Puppies in Orihuela Costa

We are moving to the Orihuela Costa area in July, we want a puppy, possibly a Bichon or Westie something about that size, we don't want a rescue dog, does anyone know any breeders in or around that area, any info would be appreciated

thank you

I know the area you are moving to quite well. I doubt there are any breeders anywhere in that area.  The only place I know that did sell puppies was in the Dos Mares centre in San Javier but that stopped selling them years ago due to protests.

Therd is eurobreeders dot com which you could try.

The vast majority of dogs are provided by pet shelters or charities and consist of dogs that have either been abandoned (an all too current situation here, I'm afraid) or rescue dogs.

There are loads of free newspapers which are always looking for homes for dogs but, as you say you don't want a "rescue dog" then you might be out of luck. 

We met a lovely lady the other day who had a very nice Westie. It was a lovely little thing which her husband had found in the bin. There was also a bag found in the bin near the local supermarket that had half a dozen lovely kittens in ti. The local vet took them in and is looking or homes (I had to stop the OH from taking them all home!)

We also saw a chap on the local market (in the car park) trying to sell a bunch of lovely little Scottihs type terrier puppies and he said if he couldn't sell them he would just dump them. That might give you some idea of how the Spanish view pets.

Personally, I would look at the pet shelters which are in abundance and have some lovely dogs looking for homes.

 Thank you very much, that has given me something to think about

Why don't you want a rescue dog?  Many are puppies, many are pedigree, many have just been left to fend for themselves after being dumped by owners who've returned to the UK. Spain is full of unwanted animals because owners haven't had their animals neutered!

If you use Facebook I'll point you in the right direction (but never to a breeder).

What a person wants or doesn't want, is always down to a personal preference 

thank you

Elaineandchad… sorry but you get a very definite thumbs down for this post!

As bobaol and morerosado have pointed out Spain is awash with unwanted dogs.

Many owners, be they expats or Spaniards, start out with the best intentions but rapidly lose interest once the novelty of a puppy wears off at which point the animal is cast aside to fend for itself joining the other 300,000 that are dumped every year.

You need to be aware that most of the puppies obtained from Spanish breeders are the product of puppy mills; many of these puppies are imported illegally into Spain from Romania and Slovakia. The sellers of these puppies don’t give a damn about the conditions that exist in these puppy mills. Its all about maximising profit and minimising outlay.

You will find that some of the major retailers in Spain including El Corte Ingles, Carrefour and Alcampo have concession outlets operating under the name Hobbyzoo…

The extent to which they care about their animals for sale can be seen in the way they treat their prospective customers… no background checks to establish the credibility of the purchaser, no home-checks to establish that the proposed premises are actually suitable for a puppy, it’s a case of

“ OK, you want a puppy… which one do you want, that’ll be 250 Euros.” (or whatever the going rate is)…

Avoid buying from Free-ad English newspapers; again these ads invariably trade imported animals from undisclosed sources

If you really insist on a puppy from a breeder rather than a rescue dog my best advice would be to buy one in the UK before coming over. Buy only from breeders registered with the Kennel Club of Gt. Britain. That way at least you can be reasonably sure that the puppy has had a good start in life and is free from many of the Mediterranean Canine Diseases that affect many of the homegrown puppies. Be prepared to answer probing questions during suitability interviews and homechecks. Its relatively safe to say that if a breeder cares about his animals he / she will want to ensure that it is going to a good home. If no questions are asked then walk away… the breeder doesn’t care…

Research is everything be it into a UK breeder or a specific breed,  so do your homework… Even the KC(GB) are not always to be trusted… they are interested in ‘improving’ the aesthetic appearance of specific breeds, more often than not to the detriment of the animal itself. Check out some of the facts regarding their outlook on Cavalier King Charles pups for example…where the dogs brain is too big for its skull and the pups live a life of extreme pain as they grow older… or Dalmations with hereditary kidney and other internal organ problems brought about by inbreeding to ‘improve’ the breed…

Regardless of the source once you have your pup over here, use ‘Scalibor’ collars all he time to reduce the possibility of infections such as Leishmaniasis, Ehrlichia, and other fly, flea and tic derived diseases.

Morerosado and I spend every minute of every day trying to sort out the mess left behind by people who don’t care… my house is known as ‘La Casa de Los Abandonados’ at any one time I have at least a half dozen strays, vagabundos or abandonados in my care. The watchwords used buy most of us is Dont Buy... Adopt...

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Thank you for your replies, it's much appreciated, as I said before, it is a personal preference bourne out of the bad experience my daughter had when getting an abandoned dog from the local dogs home, I don't feel I have to explain myself because of my choices, but my daughter was injured by the young dog she chose to give a home to, we have heard amazing stories of people that have rehomed dogs in Spain, but we have also heard some bad ones too, I will have family including young grandchildren over to visit and I dont want to take any risks, in saying that we will be looking at places for abandoned dogs, but it must be a puppy that we get, you have to realise not everyone has a happy story when it comes to rehousing  pets and again people make their own choices, i