Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

We Sell Dogs, Not robots: Stories from the Kennel Business

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • We Sell Dogs, Not robots: Stories from the Kennel Business

    New Story! First one below
    -----------------------

    This is my first post on this site, so be kind. I’ve been lurking in the shadows, reveling in the beautifully horrific stories spun by a few of you poor, poor souls. Well I’ve got a few of my own.

    But first let me give you a little background information. I grew up in what some would call “the country”. It could also be called “the sticks”, “The Boonies”, or “WTF? 30 minute drive to wal-mart?” land. Great thing about living with neighbors across the pasture is that you get to have as many animals as you want (keyword, want)! I’ve raised animals since I was big enough to crawl. Cats, dogs, fish, hamsters, a sugar glider (that one was interesting), steers, horses, goats, rabbits, etc. You name it I’ve probably come into contact with it.

    Needless to say, I kind of know my way around animals.

    So around Seventh Grade, junior high school, my mother is out for her usual walk on the old dirt road we live on. She finds an emaciated German Shorthaired Pointer. Full grown, but was a withering husk of a dog. Just thirty pounds of skin, bone, and sinew. Well we brought him in and nursed him back to health. While trying to find the owner, we got attached to him.

    Never found an owner, but we did find a new business.

    Now, eight years and plenty of construction later we raise German Shorthaired Pointers, Poodles, Yorkies, Labradoodles, and Yorkipoos. I worked for my family’s kennel (and still do in ways) for eight years. We sell dogs to many people, ranging from hunters to suburb hippies. Most drive over three hours to pick up a dog. Most are fairly well-off. Most SHOULD know better about some of the things they do.

    Oh the wondrous people you meet when working this business.

    "Why Should It Be MY Fault My Puppy is Sick?"

    Havn't updated in a while. We've had some pretty nice customers lately. One, however, sticks out in my mind.

    A couple contacts us about buying one of our dogs. Their lab, of 12 years, recently passed away and they wanted something different. We are happy to comply. We meet these people, greetings are exchanged, and they leave with a beautiful 8 week old puppy. Cute little guy; I was happy that he was going to a good home.

    Or so I thought...

    Now, let me get this out of the way before I say anything else. When we sell a puppy, we inform the buyers about every possible condition that could come up with their puppy. If something is genetically wrong with it we take it back no questions asked and give them a new puppy. For minor stuff such as illness that might not be covered by all the vaccinations the puppy has, we let them know about what may happen. Diarrhea, vomitting, any sort of infections, parasites, etc. We also offer medicine, OR tell them that if there is any problems, call us. We will have most likely seen it before and know how to fix it.

    They rarely ever listen....

    So these people, like most, don't listen to us when we advise proper puppy diets. We get a call a week later from these people. They are furious with us! We made their puppy sick, it seems. So we ask them nicely what was wrong with the puppy.

    SC: "Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis! That it got from drinking out of that dirty pond you people have in your backyard!"

    Ok... Backyard here, I assume, means Pastureland? And can you even GET that from stagnant water?

    Since we raise puppies in an airconditioned "puppy house" that gets fresh water twice a day... we highly doubt that we are the problem.

    So we kindly ask, what made yout hink this?

    SC: "Our vet said so! After the puppy started vomitting and have loose stools all over the house!"

    So they drag the puppy to an inner-city vet, who then performs countless number of unnecessary tests on a 9 week old puppy, then comes up with a bad diagnosis to justify the super expensive treatment? Sound about right.

    We then kindly ask what it had been eating.

    SC: "Well I don't see how that would mean anything, the Vet said blah blah blah.... But we've been feeding it some dog food we had left over from our last dog"

    Soo, let's get this straight. They bring an 8 week old puppy into their home, then feed it year-old dry food meant for a 12 year old dog? Yeah, if you feed a 4 year old Ensure I bet he'll get the runs too.

    We kindly tell them that they should seriously think about getting some Puppy Chow dog food for the puppy. We then tell them that no, we will not pay for the unbelievably high vet bill. They bid us a good day, and hang up the phone.

