Let's set the facts straight, pet shop puppies do not come from responsible breeders. A responsible breeder would never sell a puppy, or, as is often the case, an entire litter of puppies to a "Puppy Broker"- someone who buys puppies from the breeder and resells them to pet shops.
The responsible breeder will take great pains to see that every puppy in a litter goes to a good home. (Pet stores do not.) The responsible breeder knows what diseases and genetic conditions his or her breed is known to carry, and they test each puppy for those conditions before the puppy leaves their home. (Puppy mills do not.) Where do those Puppy Brokers get their seemingly never-ending supply of "Merchandise"? Mainly from two places: the Backyard Breeder, and the Puppy Mill. source of info: Starhawk Alsk. Mal.( http://www.northernterritories.com/PuppyM.htm) ********************************************************************
If you are serious about buying a malamute (or any other dog for that matter), don't even go into a pet store to "just look around" - try as hard as you can to find a GOOD breeder or go to an animal shelter. If you go to a pet store you may just fall in love with one of the puppies and it's all over! Believe me, resistance is futile! We purchased both our mals at a place that call themselves "a breeder's representative"...hmmm? Not true...anyway, our first mal was Timber, still wanting another one, and still not able to find a local breeder we went back to this place and found the cutest grey & white mal. She was so high in price, we didn't buy her. We just went to visit her every week for about a month-finally she went down in price, and she became ours. What also became ours, was the usual kennel cough they catch in a pet store. (we recently went to an animal shelter & they kept the kennel cough dogs apart from the other dogs, at this pet store they had them all together), She had round worms (which the breeder should have taken care of, because these worms come from the mom dog). Puss filled eyes from the round worms. She had some condition on her ears that we later found out to be Ring Worm! (Also contagious, and again Wolf was mixed in with the other dogs at the pet store.) Who knows what else we am going to find in the future. In March 2000, we realized we have a new problem that she had as a small puppy-she has begun peeing in her sleep again, now needs medication for this problem. Also, a limp!
UPDATE: Wolf was x-rayed on March 30, 2001- result: SEVERE HIP DYSPLASIA plus arthritis~ Timber x-rayed on April 9 2001 - result: Moderate HIP DYSPLASIA. My vet does not use the HD Grade system, he uses the: slight, moderate & severe scale. (Timber also has an inner eyelid situation in both eyes that need to be operated on, a costly operation, I might add. Wolf will someday require both hips to be replaced, a VERY costly operation.)
We knew only a very little about puppy mills at the time, but did contributed to the on-going selling of puppies from irresponsible breeders. So please, do as we recommend - not as we did. We feel qualified to tell you: DO NOT EVEN GO INTO A PET STORE!! We are sharing this info with all of you to make you aware of the dangers of buying from a pet store..... During one of Wolf's visits to the vet, we witnessed a heart-broken woman with tears in her eyes, as the vet told her that her very sick puppy ( from the same pet shop as ours) may not live. She told me she was ONLY going in the pet shop to buy a leash for her other dog and ended up buying this, now, sick puppy ! This pet store boasts of their wonderful health guarentee--but we have to tell you, if the vet does not write specific diagnosis, forget about being paid back right away, or at all....For each dog, we had to write very aggressive letters to them ("them" is the pet store's medical insurance company) to remind them they owed us $$$$$$$. Why put yourself through this~drive right on pass those pet stores and begin to look for breeders or an animal shelter. Recently we went to an animal shelter looking to foster a wooley malamute that we saw on an adoption web site, we fell in love with him!! You can love a full grown dog as much as a puppy, plus you are saving a life! If you "must" have a puppy, how can you know a breeder is good? They will ask you many questions before you even think of one to ask!! They CARE where their "babies go"! One time we saw this same pet store sell 5 dogs at once to the same family!! (each child in the family got a puppy!) We had to wonder how many of those dogs might end up in a dog pound in the near future...the store just does not care what happens after they put the $500 to $900 (per dog) or more in their cash register. -When we confronted the store with the theory that we think one of our mals has HD, they told us that if our dogs show up having HD they will not sell malamutes anymore...ahhh...and we have a bridge we'd like to sell ya'!...This is an on going story. Next: Confronting the pet store of their xray results. UPDATE: 09/07/01~It has been several months since we notified the pet store (by certified letter) of Timber & Wolf's condition....big surprise!! We NEVER heard one word from them!! This is the "TLC" you get from a pet store! *While dealing with a reputable breeder is no guarantee of eliminating hereditary problems such as hip dysplasia, etc., it certainly minimizes your risk. The further back in the bloodline that you can go without any incidence of hip dysplasia etc., the better your chances. UPDATE: 2006 - Shake A Paw in Toms River, NJ is CLOSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Update: The vet has validated that the two recent ACL surgeries Timber has had to under go were also symptoms of coming from a puppy mill.