“She’s at the vet’s”
You can’t see mum with the puppies. It is the oldest line in the book.
Buying a puppy safely
The law is already on your side
You’re allowed to insist on meeting the puppy in the room it was born in, with its mother in it. That’s the law. And two minutes on a council website tells you whether the breeder is licensed at all.
Lucy’s Law, plainly
What the law requires
The photos are lovely, the website has a rosette on it, and the woman on the phone can tell you which pup snores. None of that is evidence. It is the cheapest part of a puppy farm to fake, and the part you meet first. What is evidence is where you are allowed to stand.
Lucy’s Law, named after a spaniel rescued from a puppy farm, made it illegal to sell puppies or kittens under six months old through pet shops or dealers. It has been in force in England since 6 April 2020 and in Wales since 10 September 2021. Stripped of the legal wording, it hands you two things to insist on:
- Buy directly from the breeder. A third-party seller cannot legally sell you a young puppy, however polished the website or plausible the middleman.
- Meet the puppy where it was born, with its mum genuinely there among the litter, not fetched in from another room, not “just at the vet’s”.
Sellers who break it risk an unlimited fine or up to six months in prison. So the request that feels rude to make (“can I come to you, and see mum with the puppies?”) is precisely the one the law was written so you could make.
Read the source. The guide inside Dogoos restates the law and official guidance, and links straight out to Lucy’s Law on GOV.UK. Neither the guide nor this page recommends a particular breeder.
The licence and the stars
The question that takes two minutes to check
In England, anyone breeding puppies as a business must be licensed by their council. The council inspects them and awards a 1–5 star welfare rating, and a licence runs one to three years. There is no national register. Each council publishes its own, so the check has to be made against whichever council the breeder names. So it is one question, and then one lookup:
- “What’s your licence number, and which council issued it?” A licensed breeder answers without pausing. It is on their paperwork and usually on the advert.
- Then go and look it up on that council’s public register. Two minutes online, and the one check here that doesn’t depend on taking anyone’s word for it.
More stars mean higher welfare standards and a stronger track record. And “I don’t need a licence”, from someone selling several litters a year, is itself a red flag rather than a shortcut.
The visit
What good looks like, in the order that matters
A good breeder has nothing to hide, and will quiz you right back. Six things to look for, and the first one outweighs the other five put together.
Mum is in the room, with the litter
You meet the puppies where they were born, and the mother is there among them, behaving like their mother. Nothing else here matters half as much.
You’re welcome back
Ask to come a second time before you commit to anything. A breeder pleased you asked has told you something; a breeder who becomes suddenly very busy has told you something else.
Eight weeks, minimum
Puppies leave at eight weeks or older: microchipped (compulsory in England since 2016), wormed, with any first vaccinations documented. Selling or separating a pup from mum before eight weeks is illegal.
Health tests for both parents
You are shown results for the mother and the father, matched to the conditions that breed is known for, not a warm general assurance that both parents are healthy.
They interview you
They ask about your home, your work and your plans. Good breeders turn people down, and will say so out loud. One who doesn’t mind where the puppy ends up is telling you what the litter is for.
It goes in writing
The Puppy Contract is a free agreement from the Animal Welfare Foundation and the RSPCA. It already exists, it costs nothing, and asking for it is an ordinary thing to do.
The two minutes before you go and see a puppy
- Ask who they areA licensed breeder, or the puppy’s actual home
- Check the licenceWith the council that issued it, not with the seller
- See mum, with the litterIn the place the puppies were born
- Any of it wobbles?Walk away. Buying the sad one funds the next litter
Red flags
Six sentences that mean walk away
Any one of them is enough on its own, however lovely the puppy in front of you. It’s the hardest thing on this page to do, standing in somebody’s kitchen with a warm pup in your hands, and it’s the one thing that stops the next litter being bred.
“We’ve got a few litters going at the moment”
Several breeds or litters from one seller is a dealer, whatever the advert says.
“We can meet you halfway”
A car park, motorway services, or delivery to your door: all of it keeps you away from where the puppy was born.
“The paperwork’s all coming”
No microchip details, no vaccination record, no health-test results for the parents. It does not arrive later.
“She’s weaned, she can come home at six weeks”
Selling or separating a pup from mum before eight weeks is illegal. There is no good reason for it.
