I am in a quandry Just the other day I saw someone on a local english speaking website advertising their Yorkie for a re-home. I am an absolute sucker for dogs and have 2 largeish ones right now (Border collie and Lab Collie X) and it took me not a single minute to write an email and offer! I asked various questions about the dog, why they wanted it to be re-homed, the age and other usual stuff such as health issues toilet training etc..and it turns out this little cutie is only 11 wks old and that the couple are going back to Nigeria for missionary work. The guy sounded pretty convincing inthe email that the little thing is house broken, fully vaccinated, tagged etc... So, after some more thinking, I thought I would come on here and ask. I need someone to clarify for me, as I have absolutely no experience whatsoever when it comes to toy breeds, can a toy breed pup really be fully house trained at 11 wks? Can they really be fully vaccinated at this age? Can anyone give me any advice on Toy breeds at all? Especially on what they call A "Tea Cup yorkie" How different are they from a "normal" sized dog? do they mature faster than larger breeds? Could it be that they may have put the age down wrong and is 11 months and not weeks? I want to write back to these people and still offer my home, but I need to know more... Thanks!
Avoid like the plague! Anything in adverts or emails which have an african 'theme' is more than likely a scam. Also there is no such thing as a teacup yorkie or indeed any breed. It is simply a marketing ploy to get more money for undersized specimens ((although to be honest a lot of teacups end up as big as the proper size ones) Becky
Hi There, Firstly, there is no such thing as a "teacup" anything (except what you drink your tea from ). The term is usually used by BYB's to bump up the price of a pup. Truth being, no honest breeder can ever tell what size the pup ends up as a fully grown adult;-) Yes, a pup can be fully vaccinated at 11 weeks, though I don't tend to have my "tiny" Chi pups vaccinated before 10 weeks (for the first vacc). Vaccs can be done at 8 weeks and then 10 weeks, usually meaning that the pup can go out at 11 weeks but it depends on what advice the Vet gives at the time of vaccs. Yes a toy breed can be housetrained by 11 weeks, have done it myself with several of mine but not FULLY as a pup of this age will have occasional accidents. I must say, from what you've said the information sounds a bit iffy. If they start asking for money up front or shipping charges or anything of that sort, run a mile. My advice is go and meet the owners, see the pup and get a feel for the whole situation. All being well, good luck with the little one PS - I love Yorkies, they are very clever little dogs that make wonderful, loving companions
It's awful to have to jump to conclusions, but I have to say, I'm with Mahooli on this, as soon as the word Nigeria was mentioned, alarm bells started to ring. on the slight chance that it is genuine, you could continue to express an interest but I would strongly suggest that (1) you do not give them any of your personal details (2) you do not hand over any money.
Thank you all for your very quick responses, I do believe that this is for real and I think I know who these people are, not incredibly personally, but through the church that I attend (Luxembourg houses a lot of Nigerians/Africans as well as other nationalities and there are always people coming and going in and out of the country hence there are always adverts up for re homing dogs) I have written to the Anglican chaplain this morning asking if he knows anything about this, and will ask other pastors of other english-speaking congregations as well if it turns out not to be the people I'm thinking of. and seeing that they used the english-speaking community website to place the ad......... http://www.station.lu/adDetails.cfm?id=18539 and don't worry I will never pay anyone for a re-home!
i never even thought of the scam front my friends have a teacup yorkie and it is tiny and v unhealthy misshaped jaw and it does not cope well with anasthetic and nearly died getting spayed although it is a lovely friendly thing it cannot play with other dogs as it is just too small and got its tail broke the last time it tried rescue it if you want but dont pay a penny.
The one other thing about this though - if the pup is 11 weeks old and assuming they got her at 7 or 8 weeks, did they really have no idea at all that they were thinking of going to Nigeria when they got her? I know things can come out of the blue, but it seems strange to have got up a pup and only 3 weeks later decide to move to another country? Still, as you say, if you can determine whether you do know this couple, concerns such as this can easily be dealt with.
