Would you sell a pup as having "show potenial"? What if it doesn't make the grade?

saw this on another site,
Just wondering if any of you would sell pups using this phrase,
my opinion is that all pups should be sold as pets first and foremost
Then if they make it in the ring it's a bonus,
Another point i have if a pup is sold as show potenial and it doesn't make it,the owners/breeders sell it and buy in something else

Just wondered what your thoughts are

Sadly that does happen a lot my dogs may never do top winning(on in some cases even see a show ring)but they are my boys & here to stay. The cavaliers were bought as having show potential, but as pets

The breeders of my cavaliers got rid of nearly all theirs for some reason except two oldies & they were not puppy farmers but KC CC judges & they either bred them or bought them in to show/breed from !

There is nothing wrong with buying /selling show potential!! Show quality is a different matter. To sell as 'potential' the breeder is saying that at the age the pup is sold it has no claring faults and should be good enough to be shown at some level.If a pup is sold as SHOW QUALITY the breeder is saying that it WILL make a show dog....almost impossible to predict at 8-10 weeks.
I purchased all 3 of my elkhounds as show potential puppies.They have all won well (by my standards) and have developed as I had hoped.However they are first and foremost pets.I told the breeder of my 1st boy that she would see him in the ring wether he turned out to have 3 legs and 2 heads....LOL

I dont see a problem of people selling pups as show potential as long as the new owner understands that it is no guarentee, that the puppy will become a top show dog!
When i used to be involved in breeding labs, we sold puppies as show potential when we felt the lines were of champion bloodlines and the ancestors were consistanly high placed at shows.

Most breeders would like all their puppies to go to loving permenant homes first and foremost but they would also like the pups that they think are promising go to homes that have similar interests in showing.
As for rehoming personally I wouldn't do it and that also limits me to the number of dogs I can keep to show, but finding a dog a new home in alot of cases is not the worst thing that could happen to that dog. Sitting neglected in a kennel would be alot worse.

people seem to into what there dog will win i dont mean on here but im selling pups and just keep getting time wasters
or are thay this and are thay that one person said have thay got there jabs
then looked in descust when i said no you do that as i want them gone before then as thay have cost me loads already and im selling them lower than normal price what more do thay wont blood

I'm with you on this.I have no problem with a dog being rehomed if it is done properly.I kow many people don't like it but we are all different and if the dog is not suitable for whatever purose it was brought ...be that show,work obedience etc then I would rather it was rehomed to a caring new owner than be left out ..not something I do but something I can understand others doing

I agree wholeheartedly with the first part of Gems post, but not the second part. If the breeding lines were the deciding factor, then that would mean that whole litters would be 'show potential', and that's just not the case normally. A breeder would be lucky if one or possibly two puppies in a litter were displaying show potential at 8 weeks old. In isolated cases whole litter might be exciting, but it's certainly not the norm.

My first American Cocker is from a litter that was born in quarantine to a bitch imported from the USA in whelp. There were 5 dogs and 1 bitch in the litter. All 5 dogs were deemed of 'show potential' at 8 weeks. The 1 bitch was nice but not exeptional, and there were originally no plans to show her but keep her for breeding.

My puppy developed an undershot bite at 5 months old, so that was the end of my dream. Three of the other boys became champions, one in the UK, one in Barbados, and one in Ireland. One other was shown only lightly in the UK but never acheived his potential.

The male UK champion was top gundog in 2000 and his ugly duckling sister developed into a swan, and was top gundog 2001 and 2002. Her son is currently top dog all breeds. These are heights we mere mortals can only dream of. Most of us are happy if there is something decent to keep.

Dawn R.

Well put Dawn
I whole heartly agree its not down to just looking at a pedigree.I know of one dog that on paper was bred in the purple....from the absolute top lines.It turned out that untypical that the breeder offered to give another pup for free aswell as allowing them to keep the first one since the first one had no place at all in the ring
I also know of dogs that are nothing on paper and yet are stunning.Genetics helps...but after that its down to judgement.I am very lucky in having had the help of 2 top breeders in choosing my pups.Kasper was infact 3rd male pick....yet he turned out to be by far the best of the lot ...the first pick never making it to the ring and the 2nd pick having only ever beaten Kas once when Kas was having an exceptionally bad day.
Even I as a novice can now look at a litter and see the differences in potential.

I can only reply with my own litter in mind, I bred for the first time last December a litter was born, within that litter there were two what we in the breed call woolies, these are definately not show dogs and are definately pet quality and not to be bred off, the other 4 of the litter were quite nice, I kept two of them, and the other two went to good homes, I sold all my litter with Pets in mind, I personally would be happy for my litter to go to homes as much loved pets than to someone that wanted to show and got a dissappointment and look at that pup in a different light, But... the two that that I sold (not the woolies) I said I had no objection IF they decided to show that was their choice.

I have no problem with someone selling show (POTENTIAL) at 8 weeks, I do have a problem with someone saying a puppy is a show dog, this has to be determined in the ring I feel. I think a breeder to get one SHOW dog in a litter is doing very well, even the best of breeders, with the best specimens, can have puppies in a litter that are not conformationally correct.

Mo