rubymaepup-blog

[rubymaepup-blog]

Trying to Find the Beginning

The search for a puppy began six months ago when we narrowed it down to three breeds. We knew we wanted either a Boston Terrier, a French Bulldog, or a Pug. Having had a Labrador retriever for 15 years, we knew that we wanted a lazy, mellow, laid back dog this time. Someone little who can't reach the counters. We also knew that we wanted a dog that is robust enough to play with us and our kids, whose health would be good and who would have years to spend with us. We want a pup who will enjoy our constant attention and cuddles. We love to laugh and engage with our pets, so we want a dog who will be alert enough to interact with us without being hyperactive. And we know we want to enjoy adventures with our pup, but we don't want to have to provide a lot of daily exercise. Given the cost of French Bulldogs, they seemed rather out of reach. Bostons might be just slightly more active than ideal for us (though I am really not sure on this one.) My sister has had her pug, Carly, for over a decade and they are an inspiration to me. The bond they share makes me green with envy and we had them come to stay with us for six weeks this fall. We fell deeper in love with both of them and we believe a pug is the right dog for us. Now, let's be honest. We love animals and any of the three breeds we were considering would be magnificent. Who can resist any of them?? But, for this time, we decided to focus our search on finding the right pug breeder. You see pugs everywhere, so you might think a great breeder must be on every corner. This is not the case. There are many people with "pugs" they want to sell at very low prices. In the last six months, I have dodged and weaved around countless very hard to decline offers of cheap puppies. It takes a great deal of will power to say no when I long for a puppy with a kind of ache that non-pet people likely think is ridiculous. Even I think my longing is a bit over the top. But that's what it is. It's a deep, painful aching that I can only liken to the desire to have children. It's that nurturing, strong, maternal feeling that I have. So this process is difficult. It seems that reputable breeders are not breeding en masse and are not breeding for money. They are breeding for many reasons ranging from the preservation and improvement of the breed, because they are engaged in the sport and community of showing dogs, or for their own personal pets. There are countless reasons they breed, but it is not because they want to make a lot of money. So, these reputable and responsible breeders don't always have time to answer inquiries about puppies available as pets. Think about your university professor in first year who seemed like he didn't really want to teach you. He maybe didn't --- you interfered with his research, which was his real job at the uni. It's a bit like that. As someone looking for a puppy, I might think this is all about me, but it's not. If a breeder has time for me or has a litter coming up, chances are that is because they are working on their breeding goals and they want good homes for the puppies they aren't planning to breed. I am hoping to be the lucky beneficiary of one such pet pug. The wait is hard. I was lucky with my human babies and conceived immediately each time. 40 weeks later, I had a little baby. In this case, it's not in my control. Six months into this and I still have nothing to show for those efforts except a list of breeders who may or may not have time to speak to me and who, for the most part, aren't planning a litter or who have very loooooooong wait lists to the point that they aren't even accepting names anymore. I am afraid of getting a dog from the wrong breeder. I want a healthy, loving, animal. I want many happy years with my little pug and this part, the part where we have to be uncharacteristically suspicious and assume every person we talk to is a puppy mill until proven otherwise, is discouraging and intimidating. There are days where I want to pounce on the person promising me immediate shipping on an 8 week old female pug for $700. I start to think things like, "Is it so bad? Maybe this is fine? She is AKC registered. But.... she doesn't want to know anything about our home, wants to just ship the dog without meeting me even though I offered to fly there for pick up, etc....." Could the dog still be healthy? Could I just think of it as a rescue dog? This is hard.