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Developing impactful business leaders that Pat Kenny show on news talk with major private network during current restrictions. Don't ignore your health concerns. Our expert team is ready to help. I picked the very good morning to you, sir. How are you? Good morning. I'm very well, thank you very much.

I'm lots of people decided to bite the bullet during the first lockdown and to get past they have been dreaming of for some time.

And then when they realize that it's a bit more work than they expected and the weather doesn't get great and it's harder to bring the dog for a walk, they are losing a bit of interest. Has there been a sharp uptick in people deciding that the dog wasn't for them after all?

Unfortunately, the house and this is becoming an increasing problem.

Basically, it's very easy to fall in love with a cute, cuddly puppy. But the thing is that it turns into a kind of adolescent bouncy dog with boundless energy who has to be walked twice a day and he's eating you out of house and home. And he started to chew things around the house. And she's female. She's coming into season and you're told it's a couple hundred quid to get a spade and you haven't got that money. Next thing, she's pregnant and she's having pups.

And, you know, people some people out there are just not coping. And dogs just have said the dog surrenders are up by nearly 70 percent on previous years. So it's a real big issue. That's a very sad story. Last week when a litter of two week old puppies, barely with their eyes open, they were found abandoned. There was a bucket and left on top of somebody's car that contained the puppies that were seven puppies with their eyes so young with their eyes that they hadn't even opened yet.

They were just so young. So that was somebody basically they got a puppy. It turned into a female, turned into a female who was pregnant. She had the puppies and they just couldn't cope. So that's sort the story, unfortunately, has getting to be quite common that I spoke with you before about getting a puppy in our own house.

And we were very reluctant always to do what until the kids were a certain age when responsibility would kick in. Now they've kind of reached that age. And we made the decision that we are going to get a puppy and we are aware that they get bigger and they eat stuff. They need to be brought for walks, but hence the family decision that it wasn't just going to be Lutheran here, bring in the dog for a walk. So we kind of we thought about it long and hard when I went looking to get a perfect fit.

I couldn't get one for love nor money. They were very, very hard to find and even the shelters at that stage were empty. So obviously something has changed in the last couple of weeks.

Well, basically, there's been huge demand and there hasn't been a supply of puppies to cope with that demand. And the two ways that that manifest is, first of all, it's very, very difficult to get a puppy at all. And secondly, prices have multiplied hugely. People are now people used to spend maybe four or five hundred quid on a pedigree puppy and they're spending twelve hundred fifteen hundred euros for for a puppy that that used to be commonplace just a year ago.

So and even even even crossbred pups, the people used just to give away. Then I say those people are selling those for a couple of hundred quid just for a nice little cross-bred puppy. So it's really I probably say to most people, it's just not a good time to get. Well, first of all, we also leading up to Christmas is a bad time to get a puppy because it's, you know, putting a puppy in the same category as a toy or an object, an object.

So it's not a good time to get a puppy anyway. But it's doubly worse right now. And if anybody is thinking about getting a puppy, I'll just be saying to them, look, put plans in place for getting a puppy in the springtime, in February or March. So now put the feelers out. Now talk to if you want pedigree. If you really want one of those, put the feelers out to people who are breeding these puppies like good private breeders through the Irish Kennel Club or through Pet Bond, i.e. Pet Bonda, i.e. is a great website that sends people to ethical breeders to go that talk to somebody there now and then you'll have a plan in place for a puppy that's not even conceived yet, but there is in the pipeline somewhere.

And as well as that, Pet Bonds also has got rescue centres, ethical rescue centres on its on its site. So you can link up with getting a really good rescue dog. And that's the first place I'd send anybody to get new dog. You don't need to pay big bucks for some, I don't know, some white fluffy curiosity that you think looks cool. You don't need to do that. There's lots of lovely, lovely cross-bred, even Goldilocks.

You're going to be you're going to be looking into the eyes of one of those light white, little fluffy oddities in a few days time. And and you'll think of your words that you just put out there. Winter is a challenge because obviously walking the dog bring it about, letting the cat out. I mean, I believe it's snowing in Sligo, according to my timeline. So the weather's going to get colder. If you are a new pet owner, what do you need to be conscious of?

We don't live in countries where the old paws will get frozen if you put them out on ice. It's not that cold here, but you do need to take a little bit of extra care, don't you?

Well, I think it just makes common sense, really, to look after dogs when I take my folks cats of. Fine, actually, by the way, cats can find their own warm spots and cats generally get nice food coats of fur and they they know where to go to keep themselves comfortable. So making sure they have access to home through a cat flap or something like that makes sense.

But otherwise, they look after themselves. Dogs. Well, you know, you take them for a walk. They don't choose to go for a walk. So you should make sense. You should it makes sense. You should look after their comfort so you can got a golden retriever, the big shaggy fur coat. They're not going to get too cold if you've got a little dog, first of all, and especially if you've got a little dog with a fine coat.

Little dogs have got a bigger skin surface area to bodyweight, so they get cold much more easily. And so it makes sense to get them a warm coat. And I'm not somebody who gets joy from using high fashion items to make dogs look like they should be on accessories.

So it's about keeping them comfortable and making sure that, you know, comfortable and dry.

And you'd want if you want a nice, warm cold for yourself, then you need the nice warm cold for the dog as well. The logic dictates that he's kind of just give you a new website as well. It's only recently launched Pet Club dot com is where you're hanging out these days or Pet Fix GlobeCom if you want to contact patients. Dean, Pete Wedderburn, Pete the vet. Thanks for joining us, Pete.

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