What to Look for when Buying English Bulldog Puppies

The increasing popularity of English Bulldogs, along with their higher sale price, have made them a prime target for scam artists. These scam artists range from those breeding substandard puppies to those who take your money but send no puppy. But if you are careful, you can find the English Bulldog puppy of your dreams!

First of all, English Bulldog puppies are expensive. The reason for this is that it is costly to breed and raise English Bulldog puppies. Many may not realize it, but delivery of English Bulldog puppies is almost always Caesarean Section. Because of the small size of the bitch's birth canal and the large size of the puppy's head, puppies can become lodged in the birth canal during a natural delivery. In addition, once the puppies are born, they must be hand-fed for the first few weeks. Bulldogs do not make the best mothers and have been know to lay on their puppies by accident and so 24-hour monitoring is essential for the first 3 weeks.

One of the first "red flags" to be aware of to avoid being scammed is a low asking price. Typical prices for English Bulldogs range from $2,200 to $4,500. If a breeder is offering puppies for $1,200 - $1,500, you need to investigate the breeder further. Do a Google search on the breeder or post queries to bulldog forums. As a service to those looking to purchase an English Bulldog puppy, one breeder, Puppychase Kennels, maintains a list of known current and past web sites of fraudulent English Bulldog breeders.

Jason and Michelle Longley, owners of Puppychase Kennels, have been victimized by several fraudulent breeders. Says Jason, "Not only have these scam artists used photos of our puppies on their web sites, but one was so brazen that they actually stole our personal history and just changed the names! We love English Bulldogs and we want to help people avoid the heartbreak of getting a sickly puppy or paying the purchase fee and not receiving a puppy at all."

The second red flag to watch out for is the lack of any contact information of the web site. More often than not, scam sites only provide a web form that must be filled out to receive more information and do not provide any means of direct contact.

Whenever possible, ask to visit the breeder personally. Reputable breeders will welcome visitors without hesitation. If the breeder makes excuses as to why a visit is not possible - stay away!

Never wire money or send money orders/bank checks as these are untraceable. Credit cards are the best method of payment as most credit card companies do have fraud protection.

Reputable breeders will have a long list of happy customers so ask for a list of references. However, true scam artists may have a list of fake references, thus extra caution is required here.

In the end, trust your instincts. If it doesn't feel right, then it probably isn't!