    Here's a tip for all of you people out there who are hoping to buy a dog from us... Would you feed old dog food to THIS?



    Poor little guy had a lot done to him for no good reason because his owners were stubburn fools.


    Penny for your poop?

    Now usually when we sell the German Shorthaired Pointers to people, the people are nice, intelligent, and socially adept. Not this fellow, however.

    He first sends us about 3 emails a day, asking all sorts of questions:
    “Is the puppy housetrained?” It’s 6 weeks old, man. We doggy-door train them, but we don’t guarantee your carpet will stay pee-free.

    “How does it act with its brothers and sisters? Does it get along? Does it not like some of them? Does it have any problems with its mother?” …..? Are you psychologically analyzing my dogs?

    “Do you hold it for thirty minutes a day and say its name to it during that time?” Sure! We do that with all 70 of our dogs and puppies. It’s not like we have anything better to do… Like school or work.

    And the best out of those emails…

    “I was wondering if I could collect some of the mother’s droppings and spread them over my yard to make the puppy feel more at home.” Listen, Mister, you can take all the droppings you want. I’ll give you a shovel and a bucket and you can have at it! We’ve got four kennel areas, think you can fit it all in your suburban?

    You have KIDS?

    The worst customers come from those who want the “designer” dogs. The Yorkipoos and the Labradoodle bring the weirdos (but just as many good people, mind you)

    The worst are the ones that half-ass their commitment… You’ll see what I mean soon.

    So we have a family come up for a labradoodle. We have the puppies in a small collapsible open-top pen in the back yard. The parents crawl out of their suburban, but the kids stay. I watched as one child, 7 years old it looked like, peered helplessly at the ground. The mother closed the door on them and just left the kids in the car. The couple comes up and greets us all. We show them the dogs and they begin looking at them.

    My mother, being the concerned-type, ask them why aren’t their kids out playing with the dogs?

    “Oh, they are pretty afraid of dogs. They wouldn’t like it.”

    …Que?

    So you are buying a dog without letting your children know which one you are picking out. On top of that you know your kids are afraid of dogs. It wouldn’t peeve me so much just buying the dogs for your kids, but you think you would let them out of the car for a bit. They’ve been on the road for 6 hours!

    We asked if they needed to use the restroom. The parents did. The kids did not.

    Sure you don‘t want to start out with a hamster?

    We have other families come in that do let their kids out of the car. I can usually spot the “super-germX-protective” ones off the bat. First, their kids creep toward our back-porch area where the transaction takes place. They creep on the grass, looking at it like it might jump on and give them a disease. Not only that, but it looks like they are drugged out of their mind. But the parents? Oh they are the best.

    “Are they (the dogs) always this hyper? Is there anything we can give them to make them more calm?”

    Doggy drugs? They may be onto something…

    Then the dogs try to play with the kids. Now remember, these are 6 week old puppies. They weigh nothing at all and are simply trying to see what new people are there. Puppies are playful, enough said.

    The kids scream and run away from the dogs, tripping over themselves to get back to their parents. The parents then ask us, rather rudely, to put the dogs away until they make their decision.

    So you’re just going to pick one without feeling them out, their personality, body-type, color, etc? What do they think’s going happen when they take the thing home?

    ”It snapped at us when we tried to pet it!”


    That phrase worries us. We don’t want to sell bad dogs, and we have a policy of puppy replacement if something is structurally or genetically wrong. We have other policies also, but let’s just say that we treat our customers WELL. Extremely well, compared to other places.

    With our reputation out there (we get a lot of business from referrals), we strive to keep up an image. Dogs biting their owners looks bad for us.

    So when we heard of this, we asked them to explain when it does it to them. Now this family is of your usual suburb type. They are well-off, fairly young, and have two small children. They tell us when they are coming to “drop off the dog”, and we agree.

    Well of course they show up extra early, I’m the only person to handle them. So I do the best job I can. Here’s the story, from their side.

