Deciding to bring a puppy into your home is an exciting time. You’re happy that you’ll have a dog in your family, and you want to make sure you choose the right dog for you. So many people’s first stop is the local pet store to look at the breeds available.

It may seem like a logical first step, but what many people don’t realize, though, is that many of the puppies and dogs in pet stores were bred in puppy mills.

A puppy mill is a large, commercial breeding facility. However, puppy mills are notorious for poor hygiene, small cages, and horrible conditions. The primary focus of the owners and operators of puppy mills is the profit from the dogs instead of the quality of the breed, or making sure the puppies are going to be good family dogs.

Dogs from puppy mills have many problems once they’re brought into homes. Due to the horrible conditions of the small cages in puppy mills, many dogs have health problems that aren’t treated when they’re taken to pet stores. The pet stores don’t always know the dogs come from puppy mills, so the pet store owners don’t think to check for some of the health problems that come with these dogs. Ask a vet about what Dog Supplements you will need for the dog.

Dogs from puppy mills also don’t have very good socialization with humans (or with other animals). They’re kept in small cages and have very little human interaction. This means that the dogs may be scared of humans, or even aggressive. They take extra patience and care to be trained and socialized.

Because of the problems that often come with dogs that were born in puppy mills, many families find they can’t keep the dogs in their home. Unfortunately, this means more and more dogs that are dropped off at animal shelters or, even more tragically, abandoned on the streets.

Many of these dogs that are turned away continue to have socialization problems, and once they’re a little older, it’s hard to find loving homes for them. (Most people want to adopt puppies.)

Puppy mills are still in business because the demand for puppies from pet stores still exists. As long as people continue to get puppies from pet stores that support puppy mills, they’ll be in business. So how do you stop puppy mills?

One of the biggest things you can do is adopt dogs rather than buying from pet stores. The more people that choose to bring dogs home from animal shelters and humane societies, the fewer puppies from puppy mills that will be needed, and the more that will go out of business.

Another great tool in your arsenal is knowledge. Do you know someone who’s thinking of bringing home a dog? Encourage them to adopt a stray dog. Tell them about the conditions in puppy mills so they know what they’re contributing to.

There are things you can do to stop puppy mills. And it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bring a dog into your family. It just means you need to know where the dog is coming from, and make the decision to adopt a stray dog instead. Make sure you have the proper Dog Supplies as well.

There’s no reason dogs should be treated the way they are in puppy mills. And the things you do can make a difference. You can help stop puppy mills!

Tags: dog nutrition, dog supplies, dog vitamins, pet store, puppies, puppy mills

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 4:08 pm and is filed under puppies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.