The Lies Pet Stores and Puppy Mills Tell You

My friend Amy over at Go Pet Friendly wrote a great piece detailing her friend’s search for an Akita and how they determined that the breeder wasn’t a responsible breeder at all. I encourage you to go read it – Internet Puppies for Blog the Change – and walk through their decision-making process.

I thought I would tag onto Amy’s piece with a list of lies that pet stores and puppy mills use to get you to buy their puppies. The truth is that the average consumer is often no match for these savvy salesmen and women. They know just the right words to say and key phrases to use to get the unsuspecting pet owner to buy their puppies (and kitties). They use emotion and act like your friend in order to sell you a puppy, but they are only focused on two goals – selling puppies and making money. Period.

I welcome any of you who have other lies to add to the list to share them in the comment section below.

The more we share, the more we educate.

The Lies Pet Stores and Puppy Mills Tell You

We only get our dogs from “good” or “responsible” breeders
Our dogs are only from USDA licensed facilities
We pick up our puppies directly from select breeders that we have chosen to do business with
We only deal with private breeders
I visit every breeder personally (to make sure they are not a puppy mill)
Our puppies are raised in our home with our family
All our dogs are inspected by a veterinarian before we sell them to the public
You can go visit or call the breeder to make sure your puppy is from a “good” breeder
The breeders don’t like to have people come see the puppies because they are so delicate
We stock the largest selection of puppies around
One-year health guarantee
Each puppy is checked by our veterinarian
All our puppies are AKC registered
We don’t buy from puppy mills
We deal with only the top breeders from across the country
We only sell healthy/happy puppies
Any breed can be special ordered

Meet me in X parking lot and I’ll bring your puppy to you
We operate a clean breeding facility
I love my puppies and will only give them to loving families like yours
I only raise show dogs (but sell them in the paper)
I’ll bring the dog dog to you (i.e., I don’t want you to see my facilities)

Key words to watch for…
USDA certified
USDA licensed
State issued proof
Home raised
Home bred
Top breeders
Select breeders
Private breeders
Triple health checks
We ship!
Puppies will be ready for (name of holiday)