    “All we ever do is try to love it. The kids don’t really play with it much and we keep it in its crate for most of the day. We do let it out to eat at night, but then put it back up because we just got brand new carpet. Well one night when we were going to put it back in its crate, it tried to bite us! We didn’t want it eating all the food we gave out because we didn’t want it getting too fat. It growled at us and snapped at us and we had to restrain it and force it back into its kennel. Then it howled all night! It’s only been getting worse too! We would like our money back!”

    ….

    ………

    ……….*thinking* I want to feed your sperm-spawn to alligators and then pour acid down your baby-chute…


    So these people don’t let the dog out to play. Not with the family or the kids. The kids kind of just look at it and poke through the cage-door of the crate. They let it out once a day to eat.

    They then took the leash off of the dog while still outside, not cool because I would have liked to have had it inside the house and into one of the rooms we keep some of our immediate need dogs in. I didn’t know if it was going to run off or anything. Oh but it didn’t run off.

    It ran straight into my arms. Crawled up into my lap, stared up at me with big swollen eyes and weakly wagged its tail.

    Violent and malicious dog, yes. Horrid dog, oh yes. They were absolutely correct. The poor dog was emaciated as well. It was so skinny I was really close to giving them a peace of my mind. However, I did better and didn’t give them any of their money back. I told them that we would give them another puppy if they wanted one, but since there is nothing structurally wrong with the dog they would not be getting one penny of their money back.

    They didn’t push it. Probably because I didn’t look like I was in a forgiving type of mood. Once they left, we lined up a buyer for the dog and two weeks later it left. We sold the dog twice, and this time it went to a nice loving family.

    PAY MY BILLS!!!!

    No, we will not pay your vet bills. We may pay half of them just to get you to leave us along, but it isn’t our fault that your dog “looked kinda sick” (aka, sleeping all day? Ever been around a dog before, honey?) and you took it to the vet, where it went through numerous needle shots, blood tests, urine tests, and an unpleasant stay at the vet’s office all for nothing. They charged you $2000 for nothing? Welcome to the wonderful world of city small-animal vets.

    And a huge big FAT no to your accusations of us not telling you about the price of meds. Oh we did. Remember when I showed you how to mix medications? The pills that you can buy on the internet? They charged you $250 for a shot that would cost us $0.50 to mix up?

    You are dumb. I hope your dog doesn’t get really sick since it was around other sick dogs all night.

    i wud like 2 no about labrabadooodlez

    We get emails from people that are hard to read.

    If you cannot grip basic grammar when making a formal request from a business then you will not get far with us.
    And it’s not just a problem with the English language. We’ve shipped dogs (and one horse, oddly enough) overseas to France and England.

    Mr./Mrs. 40 questions

    We get emails that go a little something like this. Now before you read this, let me clarify something a bit. This incident that I am writing about was "special" since we got about six emails just like this one from this one person. Each time she sent a new email with about forty more questions that were easily answered by looking at our web-site I would reply, answering a few questions while, once again, urging her to contact us via telephone in order to answer all her questions in one sitting. finally she ended ups ending us an email that said "not interested" and we never heard from her again.

    Subject: Labradoodle.

    1. Where are you located?
    2. What kind of facilities do you have?
    3. Do you socialize your dogs?
    4. How often are they let out of their pens? Assumptions that we are a puppy-factory…grr….
    5. Are they pre-named?
    6. Do you pay for all their shots? Wha? Their first or second rounds while they are with us, yes..
    7. What do you feed them?
    8. What should a buyer feed them? Wish I were making it up….
    9. Do you cross bloodlines?
    10. What are your records on kennel infections and quarantine?
    11. Are your puppies registered? Labradoodles can‘t be AKC registered, dumbass
    12. Do they have papers? Isn‘t that what “registered“ means, ma‘am?
    13. Are your labs well-mannered? it‘s a lab….
    14. Do you spray for west nile virus?
    15. What is the life expectancy of a labradoodle?
    16. What about a mini labradoodle?
    …..
    38. Are your facilities government inspected? We aren’t running a puppy restaurant, although that would make a lot of money with you people know wouldn‘t it?
    39. Can I get a full breeding schedule for next year?
    40. I would like your number and directions to your establishment Because they are soooo not on the website, right?


