Healthy Pups - Dog Blog

Words of advice for taking your puppy home!

Q:  When is a puppy old enough to go home, and why do we have a few older puppies for sale?

A:   TIME is one thing that few families can give up in our busy lifestyles. Every year, every facet of our culture becomes more polarized, with every family playing baseball, soccer, football, vacations,  graduations, halloweening, etc, simultaneously.   Most families feel that they have time for a pet in their busy lifestyles at all times, but they can only bring home a new puppy when nothing else is going on because they want to spend the first few days bonding with and training their puppy when they first bring it home.  Unfortunately for puppies, many are born at times that makes their go home date in the middle of an event that every family with children almost without exception is doing simultaneously.  Every child is in love with the idead of getting a tiny cute puppy and taking it home, NOT in love with buying a teenage puppy/young dog that cannot compete with the cuteness of the tiniest puppy, so especially summertime children and spoiling parents will pick the tiniest/youngest puppy while even a slightly older/larger puppy gets left behind! The sad part is that the slightly older and larger puppy will grow to be a young adult a few short weeks and expensive vet visits to complete shots later, and it will remain as big as it's going to get for the rest of it's life! It's easy to save $1000.00+ dollars by getting an older puppy that's on sale and not having to do as many vet visits to complete the puppy shots! NOTHING is wrong with a puppy you may see on our website that may be a few weeks older.  They were born at the wrong time when families were simultaneously busy, or got left behind because someone got Covid, etc, in most cases. Many people have the idea that they want the youngest puppy that they can take home because it is the cutest and it will fall in love with me more quickly, since younger puppies are likely less inhibited.  A wise puppy buyer would seek out and be willing to pay MORE for a slightly older puppy because it is a more secure and less problematic investment. Most puppy buyers are deceived to believe that it is okay for any puppy to go home as soon as it is no longer nursing.  This is true for many large breed puppies but can be a recipe for disaster for toy size puppies.  The most common cause of puppies being taken to the emergency vet for thousands in emergency IV's, etc, is being taken home too soon or too small to endure the stress of travel, being handled excessively, and adapting to a new home.  This happens most often when families try to make puppies fit into their vacation, work schedule, or special event gift giving plans.  More and more parents try to give their children what the child wants with no regard for what works, so the children almost always pick the tinest puppy and the larger one is left to grow bigger and older.  A small child will often take home a puppy that would fit into their pocket if the breeder and their parents would let them; very often to watch it die after about 3 days from stress related issues or to have ongoing fail to thrive problems. The parents of the child, rather than accepting responsibility for their poor choices, parenting and puppy care skills, will get online to blame the breeder through attack blogs and leave negative reviews. Their vet will look for even an isolated trace of a bacterium or parasite and blame the breeder because he doesn’t know how much stress has already occurred.  Most vets do not understand the relationship between microorganisms and dogs.  Handling stress, being vaccinated to early or too small, going home when too small, etc, can weaken the immune systems of too tiny/too young puppies and can cause blooms of parasites, especially giardia lamblia, that can make puppies sick very quickly.  Experiments of scientists have proven that ALL adult dogs AND HUMANS are carriers of microorganisms.  Puppies born to moms that have just been dewormed and medicated are still born with parasites, even in sterile laboratory environments.  Blooms of parsites do not mean that the breeder did not do a good job. It means that the puppy was not large or strong enough to handle the stress at home that it was subjected to, or that it was vaccinated too soon or too often.  Anything that weakens the immune system of the puppy will allow parasites to grow stronger. Like human children, puppies must build their own immune responses, after which they become an asymptomatic carrier like the mother that they inherited them from.  Puppies should not be vaccinated until they are at least 3 lbs, as severe reactions and giardia blooms may result. DO NOT allow your vet to vaccinate your puppy until 3 lbs!  Although larger breeds can go home sooner, most smaller to tiny breeds should be at least 10-12 weeks old and at least 3 lbs before going home.  Any age up to 6 months is an ideal time to take home a puppy. Every puppy needs to be old enough and strong enough to endure the stress of going to your home, playing with an existing pet, or with your child.  Slightly older puppies at reduced prices are sometimes available in the Fall when a few puppies remain because they were not taken due to vacation season and October syndrome- when hundreds of families won't buy until Christmas, then they all land here to fight over them at the same time.  Yes, we will work with you to reserve a pet to go home at a specific time.  We will be glad to facetime with you to get a live look at a specific puppy before you place your deposit. Please call with any questions!

