Buying a Pup

Buying a pup is for me very high risk. We have really had a mixture of success and failures over the years. I don’t think anything is better than watching you young pup grow up. The added bonus these days is digital cameras / blogs can help keen everyone in touch.

Many things effect you decision in selecting your pup ?

Sire – Is he proven, has that cross been done before, % success, size and attitude of offspring.

Dam – Must be from a proven line, not to many races on her card, where her comrades quick or high class ?

Price – You need to set you budget and stick to it. There are stacks of pups in Ireland at the moment and it’s a buyers market.

Breeder – Reputation and how the dogs were reared in the first 12 weeks is highly important.

Rearer – The last piece of the jigsaw, without this the other parts are worthless. They need to be well fed, have plenty of freedom, well hunted and handled regularly.

You can’t afford to cut corners anywhere along the line. You need to give the pup every chance to succeed. If you do all the above right then hopefully you will have a nice dog with a good attitude that can run like the clappers. In the real world they still might not be a flying machine.

What can go wrong ?

Some pups don’t chase, fight, breaks leg whilst hunting, become ill. You need to be prepared for the worse. That’s life with pups.

Given the cost of rearing a pup and buying him are you not just buying a ready made racer. ??? A ready made racer will only ever be the grade you buy. Whilst that young pup will give you 15 months of dreaming and promise !! You can’t beat it!!! The syndicate are the look out for a pup that fits the above criteria.