    EDIT: NEW STORY!

    "I found someone else that's soooo much better."

    So this next story just came to me while reading a few replies. Some people don't seem to make much sense sometimes. This woman falls into that category.

    Many times people will contact us wanting a dog that we do not have on hand. Therefore we take a 100 dollar down payment from them to gurantee a puppy from the next litter that is availible. If they do not want a puppy from the next litter, they can put the money toward another puppy from any other future litter.

    Like I said, we are too nice to some people.

    One woman puts 100 dollars down on one of our dogs. She then calls and send emails at all hours of the day asking if the puppies were born yet. I can understand being anxious for their dog, but it was rediculous how much this woman would call. She would send us emails with questions that we had already answered for her, but she would start by saying "Oh, my Vet told me that I should only feed my dog *insert entirely overpriced dog food here* to the dog or it will get *insert horrid doggy deformity here*." Again we would tell her which foods we suggested and assured her that whatever horror stories her vet was feeding her were unfounded for this breed of dog.

    She once called and had a 40 minute conversation with my mother about what kind of toys her dog likes best. Now granted my mother is a very patient person, but 40 minutes talking to this lady who would not get the hint that she had work to get done can really dull one's patience.

    Background on my mother: She's a school counselor for grades K-12 on top of this kennel business. She's a busy woman and it's rare I ever see her resting.

    So finally the litter comes and I call the woman. I get to inform her that her puppy was born healthy and she can pick it up in 6 to 7 weeks.

    She goes on to inform me that she doesn't want it now because she can't keep it. She goes into a big speech about her family is having troubles, in which she reveals that the family has been going through this problem for the past two months.

    I'm patient, though, and I promise to put her deposit on the next litter. Next litter is a month away from being born, and she said that by then she will be able to have the dog. She agrees and we are once again flooded with emails and phone calls for the next month. They stop about two weeks until the puppies are born, however. A blessing from the heavens! Or so we thought.

    The puppies are born and I call her back. She then gets entirely too snooty with me. The conversation went a little something like this.

    Me
    Mrs. Snootypants (MSP)

    Me: Your puppy was born and looks to be very healthy. It will be ready in-
    MSP: There's been a change in plans. Sorry to have not called you sooner, but I picked up the cuuuutest little yorkie from a friend of my sisters for *insert hugely overpriced amount here* who's a much better breeder than you guys and has been doing it for 6 years and had the dog that I wanted when I wanted it.
    Me: ...Alright then. That's fine, just wish you would have let us know.
    MSP: Well I stopped calling and just kind of forgot about y'all. But you know my sister's friend's place looks so much better than yours, it's in *insert suburb of city here* and closer so I didn't have to go very far to pick it up. By the way, can you go ahead and send me my deposit back?

    She's toootally not getting that back. Besides, I just spent it on 9mm ammo for my local IPSC competition. So how do I let her down smoothly?

    Me: No ma'am, you wont be getting your deposit back. I'm sorry but we could have had this dog sold 10 times by now, but we were saving it for you. Enjoy your dog.

    MSP: *unintelligable babble*
    Me: Have a good day, Ma'am. *click*
    Last edited by Captain Kennedy; 10-28-2008, 02:10 PM. Reason: new story.
    If you can't raise a dog, you shouldn't have kids.

    Period.

  • #2
    Good Lord, the family who kept the dog in a crate 24/7 just makes me furious. They obviously didn't really want a dog, so why did they buy one? Good for you for not refunding them! And the people who wouldn't let their kids out of the car! If they treat their kids so badly I wonder how they will treat an animal.

