DON’T BUY A BORDER AS A CHRISTMAS PRESENT!

I hope readers will forgive me talking a little more in general about all breeds as well as Border Terriers at this time of year. Believe it or not, there are still people out there who buy a puppy for Christmas (sometimes, shock, horror, as a present for someone who does not know they are getting it)! Unfortunately, there are still SOME breeders who will sell a puppy as a Christmas present.

I always remember the distaste I felt when I attended a training class in the 1980s and someone said they had timed their Labrador puppies date of birth just right, as they were all ready to go in the week before Christmas, so she would have no trouble finding homes for them. It really beggars belief that people could be so callous as to send a little baby puppy out into the world to a new home at such a busy time of year.

Picture the scene: baby pup leaves its home, leaves the only people it has ever known, leaves its siblings and its dam. It goes to a strange home, with strangers, encountering new sights, sounds and smells – everything is new and confusing. On top of this system overload for it, when it should be having a quiet time getting to know everyone calmly, it enters a house where everyone is excited – children may be racing about screaming and playing with new toys and there is the ever present danger of chocolate under the tree and baubles which look so enticing but should not be played with or eaten and a tree which has sharp needles which could inflict a nasty injury to baby puppy paws.

Going to a new home can be traumatic at any time of year for a puppy, but more so at THIS time of year.

Family members may be busy making Christmas dinner and no-one has time to watch the puppy for signs of when it needs to go outside, so it soils in the house and gets shouted at. It eats things it should not and develops diarrhoea and gets shouted at. The person who received it as an unwanted present has no time for it and can’t wait until the family go home, when they can ditch it, sell it, or give it away.

This of course is the worst scenario, but unfortunately, it still happens. Even if you wanted the puppy and had researched the breed, it is better to wait for your puppy until the New Year, especially if your family expects a hectic time over the holiday season, with visitors leaving doors open so the puppy may escape.

Reputable breeders will let you visit and see the puppies, talk to you at length about the breed and the puppies and then could hold on to your puppy for you until the New Year. If this takes the puppy over 8 weeks old, they could take the puppy to the vet for its 1^st injections at 8 weeks and obtain a Health Certificate for you at the same time.

Hopefully you will have this puppy for 15 years or so; it is worth the wait of a couple of weeks, until the New Year when you have more time to spend introducing the puppy to a calm, quiet household and helping it with house training, making sure it has the right things to eat and is fed 3 or 4 times a day at regular intervals. You will both benefit in the long run. The puppy will be healthier and happier, he will settle in more easily and you will reap the rewards of time spent house training.

There are of course exceptions to every rule. Some couples expect a quiet time at Christmas, with no visitors and know they will have time to devote to settling puppy in and house training it. If you are like that, there may be a case for allowing yourself the joy of a puppy in your house at this time of year, but hopefully you will select a breeder who needs an awful lot of convincing before they allow you to take their precious puppy home with you.

The puppy would not be in this world if it was not for your breeder, so they have a big responsibility and should ensure the health and welfare of their puppy is paramount at all times.

Happy Holidays

Kathy Wilkinson

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As a Breed Club Secretary, I receive telephone calls for help and advice and encounter a number of problems both with unrealistic expectations of the breed on behalf of the purchaser and uncaring attitude from some breeders as to where their puppies go. These could lead to problems for Border Terriers and subsequently for Border Terrier Welfare.

I receive calls from people who are looking for a Border and while in a lot of cases, they are from people who are well aware of the traits of the breed and have done their homework and who then listen to all the details you give, a lot of them recently have been from people who see the dogs as cute little dogs with nothing to worry them at all and just plainly do not believe you when you tell them otherwise!

Some people do not appreciate the need for a secure fence and wonder what is wrong with the breed as their previous old dogs never strayed, even though they could get out of the garden. When I advise they need a secure fence, they wonder what is wrong with the breed.  Having explained to some about their desire to hunt small critters, and their ability to escape out of gardens, discussing their circumstances and how this is not always a dog to just trot along quietly by their side without any training, they think they are talking to the wrong person (ie, they want a person who will just tell them what they want to hear rather than the truth about the breed)!!

A lot of people these days just want you to tell them what they want to hear and do not want any uncomfortable truths. But surely it is better to be either forewarned before you get a dog and accept its drawbacks and still want one, or decide against the breed as it is not for you, than to take a dog home and then need to re-home it as it does not fit into the nice, easy type you anticipated?

Many years ago, while explaining to a lady about Borders' keenness to give chase to rabbits etc while out for a walk, she said "Oh no, they are not like that they just SIT THERE".................further questions revealed that she had seen the 2 Border Terriers "just sitting there" on the TV series Monarch of the Glen and thought that was all they would ever do, just sit there like little dogs of wood.

So, there are incorrect expectations of the breed which could lead to someone buying a puppy or older dog and then looking to Border Terrier Welfare to help when it all goes wrong.

We try our best to educate the general public about the breed, with Discover Dogs leaflets, Books on the breed, the new Discover Dogs Health leaflet put together by The Border Terrier Club and through taking telephone calls from prospective owners and discussing the breed in depth, but sometimes that is just not enough.

