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Puppy Advice

Tips for buying a puppy & avoiding puppy scams

Getting a puppy is easy – right? Sadly not. Many puppy buyers get scammed by rogue breeders or traders. Their only interest is to make a quick buck from a sale of a puppy to unsuspecting buyers. Here’s some tips for buying a puppy and how to avoid puppy scams.

Two cute smooth coated dachshund puppies lying next to each other on bed settled in training class

Puppy scams

Unfortunately, these peaks in puppy buying also mean that people are susceptible to puppy scams. These unscrupulous traders play on people’s emotions, knowing how difficult it is to walk away from a cute puppy. According to the RSPCA, reports about puppy farms in the UK have soared by 390 per cent in the last decade. The UK puppy trade is big business. It is reported that puppy smugglers can make as much money as drug dealers. 

There is some good news, however, for puppy buyers. A new law called Lucy’s Law (introduced 6th April 2020) bans the sale of puppies from third parties, for example. This means that puppies can now only be sold directly by the breeder and not via pet shops or online traders.

Buyer beware

Despite steps being taken to crack down on the puppy trade, caveat emptor or ‘buyer beware’ remains the all-important message to puppy buyers. 

Check this out: Questions to ask when buying a puppy by Battersea

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Arlo - black Labrador puppy sitting in local training class

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What Clients say
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  • “Brilliant trainer. The humans and puppies felt quickly at ease with the trainer Kelly. Learnt a lot and already putting into practice. Will be recommending the school to others.”
    —   Henry
  • “Definitely a great basis for puppy training and we will be attending more classes. Also liked the fact it was a small class.”
    —   Jeff
  • “We attended puppy school with our American bully puppy coco, we had already had a terrible experience with another school who made us feel tidally uncomfortable and unwelcome with our puppy. Puppy school Hollywood could not have been more different, Sarah was a fantastic tutor and a real supporter of Coco, encouraging us when the muzzle made exercises that bit more tricky and thinking up modifications so Coco was never left out. We were introduced to the class and the explanation of why Coco was wearing a muzzle was done in a way that we didn’t feel in any way uncomfortable and the other puppy parents were reassured. Thank you so much for giving our very restricted puppy the opportunity to be ‘normal’, I can’t articulate what an impact it had.”
    —   Frances
  • “Excellent puppy classes we really enjoyed them and could see Oscar developing. Claire took the time to cover class that we missed due to illness which was greatly appreciated and was always patient with Oscar. Would recommend to anyone with a puppy ”
    —   Louise
  • “Alice was absolutely lovely and helped us with some issues that weren't covered in the syllabus, she was so knowledgeable about everything puppy behaviours and she taught the class well. The venue was great, there was plenty of space for each puppy and for exercises without it being too big and scary. Nelly loved attending puppy school and we learnt so much about dog training and behaviour.”
    —   Mandy