i agree

If you have never advertised at all in any shape or form, how on earth do people know you have puppies? Or that you even breed dogs? You must have done some form of advertising, even if it were only word of mouth advertising...

until recently i never knew people were so against free ad sites, i got my lurcher 9 years ago from one, the mum growled when i got there, 5 dogs in a flat, as well as the pups, it was awful. i came home quite happily with him and never looked back, no vetting done on either side (forgive me i was 18 and had got my first puppy!) now obv my opinion has changed but i'm sure that if enough vetting is done on either side, breeder and buyer, the place of advert doesn't matter too much?! x

I've been through this so many times. I advertise on ********* and I'm more than happy, you have to put the pedigrees on there and all health checks.
With regards to waiting lists its not something we do with my breed, theres only 350-500 born a year and we pass our overflow litter onto the next person with a litter due and eventualy it comes back round.
If I cant sell them all I keep them until I can (never happened Ive passed on at least 30 puppy einquiries to my friend who has a litter due in 2 weeks any she has left will go to the breeder with the next litter due.
The only ones enquiries I keep are the ones to show.
By the way I feel by making sure all the litters are health checked and pubslishing the results chamodogs is educating the puppy buyer and its not free I pay yearly, and the three top breeders in welsh are on there.

Why are people breeding dogs that they have not already got homes for? If breeders are advertising one must assume it is for the money - I just don't agree with it. Thousands of dogs being pts every year.

The way I see it is, the more reputable breeders put out ads stating all the health checks etc. the more you will educate those who are completely unaware of what to look for when buying a pup. Price is no indicator of quality so give them something to look out for. Even intelligent people with the best of intentions generally just want a healthy happy puppy but may not be that informed on the health checks required for each breed. If they go for a puppy each time they may not have bought one in the last 15 years and puppy buying has moved on a lot in that time. So cast your net as wide as possible, they may not all buy from you but you just might educate them into getting a pup with all the health checks carried out by breeders doing their best for the breed.

Fully agree with this, some people just dont know where to start looking for a puppy and will naturally go online to search. I think its important for good breeders to advertise on these sites so the difference in a good breeder and a puppy farmer/ BYB is clear to everyone.

Jed was advertised in the local rag, Flynn was advertised on that well known site which begins with an 'E'.

My opinion is that not all dogs that are advertised through the less well respected forms are going to be of a lesser quality for want of a better description.

If I wanted a dog that met certain requirements, I would choose the breeder that was proven to produce such dogs and go on a waiting list if necessary. Some people dont necessarily want a pedigree dog with lots of champions in the bloodline, they might just want a plain old mutt. where would they get such dogs if not the local paper or online advertising sites? Bearing in mind that rescue dogs arent for everybody (or, they may have been rejected by a rescue).

Absolutely agree, good post.

I acknowledge that there are some sites which are deemed as the 'wrong' type of site to advertise on (beginning with E?) but I've seen some very well known breeders advertising on there!!! The flip side to that is I have also seen what I would deem to be puppy-farmers seemingly advertising on there too. Too many different breeds being advertised from the same place always rings alarm bells for me.

Yes in a perfect world, every breeder would have a massive waiting list for each & every litter. One that was so full even if people dropped out they would still have homes for all their puppies. But, we don't live in an ideal world do we? I believe most breeders will find homes for their pups by word of mouth or via their breed clubs - but not all. Not everyone knows where to look when they want a puppy.

I don't see anything wrong at all in advertising your litter on your own website/on CD/ or on the Kennel Clubs own Find A Puppy website either. In fact these are exactly the places I would be looking to buy from (first port of call being breed club).

The main thing I believe in is that the breeder should ensure that the buyer not only shows some understanding of the breed they are enquiring about. The buyer should have done their home-work on the breed and due diligence on if they can even afford time & money for a dog. Breeders should vet the prospective owner carefully before allowing them to purchase their puppy. Too many people seem to end up with a dog that is entirely unsuited to their lifestyle/expectations and sadly they end up all too often needing to be re-homed.

Whenever I have enquired about getting a puppy in the past, I have been surprised at how few breeders ask any questions at all, never mind do the 'grilling' that we often read they should do!!!

Incidentally, our very first dog we bought together was Brandy our first Rottie. We did everything most here would consider as wrong, we saw her advertised in Exchange & Mart. She was about 12wks old and the last in the litter. I can quite honestly say she was the healthiest dog you could wish for, never ailed a thing bless her heart. She lived until 10.5 yrs old, which is a good age for a Rottie!!

Nowadays, I wouldn't dream of looking in such a magazine for a dog, but I have to say that she was far healthier both mentally and physically than some of our other dogs in the past that we've bought from 'reputable breeders'.

I first heard about Kali through an ad in the local bumwiper. Orkney being what it is (primarily a farming area), he was advertised much like a muckspreader might be - as a farm implement, not as a potential pet! (One of my farmer neighbours once said "A pet collie is an abomination" !). However, getting Kali was more like going through a job interview ("Are you good enough to have one of my dogs?"). Anyway, I performed to the satisfaction of this apparently ferocious Orkney farmer and staked my claim successfully (Kali was only 3 weeks old at the time). Of course, once I knew Robert better, I saw he was a really nice guy who just wanted good people for his dogs, not ferocious at all!

Most pups here will be advertised in the bumwiper, because in a small island group, there isn't much else, and the internet is much "newer" here than elsewhere!

So I have no problem with ads in the bumwiper (it's not free, anyway), and, in fact, I got Thorgeir that way, too!


Snorri