Looking to buy a Maltese not from Pet Store

[afro1314]

I've been look around lot lately...Maltese range from $500 (private) to $2100 (Pet Habitat)

I've came across this breeder/kennel, but they are located in Northern Central BC, do they sound legit and good breeders?

http://vancouver.kijiji.ca/c-pets-do...AdIdZ104071026

http://www.minikennels.com/index.htm

Maltese $600 + GST + Shipping (2 hr flight)

They come with health guarantee, dewormed, shots, and they will also provide some info on the parents as well.

[joolee]

hm, it's really hard to say just from looking at the ad. i think it's better if you were to see the puppies in person. that way you are able to see the parents and how their temperament is and it will give you a gist of how your puppy may turn out. besides that, you can also see what kind of environment the puppies are bred in, is it clean? are they in a safe place? etc.

just so you know, a few of my friends that got puppies from pet habitat wind up kind of retarded. plus the dogs are overpriced.

[afro1314]

Originally Posted by banana_girl

hm, it's really hard to say just from looking at the ad. i think it's better if you were to see the puppies in person. that way you are able to see the parents and how their temperament is and it will give you a gist of how your puppy may turn out. besides that, you can also see what kind of environment the puppies are bred in, is it clean? are they in a safe place? etc.

just so you know, a few of my friends that got puppies from pet habitat wind up kind of retarded. plus the dogs are overpriced.

yea...that's why i don't want to get the puppy from there....there are no local breeders around. the closest one i found is this one. =(

[bsftong]

are you looking for a pure bred?

flying a pup in seems traumatizing...taking a pup away from his/her mom + siblings in a car ride is bad enough for them

I would suggest actually going out to a breeder and look at the pups there if possible, like what banana girl said. Its good to see the environment of the breeder's place, as well as how they treat the pups. I went to a breeder once, everything is registered and all that, but the way she treated the pups were horrible. On the other hand, another breeder I went to (where I got my dog), the pups were not registered, but you can tell the breeders really cared for the pups and took good care of them.

Go with your gut feeling, I'm sure you'll find the right dog!

[afro1314]

yea, i would really want to go and have the interactions with the puppy first before purchasing it, but the breeder is all the way past prince george.

from the website, it does look like they have a pretty good environment as well as they seem like a nice family. I've searched all over the internet for the last couple of weeks and no local breeder i can visit sadly...

[afro1314]

Here is the email convo, she seems nice at first, then she seems annoyed from my questions. I've read somewhere that nice breeders always answers all questions because they want to find a good home for their pups. Does she sound legit? I'm worried about after sending the $$, i will receive nothing..hahaha

Re: maltese male puppies‏
From: Jeff & Rose Webb (ourdestiny@bulkley.net)
Sent: February 4, 2009 8:33:28 AM
To:

Answers to your questions are in red.
~Rose
----- Original Message -----
From: Carmen Luong
To: ourdestiny@bulkley.net
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 12:26 AM
Subject: RE: maltese male puppies


Hi Rose,

I'm actually interested in Kendra's, the first one. By first one, I assume you mean the one on the left? If you can provide me with more pictures of his eyes, and how big he is right now would be great,Right now the pup on the left is 46.2 oz. one thing I worry a lot is the tear stain. Kendra is the only one of our adults who has no tear staining, so you have chosen the right litter to avoid that, for sure. Here are more questions about the puppy:

1. How heavy will the puppy be when he grows up? As I told you before, I expect him to mature at about 7 lbs2. Will the pup be introduced to paper training? Right now he is on shavings as all the puppies are.
3. What will the puppy come with? (cage, food, toys etc.)Puppy comes with a Royal Canin Puppy kit and shipping crate. The puppy kit includes a bag of the feed he is on and coupons for your next purchase.
4. How many years of health guarantee with the puppy? Our guarantee is a one year health guarantee and is on our website for your convenience.
5. Will you be able to scan or provide me the information about the parents and possibly the grandparents and if they are registered with CKC? like I said before, our dogs are not show dogs, but pet only. They are not registered. The parents are pictured on our website for you to see them.
6. Will you be able to scan as well the vacination records? You will receive your puppy's vaccination record with him.
7. Do you take deposit on the puppy before I will be able to take him home? Once you choose which one you want for sure, we have you send us a deposit to hold the puppy for you. Then when he is old enough to fly, we have you send us the remainder of the payment and he flies to you.
8. Will the puppy be delivered to door or do I have to go to the Vancouver International Airport to pick him up? We can fly him to Vancouver Airport. From there you may be able to have him delivered. I don't know about those kinds of things, but you could ask and see what they offer.
9. Have you heard of puppies being unable to handle the stress from the plane ride?No, in all the years we have flown puppies, we have never had a report of one that couldn't handle it. Some are higher stress than others, but the Maltese is not a particularly high stress breed, from our experience. It is only a two hour flight, so is not really a problem for a puppy.
10. What it the puppy is sick due do to the plane ride, will you or the health guarantee be able to take care of it? Generally, the puppies get a bit car sick on the way to the airport, though not always. It is not a problem, just motion sickness and they get over it as soon as the motion stops.
11. Will I have to sign a neuter contract? We do not ask you to sign a neuter contract, but we do encourage you to neuter.
12. How will the payment for the puppy take place since I live in Vancouver? We accept email transfer, direct deposit or paypal (paypal has a small user fee)
13. Will you be able to register the puppy with CKC and how much? or do I have to do it? Once again, we do not register. If you want a registered dog you will have to find one through a CKC breeder.