Thanks, Irvin Blackburn, owner- www.healthypups.com (336) 957-3609

Every family CAN afford a puppy, and SAVE MONEY in buying a good puppy.

Bored families go out and waste money. Playing with a puppy at home is a free gift that continues to give, while superficial entertainment is one and done. We also gladly provide ownership education which can lower long-term ownership costs, initial vet bills, and increase the life expectancy of your pet! Many buyers look for the cheapest puppy. 

We average 5 calls per day from those who have sent deposits to a scammer pretending to have a puppy, AND we regularly talk to folks who had unexpected vet bills from backyard puppies bought from inexperienced caregivers. You are much less likely to have unexpected expenses from an experienced breeder. Our knowledge has come through 40+ years of hands-on experience with the same group of pets.  Not even our senior vets have likely had this unique learning opportunity!

The best answer for our pets is preventative maintenance-NOT pet insurance or long-term warranty scams. Our goal is that you have the best life with your pet AND that you don't get scammed by those who want to sell you goods and services throughout the life of your pet! Healthy Pups is a family-owned nursery open for business on this property since 1982! We focus on better care standards, diverse genetics to improve the mental and physical health of our puppies, and preventative ownership education that can reverse and prevent many canine diseases!

Having more experience than almost anyone else in the pet business, we enjoy sharing our valuable experiences to help you have a better pet ownership experience, and to improve your chances of having a longer and better quality life with your pet! Thanks, Irvin Blackburn, owner- www.healthypups.com (336) 957-3609

Almost everyone who wants a small dog will call and ask about teacup puppies.  Did you notice that the puppy beside the jar of peanut butter looks very tiny? However, I can zoom in on this same puppy and make it look HUGE! Although we have done pets here since 1982, I am still trying to figure out what a teacup puppy is.  HOW BIG IS BIG AND HOW SMALL IS SMALL? The answer to that question is that it depends on who you ask. Many people are so in love with the idea of holding and carrying a puppy that they think they want the smallest one they can get! Puppy sellers frequently use the word teacup to describe small dogs because this description attracts more buyers, even though this is an ambiguous description that makes communication difficult.  If it were up to me, the word teacup would be banned from dog language because the size of a puppy can only be accurately represented in poundage. Many people have the idea that they want the youngest and tiniest puppy that they can take home because it is the cutest and it will fall in love with me more quickly, since younger puppies are likely less inhibited.  A wise puppy buyer would seek out and be willing to pay MORE for a slightly older puppy because it is a more secure and less problematic investment. Most puppy buyers are deceived to believe that it is okay for any puppy to go home as soon as it is no longer nursing.  This is true for many large breed puppies but can be a recipe for disaster for toy size puppies.  Especially in the summertime when children want puppies, 90% of the buyers will choose the smallest puppy we have. However, we have replaced many puppies from other sellers after children killed their puppy after a few days. Those buyers didn't choose the smallest one next time!  The wise way to choose a small puppy is to consider the weights of the parents and then choose a puppy that's old enough and strong enough to survive your children! The most common cause of puppies being taken to the emergency vet for thousands in emergency IV's, etc, is being taken home too soon or too small to endure the stress of travel, being handled excessively, and adapting to a new home.  This happens most often when families try to make puppies fit into their vacation, work schedule, or special event gift giving plans.  More and more parents try to give their children what the child wants with no regard for what works, so the children almost always pick the tinest puppy and the larger one is left to grow bigger and older.  A small child will often take home a puppy that would fit into their pocket if the breeder and their parents would let them; very often to watch it die after about 3 days from stress related issues or to have ongoing fail to thrive problems. The parents of the child, rather than accepting responsibility for their poor choices, parenting and puppy care skills, will get online to blame the breeder through attack blogs and leave negative reviews. Their vet will look for even an isolated trace of a bacterium or parasite and blame the breeder because he doesn’t know how much stress has already occurred.  Most vets do not understand the relationship between microorganisms and dogs.  Handling stress, being vaccinated to early or too small, going home when too small, etc, can weaken the immune systems of too tiny/too young puppies and can cause blooms of parasites, especially giardia lamblia, that can make puppies sick very quickly.  Experiments of scientists have proven that ALL adult dogs AND HUMANS are carriers of worms and protozoa.  Like HUMAN CHILDREN, puppies born to moms that have just been dewormed and medicated are still born with parasites, even in sterile laboratory environments.  Blooms of parsites do not mean that the breeder did not do a good job. It means that the puppy was not large or strong enough to handle the stress at home that it was subjected to, or that it was vaccinated too soon or too often.  Anything that weakens the immune system of the puppy will allow parasites to grow stronger. Puppies must build their own immune responses,  after which they become an asymptomatic carrier like the mother that they inherited them from.  Puppies should not be vaccinated until they are at least 3 lbs, as severe reactions and giardia blooms may result. DO NOT allow your vet to vaccinate your puppy until 3 lbs!  Although larger breeds can go home sooner, most smaller to tiny breeds should be at least 10-12 weeks old and at least 3 lbs before going home.  Any age up to 6 months is an ideal time to take home a puppy. Every puppy needs to be old enough and strong enough to endure the stress of going to your home, playing with an existing pet, or with your child.  Slightly older puppies at reduced prices are sometimes available because they were not taken due to vacation season and October syndrome- when hundreds of families won't buy until Christmas, then they all land here to fight over them at the same time.  Yes, we will work with you to reserve a pet to go home at a specific time.  Please remember that a gallon of milk weighs almost 9 lbs. Most people think a gallon of milk is pretty small.  Why would anyone want to go home with a puppy that only weighs 1 lb? A puppy that can have stress related sugar drop, get stepped on, carried away by a bird, jump off the sofa and kill itself, have liver/kidney failure by 5 yrs old, and requires assistance even when you're busy because it's too small to get up and down by itself? Is a tiniest teacup puppy the best answer or a potentially bad decision that will always be dependent like a child who never outgrows his diapers? Small is good for a lap dog, but too small can be heart breaking! We will be glad to facetime with you to get a live look at a specific puppy before you place your deposit so you get a better idea of how big it really is. All puppies look much larger in videos than they actually are. We often have people choose pets from the videos and want a larger puppy after being shocked to see how tiny it is when they see it in person. Is it really worth risking that your puppy die after being "loved to death" from taking it home too soon when it will have in most cases accomplished most of its adult size in as little as 6 months after you buy it? Please call with any questions!  Irvin Blackburn, nursery manager. (336) 957-3609

