talking about breeders ...Do we seem an undeveloped country?

i wanted to explain something. I guess you are going to find it terrific!

Here in Spain none of the breeders I know (not only Cavaliers, I speak in general) sell the pups under neuter contract. Only a few of them give you guarantee (in general is 15 days for viral diseases and 1 year of congenit diseases). In general they are selled with a puppy vaccine (It only cover parvovirus), and without chip (here is compulsory to have it).
You can't neither choose the pup.

What do you think? :flwr:

Being an American... it seems weird to me, but that is just because it is not what I am used to.

Even our pet stores (in our area) note on how you get a "free" spay/neuter with your pup and how the dog comes micro-chipped. I think they do this to distract the buyer from the whole "puppy mill" thing and make it seem like they are getting a great deal or something. Icky puppy store!

Now, on the whole choice thing, we got our choice of pup, told up front that there was a spay/neuter contract and the pup would be micro-chipped when we brought him home. I did talk to a breeder however that because of the small size of her litter asked if we wanted a boy or a girl and that she would pick the pup for us. Needless to say this is before we knew about Cicero, so we didn't end up going to this breeder, but I could see her reasoning. She wanted to keep at least one of the pups for herself and there was a list about a mile long of people waiting for pups.

Well being in Canada it is much the same here as the U.S. But as for choosing the puppy, that is 50/50 - some breeders insist on doing it for you, others let you in order of the waiting list. Our little gal, is coming to us in.... 13 days.... and she was chosen for us. I am thrilled on 2 accounts. First the litter had 2 black/tan boys and 2 tri girls. Having viewed the early pics, my girls and myself fell in love with one tri boy, but then a few wks later when we visited them - they were all wonderful, and we wanted any or all of them!

We found out we were getting one of the tri girls. I am really happy she was chosen for us, because our breeder watched us interact with her dogs and knowing their personalities and which ones took to us more, knew what would fit best.

Plus I cant tell really what a 4 wk olds personality is like but breeders do have a little bit of an idea which is calmer, the alpha, head strong and which of those mix with the familiy environment best. Everyone is thrilled and didnt mind at all the choice was made for us. As the mom, I am happy I did not have to make the choice and end up having two sparing daughters!

I'm just moving a few posts to more appropriate discussion sections as I like to keep the breed rescue section focused on dogs looking for homes or needing immediate help.