Sorry for so many questions as that is all I can think of right now. First time puppy owner.....
I will get you some more pictures of the puppy on the left when I can sometime today. Thanks. ~Rose

Thank you!
Carmen


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


From: ourdestiny@bulkley.net

Subject: maltese male puppies
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 15:23:38 -0800



Hi Carmen,
Here are the puppy pictures.

The first picture are Kristy's two males. They are very close to the same size. They were born on November 26, so that makes them almost 11 weeks old now. They have their first two vaccinations and are wormed and ready to go.

The second picture is Kendra's boys. These were born on Dec. 5, so that makes them 8 weeks old now. They have their first vaccination and are wormed, but cannot fly until they are 10 weeks old. (airline regulations) These three males are all different sizes. The one in the middle is the tiniest one and the one on the far left is the biggest one with the one on the right being somewhere in between.

I have not noticed any big difference in temperaments with these pups. They are all friendly and eager to be petted and played with. I would expect any of them to mature about the same size as the parents which is around 7 lbs. though the little guy may end up a bit smaller than that. Let me know if you want to see more pics of any one pup and I can get you some individual pictures.

~Rose

[Kang19]

http://www.tamencreekfarm.com/index.htm

I would highly recommend you don't get your puppy shipped to you and that you see it before you buy it. I was originally buying my dog from some place in Alberta and I was going to have it shipped to me as well. It was half wolf/half husky so obviously I wasn't going to be able to find something like that around here. Anyway, I had talked to the breeder several times and was all ready to get the dog and what-not when she decided to put me on hold and all of a sudden I hear her swearing at her dogs in the background...That just gave me a bad feeling about it and I realized getting my dog shipped to me was the stupidest thing I could do. Remember, getting a dog is like a 15 year thing. If your dog comes fucked up, you're stuck with a fucked up dog for 15 years! Not worth it, just go with a different breed. That's what I ended up doing.

[Kang19]

also: http://vancouver.kijiji.ca/c-pets-do...AdIdZ104057967

That's local! Give them a call!!

[afro1314]

Originally Posted by Kang19

also: http://vancouver.kijiji.ca/c-pets-do...AdIdZ104057967

That's local! Give them a call!!

they do not gurantee their puppies, i called them already.

[Kang19]

What type of guarantee are you looking for? A life-time health guarantee?

[wasabisashimi]

I thought puppies can be healthy and well trained if the owner do the right thing. They can live the first 6-12weeks of their lives in a shitty condition, but I am sure you can turn it around if he picked up any bad behavior. Its just more work for the new owner. People adopt dogs and cats from SPCA, i am sure they all came "Fucked up" as someone mentioned.

[wasabisashimi]

I dont understand why people buy puppies from places such as pet habitat. Sure they are cute to look at and touch when u are there. But are they all champion bloodline and registered?

[afro1314]

Originally Posted by Kang19

What type of guarantee are you looking for? A life-time health guarantee?

I'm looking for at least 1 year of health guarantee against any genetical issues. I was told that the puppies will start showing if they have any problems within their first year.

[afro1314]

Originally Posted by wasabisashimi

I dont understand why people buy puppies from places such as pet habitat. Sure they are cute to look at and touch when u are there. But are they all champion bloodline and registered?

I've read that pet stores buy their puppies from barns. They may not be very healthy but they "make" them look healthy. Pet stores are way over-priced.

