I've been taking a acrylic nail course to kill some time and the lady that's teaching me has a mother who has this little poodle. Since the two weeks I've been there I've seen the poodle tied up outside. She has it's little bed out there and a water bowl. Every time I walk past there this dog is so cute jumping up and down, obviously wanting attention. The leash is also very short, about a normal walking leash so this poodle can't really go anywhere. So you can imagine how my heart is aching when I see this happy little poodle jumping up and down, it's not supposed to live like this. I think they let the dog inside at night though.
I asked the mother why the dog was tied up and she said, so it doesn't run outside and get hit by cars etc. She sees absolutely nothing wrong with this.
Here comes the worst part.
She also has a bunch of chihuahuas and... their tails are cropped. When I saw that I told her that's such a bad thing to do and can't believe she did that to chihuahuas as it's illegal in most countries and dogs get a traumatic experience from it. They laughed and didn't take me serious but I stood my ground and me and my big mouth went into educating them in the history of cropping and that chihuahuas never even got cropped. They were receptive to that at least. It seems that they honestly just don't know any better.
So I asked the lady how much she wanted for the poodle outside. She said it's not for sale. I offered her the equivalent of 300 dollars and I could see she was thinking about it, so I offered her 50 dollars more. She said she will think about it, so I already knew it was in the bag because from the moment you have to think about selling your dog you obviously care about/need the money more. She called today and says she is willing to sell the dog.
My mother is telling me to think about it really carefully because I'm always trying to save every animal I see, she thinks I'm going a bit overboard since I'm already getting my chihuahua in 2 weeks and the last dog we saved has a million health issues.
What would you do honestly? Just let it go? Or bring the dog home? Is it a big deal or am I making this a big deal? I just need some perspective on this.
It's a tough call. I honestly feel like anyone who's willing to sell their dog might not care very much about it, but that might not be true. Maybe they know they're not giving it the best care they can (maybe due to financial issues) and they see how educated you are so they're considering it. Maybe they think you could afford to give it more love and time than they can. Or maybe they just need/want the money. Who knows.
I probably wouldn't have gone so far as to offer to buy the dog myself.. but if I had and they said they were thinking about it, I'd probably follow through.
Make sure you ask a ton of questions and get vet records first before committing. You're about to get a chi puppy, right? So you definitely need to make sure that this dog is friendly with dogs and fully vetted with no infectious diseases.
If you already have your heart set on buying the poodle, then I would follow through with it. Make sure to keep in mind that the poodle is used to living outside, so it might not even be housebroken. It probably doesn't have good house manners either.
Personally, I wouldn't do it. Like Missy said, it is an outside trained dog, and it is not like they lay hands on the poodle. The most I would have done is ask for play dates with my puppy. At least the dog would be entertained and both dogs could make a friendship. Now thinking about it, I may buy a toy on my way to her place again for the poodle. I have heard about cropping the tails and ears. I would never do such a thing, but some cultures do even worse to their dogs. Just how they are.
The problem with paying to rescue the poodle is that the stupid people will probably take the money and go buy a cute new puppy and do the same exact thing to it. And the cycle continues.
I would probably tell them that you can't afford to pay for the poodle anymore (unexpected bill or something) but that you really would love to have her and maybe they will give her to you.
I have seen people like this get rid of animals only to just go out and buy more.
Sad situation.
__________________ "Having heard all of this, you may choose to look the other way.....
but you can never say again that you did not know." William Wilberforce 1759-1833
You're all right, I'm on the fence with this too but seeing your advice I think it's better that I don't take the dog because it's probably not potty trained and also like Tracy said the cycle will continue.
I feel like such a doofus sometimes wanting to take every dog home
tied-up poodle
And the cycle continues. 
Linear Mode
