How to spot a puppy farm
Dogs have been popular pets for centuries and over the last 18 months of of the Covid-19 pandemic many people have become first-time dog owners.
Canines continue to be popular but anyone thinking of getting a pet should be on the lookout for puppy farms.
These are places where multiple dogs are continually bred for puppies to be sold on.
Dogs bought from puppy farms are often kept in squalid conditions and suffer from health problems.
How can you avoid buying a dog from a puppy farm?
Animal charity PDSA recommends checking asking questions on four things - advertising, the seller themselves, location and the puppies.
On advertising, the charity recommend looking at how specific these are as reputable will be very specialised, how often the breeder is advertising and if more than one breed is being offered.
The organisation also points out that dealers who won't let you see the dogs in the place they were born, want to be paid in cash and who won't ask you lots of questions to assess your suitability should also be a red flag.
Things to check when it comes to location include whether or not the seller's ID address matches the place where the puppies are being sold from. Other warning signs include parts of a home being sealed off as well as a large number of outbuildings.
The puppies themselves should look healthy, with moist but not runny noses and you should be able to see them with the whole litter and not individually. You should also check that the mother bitch is not wary of the puppies and has visible teats as - if neither is the case - it is possible that the puppies will have been placed with a different bitch.
The charity's full guide on spotting a puppy farm can be found here.
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