The maltese I saw a Pet habitat showed me a pedigree of his parents, grandparents and great grandparents, but after all, it's only a sheet of paper, who knows if they made it. They also said that the parents of the pup was registered and so is the puppy which is microchipped as well. I don't know, maybe that's why that puppy cost $2100.

[joolee]

that rose lady seems kinda cocky and her answers are short, doesn't go into detail. imagine if you knew nothing about anything and those were her answers, not very helpful at all. =\

well, i was considering buying a pomeranian before. i contacted this breeder and she was very helpful. showed me pictures, gave me a thorough answer to all my questions and even information i didn't ask which i found very nice of her to do so. besides that, she also asked a lot of questions about how my house and lifestyle is like to see if it's suitable for the puppy. she invites me to come and take a look at the puppies and parents even though it's about a 3 hour drive from vancouver. she offers to drive the puppy to my place if i were to purchase it. all her puppies are registered and come with a lot of things that you may need in the beginning plus a guarantee.

to me, i think you should be patient and keep looking. a puppy isn't a toy (i'm sure you're aware of that already) if it's really healthy, it'll be sticking around with you for a good 10 or 13 years. it'll be like your best friend, always with you whenever you need it. trust me, it'll be all worthwhile in the end because you'll love it to death. i have a maltese too~

[afro1314]

I have a co-worker that got a husky from Calgary, so far so good!

Somehow, a friend of a friend got a bull dog from all the way in Europe??!!, very healthy as of right now and it's been about a year.

So far, I've been hearing pretty good things about shipping...I cam across this one just now.
http://www.oranch.qc.ca/en/p2.asp#availablepups

too good to be true? $500 - a bag of food, vaccined, dewormed, vet checked, 30 days $ back guarantee of infection disease, 2 years health guarantee of genetic problems..hmmm

[Kang19]

I'm not saying getting your dog shipped is bad. I'm just saying sometimes you don't know what you're gonna get. If I had a dog coming from say Calgary, I would have to get my relatives to see the dog first. My point is, there are risks to it, and I personally don't think my dog is something I'd take a risk on. Anyway, if you do decide to get your dog shipped, maybe you can ask the breeder for some references of her other customers (esp. ones who got them shipped)

[Inaii]

Unless you can see their habitat in person, don't just automatically believe the pictures you see. Of course they won't show the bad things about their business. I would just choose on getting another breed, or check the local papers to see if there is someone that has to give up their dog. Or even check the SPCA. I'd rather save an animal, than buy one.

[bsftong]

have you considered getting a mixed breed? Theres quite a few maltese mix. The breeder I got it from is in Abbotsford. My dog wasn't guaranteed either, but I can tell by the breeder's environment that they are well taken care of, I got to meet both the parents of my dog before I decided on getting one. They treated the puppies as if they were their own pets, not a product to be sold.

Not only does this "Rose" lady sound cocky, she sounds like a bitch.

Here's a nice read on flying dogs: http://www.thedogpark.com/articles/t...h-your-dog.php

http://www.tendlife.com/general/talk-2969.html

quoting from the above link: "Yes, many people fly their animals without problems. BUT last year, at least 5,000 animals alone died in transit (according to the airlines' own stats). That is way too uncomfortable a percentage of the numbers of pets and livestock flying for my (and many others') comfort zone and that is what I was refelcting."

[Lil Bastrd]

Originally Posted by afro1314

yea...that's why i don't want to get the puppy from there....there are no local breeders around. the closest one i found is this one. =(

There are maltese breeders in this area. Best bet is to visit one of the local dogs shows and talk to some of the maltese exhibitors.

Personally if I am looking for a pet quality dog I would get something local where I can go see the pups a couple of times to make sure that a pup is the right one for me.

[Lil Bastrd]

Originally Posted by afro1314

I'm looking for at least 1 year of health guarantee against any genetical issues. I was told that the puppies will start showing if they have any problems within their first year.

Some genetic health issues won't show up till later in their life. They could show up as late as 3 years or later.
Some breeders will give a generic genetic health gaurantee for a year. Then cover half of certain things if they show up even after the year.
Most breeders do the year health garauntee, it seems to be the norm now.
Also most reputable breeders will have you sign a spay/nueter contract.

[racerman88]

buy only from a breeder. PET STORES USE PUPPY MILLS.
We bought our malti-poo from a breeder that was in 100 mile house. She was coming down to meet some other buyers so we saved her the hassle of coming down a second trip. Do you research