Pet homing websites - who is at fault?

I dunno, I don't see much and Berlin is enormous. I've never heard of puppy farming here. There are plenty of accidental puppies to inexperienced owners though due to most people having dogs off leads all the time but I've never seen of any being offered to new homes under the age of 8 weeks either, in fact a lot of breeders, experienced and inexperienced, keep the puppy till 10/12 weeks.

There are idiots though and bringing up a litter of puppies in a flat isn't ideal anyway. I have no idea how people manage it with German shepherds and other large breeds. And I've seen a lot of people who seem to think hitting dogs is okay, even owners who do a lot of training and things and seem like doggy people.

What is worse really is people rehoming adult animals with issues and not saying. Carlotta has plenty but they're mostly manageable, however I know someone who got a dog online who it turned out had bad epilepsy which started off weekly and then happened so much per day, with medication, that the dog had to be pts. The previous owner hadn't said, obviously fed up of paying for the dog, and given it away to a poor student. That's really unfair and if she'd advertised it's problem, someone with experience who lived outside the epileptics horror of Berlin (ie on a quiet farm) might have come forward. My friend said cats and stuff were triggering the dog, getting it out the city might have prolonged it's life and prevented the issue getting worse.

I see loads of adult dogs advertised but they are seemingly all angels and in super health except for the actual shelter dogs. Yeah right haha, why are the owners getting rid of them then?!

Ive seen pit bulls (American bull terriers, same thing) around Berlin once or twice but only once have a seen an aggressive one (with owners who clearly had no idea what they were doing). The ones I've seen are super socialised. Never see UK staffies though, I think they're banned and pit bulls are on the highest dog tax band and are most likely to be checked so I think people think twice about getting one.

Yeah it sucks, they should definitely inform the owner outright or the dog could end up never getting a secure forever home. At the end of the day it has separation anxiety because tog the owners and they should at least admit it so someone who is willing to put the time in can get the dog. Wonder how bad it is.

With Carlotta they just mentioned that some foods make her a bit sick sometimes. ALL food makes her sick almost all the time! Plus there was no mention of the Hyperesthesia and the bad teeth (which admittedly I should have checked) which is costing me a lot of money and will continue to do so. She's had countless vet visits for the sickness and as a student it's hard to manage sometimes, if it had been someone else that took her on she may be in an animal home by now. She'd already been rehomed once before (no mention of why!) as we were informed after we'd taken her home. I'll never rehome her though, no matter what. Even if I get expelled from Germany and have to bring her to the UK haha!

I've had a few animals over the years from websites like Gumtree and Preloved.  The main reason being that because I live in a flat and have a shared courtyard rather than a garden with a 6ft fence no charity up here will even consider me a good enough owner   As soon as they find out that you don't have a garden then they close their doors to you   Yet I consider myself someone who always puts the animal's welfare before everything else and AM prepared to do the training and get them out walking in all weathers....certainly, I feel, a lot more than folk with a garden to 'turf the dog out into' often do.  Tina, our first whippet, came from the preloved site.  She had been bought as a puppy by an older lady who just could not cope with her energy levels and so was put up for sale at 16 months which is when she came to us. I had her spayed, microchipped and tattooed and worked on her training and she became a fabulous dog who loved everyone  

  From 2009 until last year we fostered the old cats for PARRT but after we lost Suzi in June and George in October to Feline Leukaemia I decided to take a break from the heartache of constantly losing old & sick cats and looked for a younger cat.  One of my customers mentioned that her friend had her cat in need of a good home and she was advertised on Gumtree so I had a look and just fell in love the second I saw her   I sent K. an email telling her all about our previous fostering and why I felt a younger cat was more what I was looking for now and she got back in touch with me a day later.  We chatted a bit more via email and after a week I was invited down to meet 'Teddy'.  We were there for nearly two hours, just chatting away, before we even saw Teddy (she was hiding in the bedroom) and K said she'd turned down loads of people because the majority of them hadn't been able to string a proper sentence together and sent messages in text speak or messages that just didn't make sense   She was only rehoming Teddy because she, K., had health problems with her back and Teddy, being a youngster, was very lively and really needed someone who could spend time playing with her etc.   Teddy came to us, was renamed Chilli and I still keep in touch with K and send her tales of how both girls are doing and send LOADS of photos. 

