern about encouraging big or over or irresponsible breeding. i know right now with frenchies, one big issue is the fad colors...blue has become reallllllly popular, however it's a recessive trait so blue frenchies tend to have all sorts of behavior and physical problems, but of course they are goddamn adorable and people are willing to pay an insane premium for them, which just increases the demand since they're almost seen more as a luxury version of the dog.
Bones is good. I'm glad he's a sturdy hardy little bear who will continue to make you and all of Hollywood (or wherever you live) happy for years and years to come.
i hope so! it's crazy, a neighbor of ours has 2 frenchies that were given to them by some producer and before he was given the dogs they racked up 30k in medical expenses (one of them is a fad color) which is insane. while bones isn't typical for what a modern frenchie "should" be, to date aside from being allergic to fleas or angsty over skateboarders he's doing very well!
yeah i get frustrated because i've often felt -super- judged for buying Bones vs getting a rescue. i mean, i believe that there are a lot of awesome humans up for adoption but i don't give my friends who opted to have their own kids a hard time. sometimes you want what you want and having to put up with judgmental bullshit just gets tired.
from my own experience, having a german shepard was a fucking nightmare. it could've just been the one we had, or the fact i named it Loki, but good lord I never had a dog that was a bigger pain in the ass or required constant stimulation. plus they're one of the few breeds that always seems to get aggressive with the beat so i think that's also colored my view of them. but the american mastiff sounds great. we met one when we were in Seattle and it was seriously like a huge version of Bones, just more chill.
i know i give you guys shit on facebook about just getting a dog already but i really do think it's awesome that it's something you're not rushing in to
Actually, on that point - one of the biggest reasons I'm wary of purebred dogs is that they all seem to have really common, fairly severe health problems related to the fact that they've been so carefully bred to an aesthetic standard. Sounds like, with some carefully-researched exceptions, bulldogs are a bad choice, and the photos in the other article give me some clues, but it seems like the breed organizations themselves are probably the most unreliable sources and...how do you even do the research?
it depends on the breed organization, when i was younger and we had wolfhounds, we'd usually go to Irish Wolfhound AKC related meetups (which happened a couple times a year) and talk to other owners about their experiences with breeders. right off the bat that was an easy way to figure out what breeder had closest to what we were looking for since we got to talk to pet owners instead of breeders
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Your breeder sounds perfect. I think when you find a person like that, you kind of get a pass on the buy vs. adopt debate because you are buying from a person who is strengthening the breed, and it is good to reinforce economic demand for healthier animals. That said, I totally understand the conundrum. I face it every time I get a ferret, all the more so because their life spans are so short--buy a baby from a big breeder, get a lifetime with that ferret but also encourage big breeding*, adopt an older no less awesome ferret but only get a few years at best. And they're all equally deserving of a good home. I try to alternate.
*which in ferrets is also resulting in genetic problems linked to "adorable" traits like white stripes on their heads, extra fluffy coats, squished faces, etc. Humanity seems to have a real knack for messing up perfectly good animals :-/
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Bones is good. I'm glad he's a sturdy hardy little bear who will continue to make you and all of Hollywood (or wherever you live) happy for years and years to come.
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from my own experience, having a german shepard was a fucking nightmare. it could've just been the one we had, or the fact i named it Loki, but good lord I never had a dog that was a bigger pain in the ass or required constant stimulation. plus they're one of the few breeds that always seems to get aggressive with the beat so i think that's also colored my view of them. but the american mastiff sounds great. we met one when we were in Seattle and it was seriously like a huge version of Bones, just more chill.
i know i give you guys shit on facebook about just getting a dog already but i really do think it's awesome that it's something you're not rushing in to
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