He is a rescue (Davie got him from the North of England) and as he lives on one of the small islands he gets plenty of exercise and when he is down here they walk everywhere (canal towpaths, parkland etc.) He was suposed to have been destructive but he was just bored and undertrained.
Dog breeders are a particular annoyance of mine. They have taken healthy breeds to such an extreme they no longer resemble the original breed and have achieved their results through inbreeding and overly restricting the gene pool. Resulting in healthy breeds becoming health time-bombs.
My last dog was a German Shepherd. He had double hip displasia so bad there was basically no hip joint at all in either leg. He was born on a breeders farm and as a result lived his life with a nasty skin infection that proved impossible to cure completely. He lost all the hair on his tail several times and most of the hair on his back. His skin was always inflamed to some degree due to the infection which meant he was always too warm.
My dog was breed to suffer all in the name of vanity. Which had nothing to do with the original purpose of the breed. I have no issue with producing breeds that serve a genuine purpose so long as the dogs health doesn't suffer. Intentionally maintaining a restricted gene pool however in full knowledge that such an action is without doubt outright cruel and should be made illegal.
The UK and Ireland have a particular issue with breeding farms at the moment. The dogs are poorly cared for and are often ill and live in terrible conditions. The pups are also sold like shoes. One to match every dress and fashion trend. Which is flat out wrong.
A dog isn't just a present or a curiosity. It's an intelligent social animal that needs care and attention. I would whole heartedly support a compulsory licensing scheme for breeders and owners. Even if it resulted in thousands of dogs being destroyed. I'm sick to the back teeth of seeing idiot owners who have no clue how to care for, train or control a dog running around like looneys frantically trying to get their dog under control. I'm also sick of idiot dog owners with those stupid extendible leads. They do not give you control over your dog. They're rarely even string enough to hold your dog if it really wants to get away. Either the lead will fail or the stupid pink collar will.
Just the other week on my way to work I had to stop and help a woman get her rat dog under control because it's collar had failed and it decided to run around on the road. The woman's reaction was to go play chase frantically between the traffic while trying to phone her husband.
My reaction? Stay calm and give the dog something more interesting to focus it's attention on other than the traffic in the road. Like food. Now I had no food. But in a pinch like that simply putting your hand in your pocket and acting like you have food is enough to get the dogs attention. Once it was off the main road and I had it's attention it quite happily followed me ( a complete stranger ) into a quite side street where it was much easier to get a hold of it.
I'm not entirely a believer in the saying "there are no bad dogs, just bad owners". Not all dogs are suitable for just any situation. But I definitely think owners are the problem most of the time.
Really why buy from a breeder when you can get a dog or cat much cheaper from a shelter? Unless you want a particular purebred and the shelter doesn't have one.
Unless you are buying a purebred the cost of getting from a shelter is not much cheaper here in NSW. Its usually a couple of hundred dollars to get it from the shelter due to micro-chipping and vaccinations, and I usually find people selling generic dogs aren't much dearer. I would go to a shelter to get a dog, but one of my friends has a couple of staffy puppies that he wants to give away so i will probably take one of them.