  Lily came from a card in our shop window   As soon as the customer brought it in I was drawn to it and took her address, gave her £20 there and then and said I'd be up after work with my cat basket  

  I've also got a puppy on order from a breeder I saw advertised on Pets4Homes.  I saw the ad a few months ago and sent Rose a great big loooong email asking about her dogs and telling her all about Tina and my previous experiences with dogs. She rang me up a week later and we were chatting on the phone for well over an hour I'm going to go and meet her at her house and meet her dogs in a few weeks' time (once I've got rid of all traces of this flu bug as she has just had a tumour removed from her brain and I don't want to pass any germs on). Rose has been breeding for years and ALWAYS has a waiting list for her pups - she could have easily sold her last litter twice over. I've also joined her facebook group and have seen photos & videos and speak to folk who've had a pup from her.  Her bitch Mandy is due in season in August so, fingers crossed, MY puppy will result from that mating  She also, most importantly, has cats so her pups always have a nice healthy respect for felines   She microchips her puppies and also starts them off with their housetraining and crate training before they leave her and is always there on the end of the phone if you have any questions  

  I think buying from these websites CAN be tricky IF you go in blindfold and fall for the first cute puppy you see (especially in the case of all these hideous crosses that are only bred for ££££ ) and, in the case of Carlotta, you have to trust the folk selling to tell you ALL the problems or issues as to why they are rehoming    Perhaps Neil and I have just been lucky as every animal we have rehomed has been 100% temperament-wise and only needed a little basic training     Sadly I think there will always be websites like Gumtree and Preloved and Pets4Homes now that the internet has taken over the world (whereas once you were restricted to cards in shop windows etc) and an awful lot of unscrupulous people WILL take advantage of it.....but for people like Neil and myself who aren't rich enough to buy their own home with a garden and a high fence we have no choice if we want a dog...all because we constantly get turned down by rescues because of the garden issue!      

   
  
   

Yes., I'm pretty excited and already mentally shopping for her   Not going to actually tempt fate by buying anything until she's around 2 weeks old and I know she's healthy and growing well   Though I must admit to having ALREADY chosen a 'school' for her   They've moved from Rennington to a new custom-built site with more space and will be doing more doggy sports and activities.  They've got an Open Day on Sunday 4th so I'm going along to chat to them and look around   I feel like one of those crazy parents who has their child's name down for a public school before they're even born  

  www.caninecentre.co.uk/ 

@gillykat alfiemummy

Haha I only have a tiny balcony here (which she grudgingly gets let on... Keeps trying to eat the carrot tops!) but we have at least 5 enormous parks less the ten mins away by foot or bus (which stops right outside the flat). Rosa gets much more exercise and stimulation than she just had a garden, but I would have got turned down at most pet homes and even by many breeders. Thankfully Rosas breeders know and love one of our enormous local parks and were so impressed by my doggy plans for the future/dog knowledge that they have me their favourite from the litter!

@gillykat I was the same, I've been planning for a puppy in Berlin for at least a year and had scouted out the dog training place and bought the first toy before I'd even found a litter. Plus tested out all the best walks with my friends' dog hahaha! I know of people's parents who were less prepared for a child than I was for a puppy haha! I've had a hairdryer for the dog for over a year coz I knew I'd get a long haired dog (and it gets good use!).

Haha I don't know why I didn't think of this before, was only thinking cats and dogs I guess. Rehoming websites make it easy for inexperienced people to get a hold of exotic pets, potentially very unfortunately for the pet. I got my terrapin Stevie Wonder dumped on me coz his previous owner was giving him away free on Gumtree and someone who was at college with me (Studying animal care, HA) decided to take him. She drove him all the way up Scotland, over an hours drive, with water splashing in his face and the poor guy hissing the whole way (I'd gone along, despite telling her not to do it, and was in the back with him). About ten minutes from home she asked me if I could take him to mines for a week as she hadn't asked her mum yet if she could have him. My parents agreed so he came home with me, round the corner from ehr house. I asked her a week later and she said she'd still not asked, and she continued to make excuses until I gave up asking. I guess she'd decided half way that she didn't like the fishy smell or something.

Anyway he turned out lucky I think. Despite not knowing anything about terrapins, mum and I did a lot of research, even going to aquariums and asking about what types of fish and plants can go in a terrapin tank etc. Mum is fantastic with him. We're working on building him a great big new tank in the busiest room of the house (He LOVES following people around) and I think he's ended up a lot better off than if he'd gone home with someone who'd been so quick to try and get rid of him.

In this case, the previous owners were at fault as they were so desperate to get rid of him they just gave him to the first person who turned up at the door, no questions asked, no advice given. We didn't even get invited in! And my old fellow student was at fault because she should have done her research, and frankly should never have done it in the first place. There were two terrapins at that college and i was the only person who ever worked with them, she hadn't even bothered to learn how to look after a terrapin with those guys, she didn't even go up to see them at all! I'm just glad he ended up with an animal lover as practical as me. I would generally never take on an animal without having spent at least a few months researching it and getting the perfect environment ready for it first, and i would make sure that i'd obtained permission from the home owner too haha and that the pet was going to be ensured a stable home environment for the rest of its life. Terrapins can live for over 30 years and they girl had no idea how old he was before taking him on, what was she thinking!? He turned out to be around 16 i think, I was pretty furious at being forced to take on a possible 15+ year commitment, but also love all animals and knew he'd have a better home with me than anyone else.

One of the places I'd considered contacting to see if they could take him on (But changed my mind as in my opinion its overcrowded with a focus on public seeing animals rather than animal welfare) was in the news about 6 months after I got him as children had broken into the park and gouged out the eyes of the terrapins there. So glad that he's happy at home with his best buddy Bramble instead!