There will always be a purchaser who does not listen and just goes ahead anyway, or has not done any research on the breed at all and is horrified when they chew the wallpaper, or wee and poo in the house, or give chase to the neighbour's cat.

Unfortunately, to add to unrealistic expectations, there will always be a breeder who will sell to a person for money and not care if the breed is right for their circumstances. I took a call from someone asking about the breed: they had been to see a breeder who had told them that the breed needed little training and would just trot along beside them staying at heel, with no training needed, no matter where they went and what they did. No mention of the instinct to give chase, no mention of the ability to escape out of gardens etc etc etc, as that would have resulted in no sale.

 Calls have come from people who only have the mobile phone number of the breeder and have arranged to meet them in a car park to hand over cash, who then get a puppy who has not been socialised, has no papers as the breeder tells them they will send them on and never does, while the people have no address or landline number to ring and the mobile phone number is disconnected, the pup has fleas and worms and the purchaser has no idea what food it has been getting and how many times a day to feed it. Sometimes, I despair at how gullible people can be!

A lot of this could be so easily avoided if simple rules were followed:-

-          ALWAYS see the puppy with its mother.

-          NEVER MAKE A RASH DECISION ABOUT BUYING A PUPPY - go to visit the breeder, take a list of questions, be prepared to answer their questions and then GO HOME AND THINK ABOUT IT BEFORE YOU DECIDE. If they try hard sell and say the pup might have gone to someone else while you are thinking about it, run for the hills!

-          IF A BREEDER ASKS FOR A DEPOSIT BEFORE HAVING MET YOU AND ASKING YOU ANY QUESTIONS, run for the hills and don't go there!!!!  

-          ASK HOW MANY TIMES THE PUPS HAVE BEEN WORMED AND WHEN, WHAT WITH AND AMOUNTS. They should be wormed at least 3 times before they leave home, which should be no sooner than 8 weeks old.

-          CHECK THAT THE PUPPY HAS BEEN WELL SOCIALISED. Was it raised in the house? If raised outside, did the breeder spend time socialising it; check how it reacts to being handled and picked up (while you sit on the floor).

-          IF YOU HAVE CHILDREN, make sure you take them with you. A decent breeder will be concerned to know that your children are not going to maul the puppy about. If a breeder tells you not to bring the children, run for the hills and don't go there!!

-          MAKE SURE THE PUPPY HAS NO FLEAS. One lady rang me who had collected her puppy and when she got it home, it was literally covered in fleas and had a distended worm ridden tummy. These things are so easily avoidable. It aint rocket science. A decent breeder would not be selling a puppy with worms and fleas. These can be life threatening for the puppy and once fleas invade your house, you need to talk to your vet about getting rid of them, so best not to have a puppy with them in the first place!

-          CHECK THE DATE OF BIRTH: pups should not leave home earlier than 8 weeks. A breeder parting with puppies at 6 weeks is just tired of looking after them and wants your money!

-          IF YOU WANT A KENNEL CLUB REGISTERED DOG, make sure you are given the KC Registration papers when you collect your puppy and a 3, 4 or 5 generation pedigree. If it is 'to follow', ask to see a copy of the application made to the Kennel Club, or ask for the KC Registration numbers of the sire and dam and then ring the KC before you buy your puppy, to ensure an application has been made. These days, KC Registration can be done on line and does not take long, so do not be fobbed off with excuses.

-          ASK FOR A HEALTH CHECK BY THE BREEDER'S VET. The breeder can get this for you and it is better if you know the puppy is healthy before you buy it than to find out it has a serious heart murmur and may not live long, after you get it home and have fallen in love with it.

-          TAKE THE PUPPY TO YOUR OWN VET SHORTLY AFTER PURCHASE.

-          IF YOU SEE ANYTHING WHICH YOU ARE NOT HAPPY ABOUT AT THE BREEDER'S PREMISES, WALK AWAY! Do not buy a puppy out of pity for that dog, as you are only encouraging the breeder to breed more unhealthy dogs. If you were seriously worried, you could report the breeder to the local authorities.

-          DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE YOU BUY, TO MAKE SURE THIS BREED IS THE RIGHT ONE FOR YOU.

Finally, there are a lot of decent, caring breeders out there; they will be the ones asking you a lot of questions before they consider letting you have one of their puppies. They will take a keen interest in how the puppy will be looked after and will give you lots of advice about the breed and about the puppies care. They will say they want to take the puppy back themselves if anything happens at any time and you cannot keep the puppy. They will worm the pups, feed them 3 or 4 times a day, socialise and play with the puppies so they are used to being handled, keep them clean, warm and dry and much more besides and be happy to answer any of your questions.

If a breeder asks you so many questions about your ability to look after their precious puppy that you start to feel insulted, then they are the better breeders!

Good luck in your search, make sure this is the breed for you, that you know all about their pros and cons and accept them for the great little, naughty, cheeky terriers they are and that the breeder is a caring person, BEFORE you take one home.

They are not perfect, but they are great little hooligans!

DON'T let your new puppy be another statistic for Border Terrier Welfare!

Kathy Wilkinson

Hon Sec

The Border Terrier Club