Which Is the Best Pet Insurance?

In an age when almost everyone looks to medical science to solve their problems, many are looking for a way to pay the bill, thinking medical care is the best way to deal with health problems in the lives of pets AND humans.  My experience has taught me that there may be a better way to do this.

Having raised puppies from the same group of dogs for more than 40 years now and communicating with pet public who have bought those puppies as they grew older, I have been given a unique perspective into the health of our pets, and I have innocently observed that wild dogs and humans who live primitive lifestyles are still very healthy! I have heard estimates suggesting that the people of the USA may be the 74^th healthiest nation. I would not be surprised if comparing American pets to the rest of the world would not bring similar results.  Why? Because our pets are subject to many companies competing to make money from the pet products sold to them with no regard for what the products might do to our pets over time, plus pharmaceutical industries and vets who want to get rich treating the symptoms of these problems.

I once had a man come to buy a puppy that claimed to have kept a Rat Terrier for 31 years.  At first, I almost laughed at him until he began to tell me that his dog chased his truck around the farm for 30 years. He said that his dog killed a small animal every day and ate it.  He wouldn’t eat dog food.  Then I began to revisit my experiences and realize that dogs have been much sicker since the 1960’s when we first began to feed them cereal based pet foods. This change of food has brought an increase of many diseases, degenerative conditions, immune system issues, viruses, etc. to our pets!  The same is true for humans.  The healthiest people on earth live more primitive lifestyles and eat massive amounts of raw fruits and vegetables, and very little animal proteins. The sickest people live fast paced busy lifestyles, eat junk food, and then expect medical science to correct the problems. My family elders told me that I had a great grandmother who lived 106 years and never went to a doctor. She was Cherokee and ate only roots and tubers from the woods.  She would not eat the white man’s food. Even today Mexican clinics who treat human cancers and diseases with plant-based diets and juicing have a 94% cancer cure rate even though most of their patients have already been sent home to die by American doctors here in the states.

One of the most intelligent veterinary doctors I have known in my life told me 40 years ago that I’m going to do everything I can do to help your pet, but I am not going to torture your pet with expensive treatments, surgeries, and procedures that will not improve the quality of your dog’s life. When it gets to the point that I don’t think veterinary science can improve the long-term prognosis of your dog I’m going to advise you to spend that money on another dog. I have thought about this constantly over the years and I have observed that some people spend thousands trying to reverse the effects of improper food and pet products in their pets just as they spend endless amounts of money treating the results of bad food in their children. Most often with poor and only temporary results. You will likely find the material in our allergies link interesting also- https://www.healthypups.com/info/allergies.  