“Pay the deposit now”
You’re being rushed, before someone else takes her. Urgency is the sales technique, not a coincidence.
Where Dogoos fits
Where Dogoos fits in
Dogoos has an adopt-and-buy-safely section in the app, and it earns nothing from any dog finding a home. It lists the four national rescue charities with their registered numbers on the card (RSPCA 219099, Dogs Trust 1167663, Battersea 206394, Blue Cross 224392), so you can check all four on the Charity Commission register yourself. Past those it hands you to ADCH’s own postcode search. England doesn’t license rescues, Scotland does, and Wales runs a voluntary code, so accreditation is the signal that holds wherever you happen to be looking.
What it does
- Links straight into each charity’s own rehoming search; the dogs stay on their site
- Shows third-party signals verbatim: “Charity no. 219099”, “ADCH member”
- Restates the law and links out to GOV.UK and The Puppy Contract
- Sends a broken link or a closed rescue to a person at support@dogoos.com
Good to know
- Dogoos doesn’t host or copy listings, so no dog is ever shown as waiting after it’s gone home
- It doesn’t recommend a specific breeder
- There’s no Dogoos “verified” badge, because we haven’t inspected the kennels
- It earns nothing from a rehoming: no adverts, no referral fees, no featured listings
- A puppy you’re worried about goes to a vet, today
After you bring them home
The bits you’ll be asked about later
The folder the breeder handed over goes in a drawer, and three weeks later somebody asks when the worming was done and whether the loose stool started before or after you switched food. The Health Hub keeps all of it as you live it (weight, medications, vaccinations and symptom notes, with reminders that ring on your phone) and builds a vet visit summary on the device itself: 90 days of your notes and 30 days of mood, in one handover. And when the breed on the paperwork and the dog on your sofa start drifting apart, the AI breed check reads one photo and gives you its best estimate, labelled as one. It’s on Tracker and above, with six checks on Tracker from a lifetime pool.
Puppy feeding is your vet’s call. Dogoos doesn’t set a calorie target for a dog under a year old, because growth feeding is where real harm can happen. You still see the kcal logged today, with a note that puppy feeding is your vet’s call, and meal logging carries on so the record is ready for whoever asks next. Adult dogs get a range rather than a single figure, because individual dogs vary by up to ±50%.
Questions people actually ask
Before you put down a deposit
Is it illegal to buy a puppy from a pet shop?
It is illegal to sell one: Lucy’s Law bans the sale of puppies and kittens under six months old through pet shops and dealers. Nothing falls on the buyer, which is why the useful version of the rule is about the seller: if the person selling the puppy did not breed it, walk away.
The breeder offered to deliver the puppy to me. Is that a problem?
Yes. Delivery, a car park and motorway services all achieve the same single thing: you never see where the puppy was born, or the mother, or the rest of the litter. A breeder with nothing to hide expects the visit; it is how they get to look at you, too.
What paperwork should come with the puppy?
Microchip details (microchipping has been compulsory in England since 2016), a worming record, any first vaccinations documented, and health-test results for both parents matched to the conditions that breed is known for. Put the sale in writing too. The Puppy Contract is free from the Animal Welfare Foundation and the RSPCA.
Does Dogoos sell or list puppies?
No. Dogoos lists accredited organisations only, with no adverts, no referral fees, and no commercial interest in where any dog ends up. The app links to each charity’s own search and to ADCH’s postcode search, and the dogs stay on their sites.
Should I get a rescue dog instead?
That’s your call, and Dogoos gains nothing either way. What it can do is make the rescue route less bewildering: the four national charities with their charity numbers on screen, then ADCH’s Find a Rescue, which covers the 160-plus accredited rescue and rehoming charities across the UK and Ireland, by postcode.
Can Dogoos tell me what breed my puppy is?
It gives an estimate from a photo and calls it an estimate. The AI breed check is on Tracker and above: three runs per dog, from an account-wide lifetime pool of three for every dog slot your plan allows (six on Tracker). It isn’t a DNA test, and it will cheerfully report that a dog is mostly a mystery mix. The free plan also includes one live mood read every day, from a five-second clip.
Get the dog right. Then get to know them.
Explore the getting started guide
Your dog’s profile, your first read, and what happens next.