Record pets.

Don’t be sold a pup.. just do some basic research

IT All started with a text message: “We’ve got a new puppy! When can we come and see you?”

I blinked, put on my glasses to check I had read it right, and shook my head in bewilderment.

I mean, what kind of message is that to send to your vet of more than 30 years?

Did treating three generations of family pets count for nothing?

After all those consultations, surgeries, laughter and heartache, it comes to this?

For once, I was lost for words. How, on Earth, do you reply to that? What is there to say?

Five years at university and 36 years in general practice and I was completely stumped.

I realised I wasn’t breathing, which is never good. I stopped my impersonation of a red faced, breath-holding toddler and, with shaky fingers, tried to compose a

BY NEIL McINTOSH response. “Ah! You have a new puppy! That’s great!”

I scrubbed that and started again. “Aw !!!! A puppy !!!! ”

I pressed the delete button again and pondered just how many exclamation marks were appropriate for a new puppy.

Then I began again. “Oh. You have a new puppy. You didn’t tell me you were going to do that. Because, you know, it’s probably not the very best time to get one, what with prices through the roof because of lockdown and breeders taking advantage of the situation.

“And they are breeding from dogs that normally would be considered sub-standard. Anyway, I am sure you checked its health credentials, didn’t you? You did ask if the parents were hip and elbow scored and you looked at the Kennel

Club website for details of the DNA tests that were carried out? And you saw its mum, didn’t you? Please don’t tell me it was delivered in a white van !!!!! ” (Is that enough exclamation marks?)

There was text message silence for long enough that I knew the answers to my questions.

Some weeks later, the big Labrador pup went lame.

It was his elbows. A 30-second internet search confirmed that neither of his parents had been elbow scored. With researchers from the RVC recently showing that Labradors have a six times chance of developing elbow joint disease than the norm, you have to wonder why any reputable breeder would not do this.

But then, I also marvel at how the thought of a new puppy can remove any vestiges of common sense from prospective owners.

Surely they could have sent a text prior to purchase to ask some basic advice...