I had 15 people on my waiting list. When I confirmed the pregnancy that dropped down to 5, when they were born it has dropped down to 1! A waiting list, no matter how large, is no guarantee and therefore I try to always have an advert going on the well known sites, certainly well in advance of any litter I intend to have and if I don't have what they want I pass them on to some one I know who does health tests.
Education is vital and I make sure health tests are mentioned so even if someone doesn't contact me they hopefully have gained a bit more knowledge!
Becky

Nope, not by me, when we were showing the Beardies & GSDs, we were always approached by prospective owners, who having met our dogs, wanted apuppy from the same breeding. You should not breed a litter if you do not have anyone interested in the puppies & in case they fall through or aren't suitable you need to be able to correctly keep the puppies until homes turn up for them or are able to keep the puppies permanently.

By showing you are advertising your stock so you did advertise back then.
Becky

Eh ? I showed my Champion Bitch not my stock FYI I have never considered my pets to be "stock", my Champion bitch never had a litter & had to be spayed on medical grounds(& yes we did have KC permission to go on showing her)

We didn't show the 1st bitch we bred from as she didn't enjoy showing & preferred to stay at home with her dad(nothing wrong with her temperament). Her Grand daughter that had our other litter wasn't shown in breed as she was too busy doing stage work.

So how could we be classed as advertising our"stock"when until the second litter we never showed any dogs other than our Champion-who wasn't bred from .

As for the GSD their bloodlines, conformation & health results spoke for themselves, only the males were shown as adults so how showing males could be classed as advertizing puppies from bitches that were not being shown.

Gosh Becky you do have some very odd perceptions of what showing dogs is really about-ie getting an"expert's"opinion of our dogs(especially in GSDs were that rating of the dog is far more important than the placing)

Was my Glen's obedience & trialling successes also advertizing his offspring, despite the fact I never had a bitch to mate him too ???

Perhaps the fact that you view showing dogs as advertizing their real offspring or their non existent offspring for sale(as was the case with our Hiedi) & not to have the dogs compared to the breed standard/working ability explains why you don't show your dogs any more.

Excellent post, totally agree.

To add to it, I sometimes think it can be a good thing to advertise in free papers. There will be many people out there who have absolutely no idea about dogs, or where to buy one. That doesn't necessarily make them bad people or poor prospective owners, it just means they need guidance. If a good breeder advertises in the free papers it could be a good way to prevent people from going to a puppy farm or byb by educating them.

When my Sister wanted a Bichon for her family she came to me as she knew I'd know where to look. If she hadn't had me I really do think she'd have ended up going through the paper. As it happens their dog has a lovely home and gets plenty of love and attention, even the most clueless of people can have a good home waiting for a dog!

I also think its a way of educating the public, my breeds not for the fainthearted there very clingy and dont cope with long periods alone.
With every litter Ive had to turned down prospective buyers and I've always explained why and that WEslhies werent the right dog for them.
As too why I breed, hopefully I do it to improve the breed, our gene pools so small and we have so many problems at the moment its essential we contunue to try breed healthy animals or the breed will die out, the sane can be said for a lot of breeds not just the ones on the native rare breed register