December 19th, 2008
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If you have purchased a puppy from a pet store (many of which support the mass production and distribution of dogs) then you should realize that their lives of confinement and distance from their parents may have been traumatic. Enroll in a puppy class and also work with a trainer or educate yourself about the emotional and social deficit that has to be overcome. |
Owners need to understand that socialization does not just mean forcing their puppy to deal with people or other animals. Some of the damage that pet shop pups suffer due to their lack of exposure to novel situations, may not be repaired easily and their behavioral issues can be made worse unless they are managed correctly.
Oh boy do I know about this. I bought a basenji from a pet store in the 90’s- what a mistake! I had to get help from a dog shrink for all of his problems. I learned my leason about not supporting this horrible industry. I won’t even go into a pet store that has individual dogs in little cages. This is puppy mill work in action. Dogs are social beings, and would never be isolated like that. It is major tramatic stuff for a puppy to be caged like that all day and night.
You are both so right – those plexiglass cages with wire bottoms are made by the same folks who “inventory” and “distribute” puppies to pet stores across the country, from huge trucks outfitted with the exact same plastic/wire cages the puppies have lived in from the day of birth. But don’t be fooled by pet stores that display puppies in human white wooden baby cribs, or let them run around together in pens on the floor. The puppies still being & end every day in those cages and letting them loose together actually promotes the serious puppy illnesses that can spread like wildfire and even kill some of the more vulnerable pups. So as you said, the one and only solution is not to spend any time or even a dollar on biscuits in any store that sells puppies, since every single one of them comes from a mass production operation of some kind.