Neutered B/W male tzu at shelter

[Disarray 0]

http://www.fultonanimalservices.com/adoptable-pets.html

[Fluffalicious 34]

If I lived in America - that Tzu would be coming home with ME , along with those Lhasa's and that delicious Maltese . Shelters are sooo depressing this time of year . Kirsty

[Disarray 0]

:D They sure are.

[loewenthal.anna 4]

!!!!!!!! THey have a Neo! How are this many Neo's ending up in the shelter these days? I have helped place FOUR since moving to NC and it used to be you couldn't find them except for $2k from a breeder. . . so sad.

[Luna 8,676]

!!!!!!!! THey have a Neo! How are this many Neo's ending up in the shelter these days? I have helped place FOUR since moving to NC and it used to be you couldn't find them except for $2k from a breeder. . . so sad.

Neos are big, fierce-looking and rare (or at least, they used to be rare...we have about 10 of them we bathe at the school) and appeal to a certain "breed" of people who don't do their research and then dump the dog when they find out it's more than they can handle. The Dogue de Bordeaux had a brief upswing in popularity after the movie "Turner and Hooch" was released, but the Dogue breeders kept a tight handle on things and when people couldn't get them they moved on to the next "big" thing. It would appear that at least a few Neo breeders are letting dogs go when/where they shouldn't.

Look at what happened to Shih Tzu:

Our Shih Tzu were basically unknown in the US until the AKC accepted them into the Toy group in 1969. Within a decade they were no longer uncommon and by the late 80s the puppy mills were in full swing producing. We know where that had lead us. Obviously, the reasons Shih Tzu became popular are not the same reasons the Neo is becoming more available but the same outcome holds.

The reason Limited Registration was introduced in the 1980s was so breeders could have one more way to keep buyers from breeding pets and having dogs end up in the hands of the puppy-millers. It has helped to some extent, but the reality is that these days anyone can get anything "registered" with one of the sham registries and the general public (which doesn't do its homework for the most part) only hears that the dog has "papers" and thinks that is a good thing. More and more breeders are insisting that pet puppies be altered before leaving their homes. I have done this in the past. However, the jury is still out on this procedure and it is rather sad that it's a choice many breeders feel they have to make to protect the pet puppies they place.

[Seastar 44]

My buyers sign a contract which includes the requirement that the dog be neutered. However, I'm a small enough breeder that every puppy goes to someone who I either know or have spent enough time talking with (in person) that I am confident in their intent to neuter. And I stay in touch with them and know exactly when each pup is neutered. On puppy pick-up day, buyers know it will be several hours before they can go, because we sit and talk, watch the pups, ask and answer questions, go over the contract. It's an *occasion* for them.

[loewenthal.anna 4]

Oh to be sure there are "breeders" who are letting dogs go where they shouldn't, although the community is small enough that I can tell you the names and home towns of many of them and OFTEN wonder how THEY ended up with dogs to breed in the first place. The website "puppyfind" is an EXCELLENT example of these "breeders" when it comes to the Neo, those dogs look nothing like they should and yet, because the *real* breeders command a $2-4k fee they can ask for $1500 and make out like bandits because they're "cheaper" (see also: you get what you pay for)

I worry constantly about what will happen if Poe throws as many puppies as her mother, grand mother, and great grandmother before her (13-16 each, every litter) because 99.99% of the people who remark on my dogs would NEEEEVER get through my screening, regardless of surgical altering. It's really not even about breeding them when it comes to Neo's, just OWNING one is enough to humble even the doggiest of dog people and there is no part of me willing to fuel the problem by allowing someone unable to handle one to "try it out" with one of my babies. Even if the $$ is right. (and in Neo's, money talks, way louder than it should)

In the four rescues I worked with, I spent the entire time trying to talk people OUT of a Neo and gauging their responses to various property damage statistics. If you can look me in the face and say without hesitation that you're OK with needing to put your dog before ever having guests over, or play dates for your kids, and that you're cool with never going to a dog park/beach/day care/ boarding place (ie: you've got someone who can come to the house, who won't get eaten), and can handle having to patch walls and refinish floors then you understand what it is to own a Neo. If that sounds like a lot of work I'd simply look at you, agree, and move on to the next applicant.

What does drive me nuts are the shelters that get in Neo's and don't know what they've got. They call them "gentle giants", they lump them in with EM's, and they give people looking at the [very unusual blue eyed exotic dog] the wrong idea. They make them seem like *so much fun!* -- as much as I know working with breed rescue can be touchy, when you get into the Dogue's and the Neo's and the Presa's, it's really best to let someone who knows what they're doing handle the placement.

OK, I'm ranting now. .. sorry :/