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Whippets are fortunately not a popular breed for pet shops. They do not "kennel" well and are not terribly popular, expensive, or high-profit dogs. They do turn up occasionally in pet shops. These are puppies usually bought from commercial breeders.
There are plenty of commercial breeders who adhere to high sanitation standards -- they are mostly not the "puppy mills," the filthy, inhumane places you see on television in the exposes. So if the puppies are healthy (the pet shop does offer a warranty or return policy of some sort), why is it a bad idea to buy one? There are a number of reasons.
Commercial breeders usually don't put any study into the breed or choosing their breeding stock. Generally there are a number of females and one or two males of the same breed who are bred over and over to each other. Their physical quality (conformation) looks like a whippet, and often a pretty one, but there is no attempt to improve on the last litter of puppies, no screening for hereditary defects, and no follow-up to find out whether there are problems as the puppies grow.
More important, when you buy a puppy from a pet shop, you don't meet the mother and you can't learn anything at all about the father other than his name. If they were snappy or shy or suffered from separation anxiety, you'll never know. If they die of cardiac problems at age seven or eight, you'll never know. If another inherited disease turns up, you won't be notified. Your puppy's background and personality-in-waiting are a total mystery.
Breeders who have put thought, time and money into their litters want to sell them to people they know will provide suitable homes for whippets. A pet shop will sell an exhuberant, high-energy Lab puppy to an apartment dweller who has never owned a dog and works 12 hours a day. Pet shops do not offer breed counseling or suggest that a breed might not be the best choice for your family. If you have the money, no questions asked.
We talk to pet owners of various breeds nearly every day. Of those who have given up dogs in the past, about half of them say they simply acquired the wrong dogs for their lifestyles. Buying a dog is a lot more complicated than simply handing over a credit card and picking up a bundle of fur. You owe it to yourself and to the puppy to be sure this is the right breed for you.
We also believe that you cannot mass produce puppies and have them reliably turn out to be social, loving companions for people. To live in homes, they should be raised in homes. The parents of puppies raised commercially, regardless of the type operation it is, spend their lives in wire-bottomed kennels, not as family pets. Not every puppy bought through a pet shop turns out badly. But should you have problems, there's no one to call for help or advice. There's no one to say, "Oh yes, her mother did that too. I would...." followed by advice about dealing with the problem.
And pet shop puppies are very, very seldom cheaper. The last prices I heard for whippets were $1000 and up. Private breeders sell theirs for $600-$1200 (depending on the area of the country) So from a pet shop, you'll get a puppy of lesser quality with no breeder support for an equal or higher price.
Rescuers often wait till pet shop puppies are "marked down" and then buy them for what the pet store paid...that way they can be placed in appropriate homes without encouraging the store owner to ever want to get another one in! No matter how sorry you feel for the puppies in a pet shop, for every one you buy, you are helping support the commercial breeding of whippets.
Incidentally, many pet shops will assure you that their puppies come from local breeders. No conscientious breeder offers her puppies through a third party, where they'll be sold to anyone who shows up with a credit card or check, no questions asked. It doesn't matter where the shop's puppies come from. By buying a puppy at a pet shop, you will be supporting the commercial breeding of whippets. Just walk away.
There will always be a market for commercially bred puppies, but we feel that whippets, because of their sensitivity and need for attention and affection, are especially unsuited for mass production. Let your local pet shop know that you will buy your pet supplies elsewhere if they offer whippet puppies. If you don't think you can walk out of a pet shop without "saving" one of the puppies, don't go in there to begin with. That's how we deal with it! I haven't been in a pet shop that sells puppies for years.
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