She was a ‘great’ deal for $450.00.  We found her from an ad in the paper. She was so cute that there was no way we could leave with out her.  My dream of owning a pug would finally come true!  I had searched on-line for a puppy, but the process seemed intimidating. I didn’t want to fill out a questionnaire or sign a spay/neuter contract. Pearl was only 2 hours away.  I wasn’t too concerned with looks as I just wanted a pet.  With in months we were making repeated trips to our vet.  Pearl had skin problems and periodic unexplained seizures.  She also seemed allergic to her food. The breeder kept blaming me for her problems and then finally stopped answering her phone.  My ‘dream’ pug was quickly turning into a nightmare.  Pearl grew to become 3 times the size a pug should be. We affectionately called her Pugzilla (in reference to Godzilla) My vet bills were over $1,500.00 the first year alone.  The grief and anger far out weighed my vet bills.

My mistake: Never asking to see the AKC Pedigree. 

Beware of internet scams!  

We constantly go on ‘pug breeders’ web sites to see who is now getting into pug breeding and what claims they are making via the internet.  The only way they can get away with their false claims is the knowledge that you (the family seeking a new puppy) are uninformed.  We will attempt to enlighten you a little.  Please don’t take offense at any harsh verbiage as this is intended to help you see through current scams, and sometimes the truth hurts.

What about adorable all white pugs?

This is an adorable French Bulldog puppy..not a pug puppy!  People breed french bulldogs with pugs and sell puppies as rare all white pugs.  It's a scam.  The other 'rare' pug colors come from mixes also.  Brindle was never there to start with thousands of years ago and didn't get there by divine intervention.  Frenchies are bred with pugs all the time...frenchies come in brindle...hmmm...

Pet store puppies: (AKA puppy mill) The first thing you need to do is stop clicking on the nursery pages of websites and becoming overwhelmed by how cute the puppies are.  It's like going into a pet store and loosing all your brains when you see how adorable the puppies are.  Really, are there any truly ugly puppies?  Even the ugly ones are cute in their ugliness. Your new puppy will only remain a puppy for several months, and then it is a lifetime of living with your decision.  This ‘adorable puppy’ thing works every time.  Pet stores rely on it.  Every ‘adorable puppy’ in a pet store has a mother in ‘deplorable conditions’ in a puppy mill.  Pet stores bid on whole litters ( Missouri being the puppy mill state).  You fund their continued operation every time you buy a puppy from a pet store. The pet stores that claim to not use puppy mills, work through brokers that do their dirty work for a fee.  Even if you feel you are rescuing a puppy from a puppy store, remember you just made the mother of that puppy be re-bred if you buy that puppy.

Back yard breeders:(hobby breeders).  These are people that obtained a pug through a newspaper ad (or other means) and decided to breed it.  While it might be A.K.C. registered, there never was any consideration to meeting the standard for this breed.  You can’t breed junk to junk and not get junk.  The typical backyard breeder gives you a hundred reasons why Elvis Pugsley and Pugtunia are the best pugs ever and why you should get a cheap puppy from them.  When things go wrong in a few years, they may not be around anymore and if you got a contract with your puppy from them it would only be for a year.  Think about this the same as adopting a real baby.  Would you do it from someone that has a hobby adoption agency? 

An A.K.C. pedigree shows the buyer how much effort went in to producing their puppy.  Ask to see the pedigree and check for the CH. in front of each name. The more CH (champion) the more you have a guarantee that your puppy has not had ‘junk’ D.N.A in their blood.  This isn’t just for a beautiful appearance, but for meeting health and temperament standards.  It’s proof.  We don’t want to compare a dog to a car, but it makes sense in this regard.  Would you buy a used car from someone with out asking to pop the hood and see the engine?  What if you were searching for a mini-cooper and you saw an ad in the paper for a mint condition cooper for a great price.  You decide to go and check it out.  When you request they ‘pop the hood’, the owner keeps making excuses.  He explains that he has sold cars to movie stars.   He shows you his garage and how nice and clean it is and how he sells car parts also.  He gets out his photo album and shows you pictures of happy car buyers with the car they bought from him.  This is all fine and dandy, but ‘POP THE HOOD” you tell him.  He finally does and you’re mortified to see a rusted hunk of junk under the hood. You realize your mechanic will be able to fund a vacation if you buy this car.

A ‘pedigree’ is your ‘pop the hood’ assurance that you’re not getting a puppy with future problems.  When you get a mixed breed puppy, you don’t end up with some of the health issues a purebred can inherit.  Pugs can inherit a host of problems and ‘backyard breeders’ perpetuate these problems.  They have to breed junk to junk because they are unable to get better dogs.  The people that have great dogs spend thousands of dollars researching pedigrees, having frozen semen flown in, improving their breeding programs and showing what they produce in the show ring.  Out of every great litter produced, there may be one or two puppies that have inherited what qualities and temperament needed to continue to ‘improve’ this wonderful breed.  The other puppies are sold to good homes on a spay/neuter contract.  Backyard breeders don’t have access to good dogs.  If you ask where they got their breeding dogs from, they will tell you ‘from a newspaper ad’ etc.

 A pedigree traces the linage of the puppy for several generations past.  If someone is truly breeding pugs for reasons other than money in their pocket, they will be proud to show off the puppy’s pedigree.  We include one with every puppy in the ‘puppy packet’ that is sent home.  Below is a copy of one of our pedigrees.  The names have been blacked out due to the internet practice of stealing puppy pictures and documents etc.

 

 

On pug breeder’s web sites, we have seen the following statements. 

1.)  Beautiful puppies ready to show.

No they are not.  The puppies are hideous examples of the breed and so are their parents.  Pug ‘show breeders’ sell only on spay/neuter contracts, so where did these puppies come from.  Show puppies don’t come from backyard breeder stock.  Looking at the pedigree will tell it all.  How many Ch’s are there?  D.N.A. doesn’t lie. Please remember this includes your puppy’s health and temperament.  Pure bred dogs done badly, can be far worse than a mixed breed dog. 

DISASTEROUS HEALTH ISSUES CAN ARISE!!!

2.)  (We love this one) ‘Working hard at eradicating the flaws in this breed’. 

You are?  How exactly are you doing this?  Breeding your ‘male pug’ with your female does nothing more than produce puppies.  No reputable breeder will ship you semen to improve your dogs.  No reputable stud owner will stud to your bitches because your dogs have nothing to offer the breed in anyway.  You’re trying to pay your bills with the sale of your puppies…bottom line.  Why stop with pugs?  You also are breeding other breeds of dogs. The only thing you are trying to eradicate is your debt load.

3.) We’ve seen pug sites that show pictures of someone else’s dogs. We actually visited a ‘kennel’ here in Florida and the dogs were awful.  The dog on the front web page wasn’t even one of their dogs.  They know you won’t even notice because they have ‘cute puppies’. 

Before you make a trip to visit any breeder, ask to see the litter’s pedigree. They can fax it ahead of time. Look it over before you get swept away by cheap prices and cute puppies.