12/06/2026
Puppies make me sad. Odd statement from a dog lover right? But they do. I don't feel excitment towards puppies anymore, I just get a sad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Hear me out.
After a decade of being heavily involved in rescue, fostering, rehabilitating, assessing, transporting, adopting, rescuing, all of it. I now have probably what you would call a sinister view on "the dog world".
When someone shows me their new puppy I do this half arsed dreaded smile and the only thing that flashes through my mind is "wonder when I'll see that rehoming post" because the truth is, people don't keep their dogs anymore.
Last week I was walking down the street and someone I knew stopped me and said "awww Sophie look at this!" "She loves dogs" she said to the woman holding a trembling Dachshund puppy. I walked over with this "🙂" face said "how cute" and carried on back to my car. I'd seen that same Dachshund puppy every day passing my house being carried by a child like a toy and its constantly shaking and nervous. All I could think was "I wonder how long before its rehomed due to its crippling anxiety and reactive behaviour"
Last week I was in Cardiff and spotted in the distance a beautiful Australian kelpie puppy, a breed I've been heavily involved with in the rescue world for a long time, i smiled at the woman and said "A kelpie? 🥹" she replied "oh yeah apparently so! They look like miniature dobermans so I fell in love with the ad" my heart sank "I wonder how long until Kelpie Welfare post that assessment request"
Last week a family member bought a new cockerpoo puppy and messaged asking me why it didnt look like the other cockerpoos he saw, "its a mixed breed" i replied, "a mix of two working dogs purposefully bred to look like a teddy and be kept as a toy, but in reality they're *mostly* highly strung, active and end up riddled with anxiety and separation issues" not the reply he was looking for, but the truth.
The truth is, I feel nothing but dread when I see puppies now, "I wonder if they're raising him/her correctly, I wonder if they respect that dog as an animal or it was just a selfish purchase, I wonder how the kids treat that dog, I wonder if they know they've taken one of the most simple, pure species of animal away from its mother and will absolutely destroy it within a few months, I wonder if they provide that puppy with a calm stable environment or if its just a toy."
My great grandfather has often said to me "it wasnt like this when we had dogs, there was none of this resource gaurding, separation anxiety stuff, they were just dogs, we fed them and they were just around" to most people this "they were just dogs" is a negative statement, its viewed as they were less or weren't cared for, but I completely get it, they were just dogs, simple, basic, beautiful animals that didn't have the weight of human emotion on them. We have made dogs what they are by putting so much pressure on them to fill a hole, whatever it may be, that just isn't their responsibility. The amount of human emotion and psychology that is now put onto dogs is exactly why they've become such a neurotic, messed up species that are naturally born so unbelievably pure.
My thoughts when I see a puppy are always negative, and unfortunately I can't help it, I've seen too much, done too much and am quite frankly so tired and find myself slowly distancing myself from the rescue world because its fighting a loosing battle.
There will always be more unethical breeders churning out puppies, always be more owners irresponsibly purchasing a breed they haven't researched, always be more people doing everything wrong and then getting rid of their adolescent dog thats full of behavioral issues.
So yes, puppies make me sad and thats something I never thought I would say.
