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

Which puppy has the best personality?

Many years ago before we had visitors bring viruses and share them with our puppies, we often had families play with our puppies in a play area under the porch. All of them wanting to see which puppy had the best personality and liked them the best! I remember one such visit in which a lady came to visit Terrier mix puppies that we had for sale at that time, while another lady came to see purebred Maltese.  The Terrier mix puppies cowered in the corner and would not come to their prospective buyer.  When I put the purebred Maltese down in the play area, one of those pups ran across the area and climbed onto the lap of the lady who came to see the terrier mixes and started licking her under the chin, so she then started yelling I WANT THIS ONE!  I WANT THIS ONE! SO, I sent the lady who came to see the Terrier mixes home with a Maltese that was so dumb it would’ve got in the car and went home with the mailman tomorrow morning! Soon thereafter a deaf couple bought one of the Terrier mixes and taught it to communicate with 25 DIFFERENT HAND SIGNS!

People sometimes spend hours trying to decide which puppy has the best personality. They watch our puppy videos and observe their behavior.  It is important to note that most of the puppies have just had their baths before videos are made.  Bathing makes them shiver and shake.  Many of the more intelligent and perceptive puppies will cower every time you point a camera at them, while others may not wonder what you are doing when you point it at them! This does not mean that they have a bad personality:)  After feedback from several thousand past puppy buyers, I have learned that there doesn't seem to be a significant difference between the personalities of mentally healthy dogs once they are adapted and settled into their new homes.  While some puppies may seem to be more shy or afraid when you take them home, remember that they have met you for the first time, and this should be interpreted as a show of intelligence because you can at least be sure that the puppy realizes that you are a total stranger that may be a threat to him.  If you buy one of the girlie pets that has been subjected to 50+ years of breeding his cousins together just to make them pretty for the dog show, he may never quit wagging the tail and licking even total strangers in the face. You might think he's sweet, but you may always wonder if the dog can remember who you were from yesterday.  Many visitors have commented over the years that some of these linebred pets could never remember anything about their house training:) Some purebred dogs have a good personality-some are unbalanced or retarded, while all mixes are great pets. Older pups, and purebred puppies are often slower to adapt when you take them home.  It is best to buy a mix if you want the best opportunity for a consistently great kid friendly personality and potential for better physical health.

As a young boy growing up in elementary school, I learned about the importance of proper genetics to mental and physical health.  6 siblings attended our school from the same family.  None of them were mentally healthy. These kids found even simple things to be mentally challenging.  They grew up to be adults that could barely survive on their own- cashing their disability checks, driving, and maintaining a car, and struggling to cook food without burning their house down. In school years, I always felt sorry for them.  As an adult, I became aware that these issues were not their fault.  They were not mentally healthy because their parents were first cousins.  I have since learned that the same things are being done in our companion animals just to make them look pretty.  Breeding dogs that are related to one another not only destroys mental health in the offspring, but also intensifies genetic information for defects.  Properly bred dogs from diverse genetics are always intelligent, affectionate, funny,  and so physically healthy that they have no need for health testing.  Defects that are diagnosed in properly bred dogs are almost exclusively the results of malnutrition and toxic pet products, with tiny dogs developing problems from this much more quickly than dogs that are slightly larger. They are starving for proper foods while being poisoned by many pet products that were not meant for canine consumption.

After having to give away many fancy pedigreed show dogs bought for breeding purposes, especially over the past 15 years because they were mentally retarded and often presented genetic defects, we now breed pet dogs NOT from pedigreed bloodlines and mix them as possible.  We do many intentional mixes, and we intentionally use similar mixes as sires in some litters if we can get more beautiful colors, etc. This is often possible if both are considered medically hypoallergenic pets, and does not affect the potential for shedding, but may produce many beautiful colors:).  These mixes are typically mentally and physically healthier than most purebreds.  I am sometimes dumbfounded by the questions people ask when calling about pets. Some ask, "are they registered", as if this makes them a greater prize.  I would estimate that at least one-third of the registered dogs that I have seen in past years were not purebreds, AND I would also estimate that purebred line bred pedigreed show dogs are three times more likely to be mentally incompetent and have weird health problems and die young than mixes. I will never understand why some pet owners are dumb enough to think expensive registered show dogs are better.  You would be surprised if you knew how many of these tiny show champions don't live more than 3 years before having liver disease, kidney failure, or other "too small" health problems because their health has been compromised by line breeding for show purposes just to make them look pretty.  Many of them are also untrainable, aggressive, whimpy, hyper, nuisance barkers, submissive urinators, can’t be housetrained, don’t like children, etc. They are often not mentally or physically healthy because of select breeding to improve outward appearance. In conclusion, properly bred dogs FROM DIVERSE GENETICS are healthier over time if properly cared for, and ALWAYS have great personalities. Please call me with questions! Irvin Blackburn (336) 957-3609