During my research, I found out a lot about puppy mill puppies. I wish I had known this information BEFORE I drove six hours to another state to pick up my cute little 6 month old Puggle and six hours back the next morning with my four kids, my sister and her two kids.
I was shocked at what I saw when I got to the puppy mill. I had never actually seen one, and I didn’t realize that is where I was heading to. I just knew I was going to a farm in the middle of the night, but I just wasn’t aware that it was an actual dog farm.
The lady was nice and seemed to care for the dogs. The fact of the matter is that these dogs were all born in cages. Their lives began in these cages and probably have never even seen the outdoors, let alone grass.
We picked her up and went to a hotel. She was extremely shy and literally did not move the entire night from that one spot. She was literally terrified.
We got her home, and she was very shy for a few days. She finally warmed up to the other dogs. She even started to like me a little and tolerated the kids. However, she never warmed up to my husband, and it really bothered him. But, we kept her and assumed she would finally get used to the chaos of our family life with six people and four other dogs.
Technically, we decided to on getting another puggle so that we could breed her. We had Daisy, but she was not supposed to breed for another year or two. Seeing as we care and love our dogs, we did not want to put Daisy through another pregnancy too soon, so we got our new Puggle Peanut.
Peanut just did not ever warm up to my husband, and we just could not get her house trained. No matter what we did, she would walk outside and then come back in and do her “business” in the cage. It was such a frustrating thing to have to deal with all day long, every day.
Not only was she scared of my husband, she was terrified of anyone new who walked through that door. And, it was so sad to see her want to trust people so badly, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Unfortunately, we had to finally make a decision to find a new home for her. She went to live with my sister’s family, which consisted of a mom, dad, little three year old girl and a very big dog. Peanut warmed up to the mom and big dog. She tolerated the three year old, even dressing her up and dragging her around, but she could not adjust to the dad. Sadly, the dad is the one who wanted a new dog to begin with.
They really tried to help her fit in, and they were even making headway with housetraining. However, when their other dog passed away, Peanut withdrew and became a little more aggressive with the dad. He couldn’t even give her a treat without being nipped at and growled at.
They finally had to make the decision to find her a new home. They tried to find her a new home with someone who did not have a man in the house. However, that is something that is not so easy to do! So, she finally had to take her to an adoption agency that would match her with a family that she could be comfortable with.
The sad thing is that Peanut was such a sweet dog; however, because of what happened to her in that dog farm, she was terrified of men.
As I said, I did some research for my e-book and found out some really interesting information about puppy mill farms. A lot of what I learned really made sense for what some of what was happening with Peanut, especially because she was six months old.
Her potty training problems were because she HAD never seen grass. She kept being punished for going in her cage, which really confused her, because that is all she knew. Puppies born on a puppy mill are not accustomed to the life of a home environment, like a puppy born in a home environment. Imagine coming from a small cage of only dogs and those who fed them to a home with six people and four dogs. Therefore, Peanut was probably terrified at what she was thrown into.
The most disturbing thing I found out about puppy mills and dog farms is how they treat the parents of these cute little puppies. In order to make a profit, they have to only put out as much time and money as it takes to keep the dogs alive and able to produce puggles. And, then after these dogs have produced these adorable puppies, the puppies are taken away from their mother too soon, so that they can be distributed out to pet shops, store, etc. while they are in their “cute” stage of puppyhood.
This disgusted me and I wanted to make you aware of these dog farms, and what they are doing to gain a profit. Your best bet it to find a puggle from a home breeder. Generally a home breeder is not in it for the profit. My entire idea of breeding Puggles was to share in the joy of bringing a new family member to a home.
Please remember the next time you want to purchase a puppy, think long and hard before you go to a puppy mill. Sure, you can think of it as saving a puppy from that life. However, in reality you are contributing to the vicious cycle of this inhumane treatment of innocent animals.
http://www.pugglehugs.com
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