So, you’ve decided to give a puppy a new home and are thinking about getting a puppy from a Freeads.co.uk member. But, how can you ensure that you don’t buy from an irresponsible breeder or puppy farmer and end up having to deal with the emotional and financial turmoil that they can cause?

To help you avoid puppy farmers the RSPCA recommend calling the breeder before visiting with a prepared list of questions to help you assess the quality of a breeder. We’ve drawn up a selection of questions that you should try to ask as soon as possible:

• Can you see the puppy’s parents? It may not be possible to meet the father but you should at least see the puppy’s mother.
• Will the breeder take the puppy back if you are no longer able to take care of it.
• How many dogs does the breeder own and how often are they bred?
• Is the breeder KC registered? If they are ask to see their certificate when you visit.
• Have the puppies been socialized with other dogs and animals? (more…)

Hold on to your leads and collars as the dog-world gears up for the show-piece in the show dog calendar, Crufts 2011. Expected to attract around 160,000 dog lovers & owners to Birmingham’s NEC Arena from this Friday, Crufts has firmly established itself as the world’s largest dog show.

The centre piece of the show is, of course, the Best in Show Competition, where thousands of dogs from all over the world will compete to be named the Best in Show. Recent years have seen winners from all groups of dogs, from Pekingese, to Hungarian Viszlas and Poodles.

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Here at Freeads we are doing more than ever to try and keep you safe while using our site. In the last month alone we manually moderated nearly 6,000 ads, removed over 300 ads and banned 217 accounts. However, we are always trying to keep ourselves and our users one step ahead of the scammers and we wanted to take this opportunity to publicise a couple of the more common and effective scams out there.

This first one is a classic scam technique for avoiding our moderation systems and one we’ve warned users about before. The key warning signs you should be watching for is the email address in the photo (see below) and the exceptionally low price tag. As always you should make sure you see the puppy before parting with any money and if anyone asks for money to pay to ‘ship’ a puppy, you need to stop dealing with them!

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We like to think Freeads is a pretty fantastic place to sell just about anything from horses to games consoles. However, where we think we really excel is pets. There are currently over 15,000 pets listed on Freeads from Bearded Dragons and Pythons to Bulldogs and Bengals, with over 7,500 Free Ads in our Dogs & Puppies section alone! With well over 100 different breeds of dog, 50 different breeds of cat and over 40 different species of birds and reptiles it should be pretty hard not to find the pet you want on Freeads.

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To celebrate the rescue of the Chilean Miners last week the Freeads Team have put together a selection of things you might find invaluable if you ever end up stuck down a mine, as well as some rather tenuously related things that we just thought were quite cool.

To kick things off why not stay warm with this stylish portable stove (although admittedly you probably wouldn’t be down a mine with this in the first place).

And to stave off boredom how about a table football or pool table, along with a lamp so you can actually see what’s going on!

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So it’s almost Christmas, as we’ve been shouting from the roof tops of this blog for quite a while now, and, as you know, with Christmas often comes puppies and kittens and various other lovely furry creatures. And while you may be giving your child or grandchild a pet for Christmas with the best of intentions, it’s important to remember that pets aren’t just for Christmas.

A pet is a full time responsibility that most often requires more of a commitment from the parents of the child receiving the gift than it does from the children themselves. After all, somebody has to walk the dog or feed the cat or trim the rabbit’s nails while the kids are playing with all of the other great presents they’ll receive this Christmas.

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Okay, so the dog in the picture might be just a young pup, but according to the BBC the world’s oldest dog is a resident of Reabrook, Shrewsbury!

The winner of the title is “Otto Jones, a Dachshund terrier cross…[who] is twenty years and eight months old.” Otto has been recognised as the oldest living dog by Guinness World Records, and he has been owned by the same couple since he was just a puppy.

Nearly twenty-one is pretty amazing for a dog (He’s only three years younger than me!), and Otto shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. His owners put his exceptional age down to “plenty of good, wholesome food,” and they also note that “he loves his Sunday dinners and his vegetables.” (more…)

So we’ve taken a few weeks off from Round-up Wednesday, but now it’s time to hit you with a whole bunch of great stories from September’s news as well as lots of links to handy dandy items currently being sold by Freeads sellers.  Hold on to your broadsheets, people, here we go:

You’ve all heard of the Sony Reader, right? Sam Leith reviews it in his article, It’s a Novel Idea—but I Wouldn’t Try it in the Bath, in the September 24^th edition of the Daily Mail. Basically the Reader is a hand-held device that’s about the size of the average trade paperback that lets you read books digitally. You can store quite a few books on it at once and it doesn’t weigh all that much at all. The Reader is pretty cool, but I’ll admit my bias, I wouldn’t give up my paperbacks for anything; if you’re not the old-fashioned type when it comes to your literary pursuits, though, you might want to get a Reader yourself. Luckily for you, one is being sold on Freeads right now! (more…)

What To Think About Before Buying:

The most important thing to remember when buying a pony is that, depending on breed, the average domestic horse will live for between twenty and thirty years. Your horse will need care and companionship, access to regular meals and water, regular grooming and farrier care, and regular veterinary care. (more…)

What To Think About Before Buying:

The most important thing to remember when buying a kitten is that the average cat will live for between ten and twenty years, with indoor-only cats generally outliving indoor-outdoor cats. Your cat will need care and companionship, access to regular meals and water, regular grooming, especially if the cat is long-haired, and regular veterinary care. (more…)