The best answer to these problems is not pet insurance and procedures, but prevention through a better diet.  The best diet is not what most vets, animal scientists, and medical doctors say.  It is what our creator intended. God created man, put him in the garden, and said behold, I give you these things to eat.  It was raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, and herbs.  Dogs were meant to eat raw living flesh…to be a hunter/scavenger, helping control wildlife imbalances and clean the earth. The key to better health in both humans and our pets is not expensive pills, surgeries, etc., but better food to prevent these things from happening! After having shared in the treatment experiences of people and pets for the last 40+ years, 50% of the time I can correctly guess what doggie treats were bought by the pet owner after hearing what diseases the dog developed prematurely.  It is interesting to note that almost all these diseases are being diagnosed as genetic defects by veterinary doctors. However, I have observed that diseases run in families because we teach each other what to eat! Most of us eat the same foods throughout our adult lives because we are then addicted to them! Few people will change. Even after hearing the truth, they want someone to fix the results of this malnutrition and toxicity with science. Diseases in our pets, and most genetic defects are caused by plant-based foods and poisonous treats that were not meant to be a part of dog’s natural diet, causing the biological systems of our pets to become confused and malfunction. Animal scientists are selling the idea that those foods that are good for humans are also good for our pets.  The sickest dogs I hear about are those being fed plant-based foods and commercial doggie treats.  We can’t go out and kill varmints to feed our house pets, but we can choose foods that have more animal proteins. The economy version of Purina puppy and dog chow may be a better choice than some of the most expensive foods. I recommend feeding your dog a small cube of raw red meat fresh from the freezer daily as a treat beginning at 8 months old. Small dogs are likely to do well with a 1-inch cube of meat daily, while larger dogs can have more. Training treats can be a small piece of your puppy food followed by affection, but not poisonous or plant based commercial treats.

I have learned that most of the things that happen to our canine best friends are our fault, and due to poor choices! I think an owner’s education and good decisions can do much more to help your pet than pet insurance. There are many things to do if you want to have a good dog and not spend excess amounts of money on it.

First, buy a puppy. A good puppy is a great economic choice that can save hundreds over time because petting a puppy at home is free ongoing entertainment. Bored people are the ones that go and waste money. Choose a good puppy from a professional breeder who raised the puppy, knows its history, how big it’s likely to get, and knows how to care for it. Don’t buy your puppy from a broker. If you get on a website and see endless pages of puppies, you can know that they did not raise all these puppies. Many of these are being raised in puppy mills and on Amish farms, and cleverly disguised brokers are reselling them for profit. Don’t send a puppy deposit for an independent seller ad online that you cannot facetime with or see in person.  Most of those ads are scammers soliciting deposits for pets that don’t exist. Although many liberals will tell you that the world is over-populated with puppies, most of the ads indicating excess amounts of small breed puppies are not real.  We do have too many large breed mixes, but Grandma will likely not choose these for her lap dog even if small breeds did not exist.  Do not choose a breed that is too big, too small, too young, or with unnatural man-made anatomy. Dogs with flat faces can’t breathe on hot days and can easily have heat strokes and heart attacks.  Dogs with elongated bodies are likely to get pinched nerves in the back and become paralyzed. Dogs with abnormally short lets are likely to have knee problems. Dogs that are too tiny are likely to have sugar problems and very often don’t live more than 5 years before they have liver kidney failure, jump off the sofa and critically injure themselves by breaking bones or bumping their head on the floor. This is a common mistake for those who are in love with the idea of holding and carrying a dog.  A gallon of milk weighs almost 9 lbs., and an adult dog should not be much smaller than this if you want it to be healthy.  Having a handicapped pet that is too small to interact independently is NOT more convenient. A dog that is too small and requires ongoing assistance in daily routines is like having a child in diapers that never grows up.  