Hi, My OH is Nigerian. He told me that there are 2 kinds of "African adverts". 1. The scams. They advertise products, animals etc making them sound far better than they are so by the time you get to see them you've fallen in love with the item/product and take it anyway. All fo them insist on payment of some sort and many expect payment up front and/or shipping costs. Run a mile if this is the case. And whatever you do, DO NOT give out your address or phone number as these peopel would think nothing of turning up on your doorstep to hound you into accepting whatever it is they are offering. Blackmail, violence and worse have been used to achieve this. 2. Those that are genuine. People who advertise dogs where the advert has an "african element" may be genuine but he said about this was that they would cetainly have known before they got this dog that they were returning to Nigeria. The chances are, in his opinion, they lied about the age of the pup to make it sound more desirable in the hope they could get rid of it more quickly. ALso, the story about returning as missionaries makes them sound like people who would put themselves out for others. Although possibly genuine (maybe where you live) in the UK, 99% of the time it's a lie - and that's for the genuine ones. As you said, you may be able to clarify who these people are. If so then go and see the pup. If you like him/her then take it on if you feel you can offer it a good home. If not, then don't trake it just because you feel sorry for it. That would be the wrong reason completely. Good luck in whatever you decide. Laura xx
This is the first thing that came to my mind This does all sound a bit iffy. I would say beware but it sounds like you are able to run enough checks to be sure.
So many poeple get caught out with scams its hard to know what is the truth .. I wonder if you will get asked to pay shipping ? or the other one they use vet bill costs.. ie '' the pup has been rushed to the vets and i have no means of paying the bill , can you send me x amount '' .. Google puppy scams see if your email type comes up .. murf
Hi, I think you may want to take a quick look at this whilst making your decision. http://www.scambusters.org/puppyscams.html It gives details of just the sort of scams these people MAY be involved with. Laura xx
Although ''teacup'' may be marketing hype, many people indeed have bought teacup puppies. Through selection of breeding stock, you can consistently produce undersize puppies. That may mean compromising on health, but that is quite common otherwise too. Housebroken at 11 weeks? Likely only if given plenty of attention. I have used the phrase ''puppy broken'', meaning knowing the signs the puppy needs to go out and carefully observing and heeding them. At 11 weeks, many of my puppies were having very few accidents. Small dogs do mature faster than large ones, so things may go better with Yorkies than Labs. Fully vaccinated at 11 weeks? That would mean all the shots it should have had by then. Likely it will need more later. Early shots often fail to take. Do be careful. Puppies are much less receptive to new things after 12 weeks old.
ok, so no joy, cannot fathom out who these people are so I'm not gonna pursue it. Shame that there may be a small doggie out there who needs a home...... Thank you to you all for your opinions, very much appreciated! xx
Sounds sensible hun, if you are having trouble identifying them, it does sound suspicious and very unlikely that there really is a pup in need of a home.
Don't worry there is no doggy that needs a home. There is nothing!! This is very common in yorkies, they steal pictures off of pet finder and then go on to steal your money. This is not one person sitting in their living room doing this, it is big business (scam) with thousands of people working in hundreds and hundreds of rented rooms over a good part of the world. I get at least three of these a week. Ask them to take a picture of the dog and put a piece of paper in front of it with what ever word you choose if it sounds too good to be true and it won't be the same dog. Always pick up your dog or ship if someone you know has had good luck with the person. Buyer Beware!!
I've been thinking about this, is it possible to set up a scam of a scam, so to speak, and do the same as the scammers but when people contact us we can put them on the right road to buying or rescuing a puppy/dog properly? If many people fall for it then we should be able to head a few off at the pass? Becky
We did it once on our yorkie site since we were so sick of our pictures being stolen and what they were doing to people, Never had so much fun in my life.
GOD I hate the phrase Teacup anything, for heavens sake would you like a human that had been dwarfed down to fit into your pocket. Minime on TV isnt cute he is suffering from real health issues, when will these people learn ?
I agree!! I can speak for the yorkie breed only and say that I can't understand why 7 lbs that is still within the standard is not small enough. Sometimes I wonder if some of the breeders have been breed themselves with 'toy brains' :-( Yeh, let's get them so small that they live a year and they can buy another from me. All sorts of animal abuse out there I am sorry to say. I will say there are many wonderful yorkie breeders trying to breed strong healthy dogs in the 5-7 lb range and heavens that is small enough.