Originally Posted by
the other bob wilson
I had a similar experience to you. Three of my last four dogs were got from the pound on Penarth Road, but when my first Staffy was put down three and a half years ago, I was disappointed by how much their procedures had changed when I went along to buy a new dog. After answering all sorts of questions, I then had to fill out a questionnaire and was told that I would be considered when an appropriate dog was available. I put in for a couple of them over the next few weeks and was told that the first one was more suitable for a family with children and that I lived too close to the original owner of the second one (I was a mile and a half, maybe two miles, away and the original owner didn’t want it back because they couldn’t afford it).
I was left thinking that I could’ve put in for ten dogs and they’d find a reason not to let me have any of them - I can understand the need for a greater degree of checking compared to how it was when I first got a dog from the council pound, but, for me, they’d now gone much too far in the other direction.
In the end, I decided to do the same as you and buy a dog from a local litter I saw advertised on Gumtree. It wasn’t my first choice and I knew that there was a degree of risk involved, but, thankfully, I now have a very affectionate and quite well behaved young Staffy who currently is asleep on my lap - as I’m sixty five in a month, she’ll probably be my last dog, but I won’t be going to a pound or rescue centre if I do decide to go for another one after all of the hoops I go through last time.