It is also important that a puppy be large and strong enough to survive your children or play with existing pets. SO,  When is a puppy old enough to go home, and why do we often have a few older puppies for sale?  TIME is one thing that few families can give up in our busy lifestyles. Every year, every facet of our culture becomes more polarized, with every family playing baseball, soccer, football, vacations,  graduations, halloweening, etc, simultaneously.   Most families feel that they have time for a pet in their busy lifestyles at all times, but they can only bring home a new puppy when nothing else is going on because they want to spend the first few days bonding with and training their puppy when they first bring it home.  Unfortunately for puppies, many are born at times that makes their go home date in the middle of an event that every family with children almost without exception is doing simultaneously.  Every child is in love with the idead of getting a tiny cute puppy and taking it home, NOT in love with buying a teenage puppy/young dog that cannot compete with the cuteness of the tiniest puppy, so especially summertime children and spoiling parents will pick the tiniest/youngest puppy while even a slightly older/larger puppy gets left behind!  When children are choosing pets, many will choose the smallest puppy on the website. This is the most unintelligent thing that puppy buyers do, because all of the puppies are in the process of growing to the approximate size of the other dogs in the gene pool. 80% of them are likely to be similar in size to their parents. The best way to choose a smaller puppy is listen to videos and hear the size of the parents.  The age of the puppy is what determines how much of that growth has already occurred. A smart puppy buyer should choose a puppy from smaller parents if they want a small dog, but one that has already grown enough that it can go home and the kids play with it and not land at the vet because it wasn't big enough to survive too much handling stress. The sad part is that the slightly older and larger puppy will grow to be a young adult a few short weeks and expensive vet visits to complete shots later, and it will remain as big as it's going to get for the rest of it's life! It's easy to save lots of money by getting an older puppy that's on sale and not having to do as many vet visits to complete the puppy shots! NOTHING is wrong with a puppy you may see on our website that may be a few weeks older.  They were born at the wrong time when families were simultaneously busy, or got left behind because someone got sick, etc, in most cases. Breeding cousins together often causes purebred dogs to have poor intelligence and unbalanced personalities. Because our puppies are carefully bred with diverse genetics, ALL of them have great personalities and will still bond, adapt, and be sweet even if they are a few weeks older!

Dogs with bug eyes often go blind prematurely, etc., especially if they develop cataracts from sleeping in beds with humans under the covers. Large dogs are likely to not live so long also, with extremely large breeds often living only 6 years. Many are predisposed to get hip dysplasia and gastric torsion that causes bloat. Some breeds, like labs and lab mixes are more likely to eat things they should not and require surgery to remove things that block their bowels. Buy a puppy that was raised in quarantine so you can be sure that pet public didn’t bring a virus from another breeder who allows puppy petting, or that a broker didn’t bring a virus home in the truckload of puppies he collected to resale from multiple locations (their “family” or group of breeders) before you take your puppy home. No one can afford to have a puppy virus.  Don’t fall for the scams of brokers who want to think they are giving you more by offering free health insurance in which you soon must begin paying the bill, or by a lifetime prescription for doggie treat vitamins that voids your lifetime warranty if you don’t pay the bill, so they get continued kickbacks from the pet treat manufacturer. If you read the fine print on most of those lifetime warranties, you will find that there’s so many exclusions they cover almost nothing! Choose an experienced vet who has his own practice and does farm animals in his practice; not a young vet that works at the chain store. Over the years of selling puppies and taking calls of owners, I have saved the lives of many dogs that were set to be euthanized because they had been diagnosed with many rare and incurable genetic defects and diseases by vets when the true cause of the problem was malnutrition, toxicity, or complex environmental poisonings and irritations. Overcome your childishness and buy a genetically healthy mixed breed with diverse genetics.  These are likely much smarter, sweeter, and healthier. Buying another bad choice after having your last bad choice die from common problems is like going back to the spouse that beat and abused you!  Fall in love with someone better! Healthier pets are even sweeter!

I was able to reverse my allergies, advanced melanoma cancer that was causing me to go numb, heart disease, diabetes, degenerative disk disease, bad knees, and many other health problems without drugs or surgery as my body healed itself after dietary corrections. I have not had the stomach virus in 23 years now! I have been blessed to hear from multiple families that have simply reversed their cancer and other terminal diseases simply by changing their diet after hearing my story.  I am here to be your friend and help you with these problems also. I am eager to hear stories from people like you who have improved the life of your pet through better nutrition so I can share the good news and help others! Please give me a call. Friendship is free. We invite you to join the Healthy Pups family! TRUTH in prevention is the best health insurance, and it is FREE in both pets AND humans! It is a simple return to what God intended for us and our pets! May God bless you everyone. Please share our website https://www.healthypups.com with your friends! (336) 957-3609!