RE: Be suspicious of ANY ads selling dogs

[Pat Long Paul Dangel]

from Lisa's email's subject line: Be suspicious of newspaper ads
selling dogs

Lisa makes an excellent point, but it's misstated. She should have said
just Be suspicious. It doesn't matter where anyone advertises, there
are scrupulous and unscrupulous breeders (and buyers) all over. Some
advertise in the newspaper, some in the dog magazines, some on the
internet, some are BMDCA members, some are Berner-L members. Some broker
dogs, some sell at auctions, some sell to pet shops. The unscrupulous
will use any means to help make a profit and sell a puppy, they would
never limit themselves just to newspaper ads. The challenge that many of
us have been working hard with is to help educate the caring buyer about
how to better identify the caring seller. 

I think we have done a great deal in the creation and dissemination of
resources: information packets, educational materials, counter newspaper
advertisements, posters, baseball cards, the lobbying efforts, the BMDCA
education committee, the BMDCA public relations committee, you name it!
I think it's becoming more difficult for sellers to churn out litters
and sell them for high prices. I think we've been making a difference.

We still have a long way to go, but look at how far we've come already!

Pat Long, ( Luther)
Berwyn PA

Re: be suspicious of ANY ads selling dogs

[Mary Shaver]

I posed this question to Ruth Reynolds several months ago - rhetorically
- and will do the same here.  How many of us buy a car the same way
today as we did 20 or even 10 years ago?  Information is power.  When
Consumer Reports empowered the buying public with information on how to
buy a car, dealerships were forced to undergo a sea change.  We even saw
the creation of a whole new mark - the Saturn, with an entirely new
pricing scheme.  All because this little magazine turned over the rock
to expose the way the auto industry REALLY worked when it came to
selling vehicles.  Now, are there still people out there who pay the
sticker price? Sure.  The willfully ignorant, like the poor, will always
be with us.  But those numbers shrink each year.

The same can be said for the puppy buying public.  Each of us who gets
involved in education and information disbursal can have the same effect
on the puppy business as Consumer Reports had on the auto business.  I
absolutely believe in 10 years, possibly less, the notion of the
completely ignorant puppy buyer will be more the exception than the
rule, and the filthy underbelly of the puppy industry will be exposed
for all to see.  The very fact that the bad breeders and puppy producers
have had to adopt our language (OFA's, health clearances, guarantees,
etc.) indicates the influence we have already gained with the PPO's out
there.  The downside is the exploiters have become smarter and more
savvy in their presentations to PPOs making it more difficult to spot
them, the upside is, they have been forced to run tests on their dogs
that they would never have even thought of doing before.  Now our
challenge is to keep ahead of them in terms of our ongoing public
education, and to be better salesmen. I think the PPO's I talk to are
always impressed when I tell them that I am a volunteer and have no
financial stake in whatever decision they make.  This, at the end of the
day, makes my advice more credible simply because I DON'T have any
financial agenda.  Hey, whatever works.

Mary and the girls, Laurel and Bailey, in for the long haul...
Fayetteville, GA