DanBar Ranch
People seem to think that by making the box they keep their dog in nice looking "furniture" it is more acceptable! A box is a box. No mental stimulation, no ability to urinate or defecate - nothing.
Of course using a crate for an hour or two is not an issue, but make sure that any breeder you support has APPROPRIATE PRIMARY HOUSING for their dogs. You are welcome to visit DanBar Ranch and see everything... we are a "crate free" facility and my dogs enjoy the entire 20 acres. Some kennels will claim to have a lot of acres and yet the dogs are only allowed into small fenced yards. Not at DanBar Ranch!
Basic Puppy Buying Survival Guide - Page 2
Who Do You Want To Support?
Slogans such as "Don't breed or buy while shelter dogs die" and "Don't shop - adopt" are used by shelters and "rescues" to attempt to guilt people into buying backyard bred and puppy mill dogs from them instead of buying well-bred dogs from reputable breeders. While there are times that a rescue is an appropriate place to buy a dog, I believe people should be given a choice of where to buy their dogs - and most importantly, what type of breeder they want to support!
When I say that what you do as a puppy buyer matters I mean this: all pups are bred by someone... so when you go to add a pup to your home you chose which TYPE OF BREEDER YOU WILL SUPPORT. Do you support the ethical breeder, or do you support the backyard breeder/puppy mill whose puppies ended up in rescue?
No one has more empathy than I for the fate of dogs and puppies who wind up in "rescue" or shelter situations. For 20 years as an animal control officer I cared for them, loved them, walked them, held them close when they were euthanized. Because of this, I have zero tolerance for those people who produce these poor victims or for those who enable people to dump their animals at shelters "guilt free" by saying they are "no kill", for those who cage up these dogs for months and years simply to be able to say they are "no kill". No dog should be subjected to stressful long-term boarding situations like those at "no kill" facilities. Quite simply, it's cruelty. It is allowing people to feel good at the expense of the dogs.
I encourage people to break the ugly relationship between the worst of breeders and the retail rescues that profit from these poorly bred dogs.
RESCUES I RECOMMEND
If you wish to adopt an adult dog from a rescue I would suggest strongly that you contact SINGLE BREED rescues. Here are links to the rescues I recommend:
I would like to encourage you to support breeders who respect and love their dogs enough to provide appropriate housing for them.
Sadly, there is a current trend to cut corners in providing a dog appropriate "primary housing" (where the dog spends the majority of the day or night). Instead of kennels, tethers, yards or the freedom of the house, dogs are too often made to live in shipping type crates. This is not only inhumane, but is illegal by not meeting the minimum requirements for USDA regulations for commercial breeders (puppy mills) and animal research facilities!
People who keep their dogs in these conditions will excuse it by saying "dogs are denning animals" which is absolutely false. Dogs, wolves, African hunting dogs - all canids are not "denning animals". These animals range MILES each day. The ONLY TIME that a "den" is used is for a few weeks by a female whelping a litter. As soon as the pups can follow, the den is abandoned.
Dogs generally DO ENJOY curling up in a small space, like a crate, to sleep. And using a crate for sleeping can be appropriate, as is using them for travel in cars or airplanes. My objection is to those breeders/owners who use a BOX as a dog's "primary housing". A dog should have sufficient room to move about, drink, and move away from its urine or defecation. Keeping a dog in a box, to take it out to play with and then put it back - this is no way to treat a dog!
Make sure any breeder you are considering does not utilize shipping crates as the primary housing for their dogs.
A "no kill" shelter or rescue DOES SUPPORT BREEDERS - they take in the pups from the worse sort of "breeders" and then "enable" them by guaranteeing to sell their excess pups to "good homes". This is one of the biggest issues I have with the "no kill" movement; they give careless breeders a "free pass" to produce litters with zero guilt or responsibility. I consider this irresponsible. By assuring irresponsible breeders that they won't euthanize their pups they provide absolutely NO incentive to breed responsibly.
