Pam Crump Shih Tzu
Making a Gift of a Shih Tzu	Home

We have sold puppies to well meaning people who are convinced that giving a puppy to a relative or friend will make the best gift they could think of.  They seem to know that a puppy will make that person's life better and they know for a fact that this will surprise and delight the person far better than anything else they could give them.

Too many of our experiences show that this not a smart thing to do.   We have always felt this way, but let ourselves get caught up with the gift giving season once more only to find some pretty unlucky pups after Christmas.
We want our pups to have forever homes.  For this reason, we will take the pups back and now look for other "forever" homes".

From now on we will place no more surprise gifts.

 We will place a puppy as a gift if the receiver of that puppy is available to make their choice of the puppies we have and is available for our screening.  We want to know about our puppy owners and we want to talk with them.   Our puppies come with instruction (both verbal and written) and we want to make sure this information gets to the owner of the puppy.  We will not feel comfortable any other way that the puppy is in fact wanted and cared for.

Owning a puppy takes a commitment to the care of the raising of the dog for its lifetime.  An owner needs to examine his or her situation and make that commitment or not.    When the pup makes a mistake or needs more care than usual, the owner who has made that commitment will take this in stride and just like for their child, will find the energy and love not to quit on them.  If neither the gift giver nor the receiver of the puppy has made that commitment, the puppy has no one who is his champion.  He will need a champion many times over in his lifetime.