Sell puppies or give them to shelter?

Ineski

Hi all,

to give you a short background of my dilemma, we got a young terrier dog from a rescue center 4 weeks ago and found out this week that the dog is pregnant and will have pups within the next couple of days. We knew the dog wasn't neutered yet when we got her but she must have been pregnant already when we got her and this was most likely the reason she was left in the shelter by her previous owner.
I was on to the rescue center to ask for advise. They offered to take the dog back for her to have the pups there but thats not going to happen! So for the past 2 days we have made all arrangements, building whelping box, getting old blankets etc etc and we are ready for the big arrival.
My question is now what is the right thing to do with the pups when they are old enough to leave their mum? There is no way we will be able to keep them. Is it responsible to sell them if you do home checks? Or would it be better to bring them to the shelter?

DBB

The rescue that lumped this situation on you (and if she's about to pup, she'd have been 5 weeks gone, by which point an experienced rescuer should have spotted the signs of pregnancy) should provide you with financial assistance, because raising a litter of pups properly costs money.
She'll need a whelping box, she needs mother and puppy food, she needs to see a vet NOW and to have a vet on standby for the birth and particularly for the first few weeks in case anything goes wrong with mum or pups. Mum will eventually need to be spayed (once pups are fully weaned and rehomed).
The pups are going to need to be regularly wormed, as will mum, and vaccinated and microchipped prior to rehoming.
You will need to have immediate and ready access to puppy milk (most pet shops sell it now) in case there's a problem. You will need lots and lots of newspaper, towels and blankets, you'll need lots of toys from the time the pups reach 4ish weeks of age, and you'll need to prepare yourself for your house becoming a tip for the next 8-10 wks
Most of all, you'll need to study how pups develop, so that you can get them habituated to humans and house life, and so that you can get working on socialising them to prepare them to be great adult dogs. So many behavioural problems start when pups are still with their breeder, so feel free to ask as many questions as you want here, there are experienced breeders, trainers and rescuers here who'll be only too glad to help!
Finally, I'm not sure where you stand with legal ownership of the pups... If you signed an adoption contract with the rescue, there's a strong argument that they could claim the pups as their property. Either way, I'd forget about selling them... Pay the goodwill forward and work closely with the shelter (if you like the way they work) to rehome the pups with pre-vetted, loving homes in a few months' time

uck51js9zml2yt

Where are you located?

tk123

Same thing happened to my neighbours and it was one of the bigger rescues in Dublin!

borderlinemeath

Same thing happened to the litter of pups that was born here a few years ago! OP, sorry for snooping but had a nosy at your other few posts and you mentioned a county that the very dog that whelped here came from, so I would make an educated guess that your little lady came from the same place. (Although we're not allowed name rescues on here, I would use the term "rescue" very lightly in the case of this place;))

Sleeper12

When you say rescue centre what are you actually talking about?

I don't believe for a second that a genuine rescue would let this happen. Unfortunately there are a lot of do gooders setting up their own Facebook rescue group but many of these are no better than puppy farms themselves.

tedpan

Ineski wrote:

Is it responsible to sell them if you do home checks? Or would it be better to bring them to the shelter?

How do you know if they're pure breed? Not sure you'll be able to 'sell' them if not.

tk123

Sleeper12 wrote: »

When you say rescue centre what are you actually talking about?

I don't believe for a second that a genuine rescue would let this happen. Unfortunately there are a lot of do gooders setting up their own Facebook rescue group but many of these are no better than puppy farms themselves.

Believe it - it was only after speaking to friends who work/have worked in smaller rescues that I heard it’s more common that you think. In my neighbors case it was a genuine and very well known rescue in Dublin.

Ineski

Thank you so much for your replies.
Yes so the vet told us 3 days ago that she will be expecting within the next 7 days. The last two days we have spent preparing everything. We built a whelping box, got lots of the free newspapers, old blankets and towels, and a childrens play pen for when they start climbing out of the whelping box.
We are going to the rescue place tomorrow which is just outside of the town we live, its not just a Facebook group someone set up. They have offered to support us throughout the next couple of weeks and give us advise. I'm kinda hoping that they will look after the vet checks and vaccinations for the pups or would that not be realistic?
The rescue place today phoned up the vet that our dog got her vaccination done and it turns out that she was due her follow up vaccination but the previous owner never turned up for that. She also had an umbilical hernia that we were not told about. Our vet said though that the hernia must be very small as she didn't notice it when we brought the dog to her this week.
Its all very overwhelming I have to say.
I doubt the pups are pure breed. I didnt know you could only sell pure breed dogs? Im not looking to make a profit,I want to do the right thing but I also want to have them rehomed in 8 weeks.

aonb

So you got the bitch from a rescue 4 weeks ago.
It sounds like you want to keep her?
You have two options - whelp the puppies and keep them until 8 weeks, then give them back to the rescue to rehome. Or rehome the puppies yourself.

The rescue is going to pay for the expenses involved with the whelping and puppies?

If you are overwhelmed you could bring the bitch back to the shelter until the puppies are born, then have her and the puppies back to you?

Have you experience of whelping and caring for new puppies and new mother/bitch?

Have you bonded with the bitch? Is she settled with you/your home?

Cherry Blossom

What do you mean when you say you want to have them rehomed in 8 weeks? 8 weeks is the minimum age they can be rehomed. You understand you have to keep them at least that long right? They shouldn't be rehomed younger than 8 weeks.

Ineski

Cherry Blossom wrote: »

What do you mean when you say you want to have them rehomed in 8 weeks? 8 weeks is the minimum age they can be rehomed. You understand you have to keep them at least that long right? They shouldn't be rehomed younger than 8 weeks.

Yes that's what I meant. We are expecting the pups any day now so when they are 8 weeks old I want to rehome them.

Cherry Blossom

Can the rescue not line up homes for the pups? There should be no shortage of people looking for a small breed puppy. To the best of my knowledge it is larger dogs that are harder to rehome but plenty of homes looking for terrier/terrier crosses.

jimf

well done you seem to be taking a very responsible approach to the due very soon babies

to be honest id be slow in giving the puppies back to the shelter they don't seem very responsible im sure you will be able to find good loving hopes yourself when the time comes


again well done and try not to panic when the puppies are being born most bitches give birth naturally on their own its knowing when to step in is the important part do you have anybody with experience to be around at the time if your not comfortable yourself

kathleen37

Accidents can happen. The rescue had got the dog vaccinated - I'm not sure of timescales for a second vaccination, but could vet have missed pregnancy too? I don't really understand about the hernia - I see one vet missed it but shouldn't the rescue have arranged to get that sorted? And don't rescues usually neuter animals before rehoming them?

At least the rescue offered to take the dog back till she'd had and whelped her puppies. At least the OP is going to have backup, as I'd imagine it's going to be hectic.

Good for you, OP, for taking and loving a dog. You sound great!! Well done!

Bunnyslippers

Good luck is all I can say and we’ll done for rescuing her! I’d read up as much as you can, sounds like the rescue is not great as she should have been speyed before she was ever rehomed as well as fully vaccinated. Not much to be done now but just wait, also you need to make sure your vet checks over the pups carefully as umbilical hernias are genetic and can be passed on so you could end up having to pay for surgery for one or two.
If you do decide to keep her to whelp then you are basically taking full responsibility the same way a breeder would, ie any pups not sold you need to be able to keep and any can be returned to you in future, you will more than likely have to foot the bill if anything goes wrong, expecting a charity to do it is more than likely not going to happen, so just be warned puppies can be very very expensive!! Great time wasters though!!;)