    That reminds me of the last time I was a flea market...I saw no fewer than three people selling puppies. At the flea market. Anyone could just fork over the cash and take the dog home. The sellers had no idea what kind of person was taking the dog (and probably didn't care, I guess). At least private breeders like you guys can meet the prospective owners and learn a little about them.
    https://www.facebook.com/authorpatriciacorrell/

    Comment


    • #3
      So these people don’t let the dog out to play. Not with the family or the kids. The kids kind of just look at it and poke through the cage-door of the crate. They let it out once a day to eat.
      I hate it when people create the problem and then complain about it. My mother-in-law has done something similar and we try to explain it to her but I'm not sure she understands. A dog they had was not safe around the kids but it was because she would restrain the dog physically when the kids were there and was visibly afraid. She basically taught the dog, by her behavior, that the kids represented "danger" to the dog. We have a dog that is mainly hound but also looks like she has some pit in her but she's the submissive one of our two and is nothing but a playful puppy. When my MIL comes over she reacts much the same way and I worry she's going to have the same effect if she's around her too much.

      "You'd feel a Hell of a lot better if you'd just rip into the occasional customer."
      ~Clerks

      Comment


      • #4
        I worked at a pet store, and it was the worste. A really disturbingly large number of people are not qualified to take care of any animal. Some people treat animals like trash instead of a living, breathing thing that has needs and feels pain.

        I got fired when I wouldn't sell a kitten to a woman with no shoes, a filthy tube top, bad teeth, bad english, and a wall of stench six feet high, who told me she "lost" her last kitten. There are some things I will not do, and sentencing an animal to death or mistreatment is one of them.

        Comment


        • #5
          13. Are your labs well-mannered? it‘s a lab….

          LOL! As a lab owner, I gave up all expectations of that years ago...
          Last edited by Boozy; 07-25-2008, 09:27 PM. Reason: quote tags
          Life's too short to drink cheap beer

          Comment


          • #6
            *loves on the poor abused puppy from story #4*

            I rescue mine from the shelters. So I have no idea what breed[s] my dogs tend to be.
            Ridiculous 2009 Predictions: Evil Queen will beat Martha Stewart to death with a muffin pan. All hail Evil Queen! (Some things don't need elaboration.....) -- Jester

            Ridiculous 2010 Predictions: Evil Queen, after escaping prison for last years prediction, goes out and waffle irons Rachel Ray to death. -- SG15Z

            Ridiculous 2011 Prediction: Evil Queen will beat Gordon Ramsay over the head with a cast-iron skillet. -- FireHeart

            Comment


            • #7
              Ok I get some of the questions that you see that you listed.

              1. Where are you located? Someone not familiar with the area
              2. What kind of facilities do you have? Thank you Oprah report
              3. Do you socialize your dogs? Oprah show
              4. How often are they let out of their pens? Assumptions that we are a puppy-factory…grr…. Oprah show - current media vibe
              5. Are they pre-named? see I totally get this one . . .with my dog (first one ever) I had a name in mind . . .granted I didn't change it I went with the name the Breeder gave her
              6. Do you pay for all their shots? Wha? Their first or second rounds usually that is a question a vet tells people to ask and it refers to all the first round/ 6 month ish sets of shots . . .not to cover annual/ every 3 rabies, distemper, and I forget the third
              7. What do you feed them? special food? raw diet? home made food? particular brand?
              8. What should a buyer feed them? Wish I were making it up…. again see above -
              10. What are your records on kennel infections and quarantine? it's in the books to ask
              11. Are your puppies registered? Labradoodles can‘t be AKC registered, dumbass general public doesn't always know about AKC recognized breeds
              12. Do they have papers? Isn‘t that what “registered“ means, ma‘am? I have heard of registared and then not transfer to new owner name so no papers were given - again sometimes people are buying their first dog . . .they are not going to be at the same level of knowlege as someone who has been around dogs for a while
              15. What is the life expectancy of a labradoodle? I can understand someone wanting to add to their family wanting to know about how long it should live
              16. What about a mini labradoodle? mini tend to have a shorter life span and some web sites make it sound like you should avoid as the only live a couple of years
              …..
              38. Are your facilities government inspected? We aren’t running a puppy restaurant, although that would make a lot of money with you people know wouldn‘t it? go Oprah

              Comment


              • #8
                Having worked for my ex-boyfriend's parents' kennel, I don't see what's so sucky about the list of questions. If they have internet access, direct them to the FAQ for the generic questions, and just answer the ones not covered.

                Personally, I see it as a good sign when people actually ask questions.
                GK/Kara/Jester fangirl.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Perhaps I should have my myself more clear on that last part...

                  Now while I have no problems with questions, here's what I should have added to that last section. Reading over it again I see that I may be misleading.

                  The people that do this shoot about five of those emails our way, each with its own list of questions. Many can be answered by reading our website or calling us, which is what we prefer. Talking to a breeder is better than an email in my opinon.

                  However, the particular case I am thinking of is special because it was about her sixth email. Each time we replied with a few answers and said to call us and we can answer anything she has to ask. But we'd never get a call, instead she sent us an email that said that she wasn't interested and they just picked one up at the pound.

                  We could have spent time answering other people's emails and actually sold dogs instead of sitting there and playing forty questions with these people. Sometimes people call us and do the same thing. I can usually tell when I pick up the phone if it's someone calling just to prod for info or someone who is genuinly interested in buying a dog. I'm happy to give out information, but leading us on is kind of mean.
                  If you can't raise a dog, you shouldn't have kids.

                  Period.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    My last 3 kitties (Snow, who unfortunately died in April and Baxter and Sally) came from shelters. Before I adopted any kitties, I did a little checking around...mainly to see what their reputations were. After poking around online, and talking with a few kitty owners, I went with the shelter across town. They have a big room where the kitties get to play all day. Plus, they have smaller rooms where you can meet prospective kitties to see how they get along.

                    When I first brought them home, they were a bit scared...and spent most of the first night hiding in the basement. Once they realized that they were "home," the kitties relaxed a bit. Baxter and Sally adapted quickly to their new home.

                    Snow on the other hand, didn't. She'd been in the shelter over a year and had already been taken back once. Nobody wanted her, because she was deaf. Otherwise, she was a playful, happy kitty. Shame that she only lived with me for 6 months
                    Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      You had a deaf kitty? Cool.
                      Ridiculous 2009 Predictions: Evil Queen will beat Martha Stewart to death with a muffin pan. All hail Evil Queen! (Some things don't need elaboration.....) -- Jester

                      Ridiculous 2010 Predictions: Evil Queen, after escaping prison for last years prediction, goes out and waffle irons Rachel Ray to death. -- SG15Z

                      Ridiculous 2011 Prediction: Evil Queen will beat Gordon Ramsay over the head with a cast-iron skillet. -- FireHeart

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I'm with EQ, my family has also always done the rescued animals, my mother prefers the ASPCA, I prefer the Humane Society... and this will sound sick and twisted, but it is true, the rescued animals, particularly the ones that were neglected are the most loving and perfect pets ever... because if all they have known is abuse and neglect treat them properly and they will latch onto you for life. My mom has a dog who was abused before being rescued, and even in his old age I don't doubt that he would go to the death to protect my mother if need be because he knows that she saved him.
                        If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          slightly off topic but it is about kitties, I am very allergic to them and yet they love to flock to me for some bizarre reason.

                          End of the off topicness
                          Never Underestimate the Element of Surprise - Odo, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

                          Captain John Rourke(Clear Skies) - Ah, yes. another Black Bird. Are they free with cereal now or something?

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            It is actually not bizarre; I have noticed this is a common reaction of cats to those who are allergic to them. Most cats have a malicious streak, and this is one way to indulge it.
                            https://www.facebook.com/authorpatriciacorrell/

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              PUPPY!!!

                              There are people I wouldn't let handle a chia-pet, never mind a dog!

                              My wife and I would LOVE to own a puppy, but we both know we just don't have the time and energy to give a dog the proper attention it needs. Hence no puppies here...
                              *There is no greater gift than to be reborn with every heartbeat*
                              *Grudges should only be held for as long as it takes to deliver a proper vengence!*

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X