Thought this might be a good idea for a sticky as I am keen to find a good breeder's scheme to join and am open to suggestions....

What breeder's scheme's do you use?
What do you get with them?
Any minimum order?
Do you recommend them?

Is this with regards to breeders clubs for dog food?

Sticky????

Breeder Scheme?

If your talking about dog foods, find a food that suits your dogs, then find the cheepest way to buy that food!

Breeder's schemes as I know of them are when you sign up with a food manufacturer who may or may not give you access to discounted bulk orders of food (or expect it in return for sending puppy packs) but mainly send you puppy packs to give the new owners providing you give the buyers details over. Perhaps they arent known as breeders schemes :S

Not quite correct.. many show/working people feed their dogs a specific brand (which suits them) and in return for good custom & advertising, they get a discounted supply.

However in more recent times.. puppy packs cost £5.00 each, they are not free, but still cheaper than purchasing from local shops etc..

what you will need to do, is contact the customer service dept. of the brand you feed, and ask them about their breeders scheme, if they have one.. many brands dont do these any more.. and some never have.. Others have a minimum purchase policy for a minimum of 6 months before you have a litter.

I don't understand why you want this to be made a sticky?? 

another thing you need to watch on providing buyers details.. you are required by law, to gain permission for you to pass these details on to the manufacturers.. under the data protection act.

I use Eukanuba but I have been feeding my dogs that long before I joined their breeder club.

You do get a discount if you order through the breeder club, you call them and give them your breeder number and they deliver the food ( I think it works out at about a 15 - 20% discount although the more bags you buy, the higher the discount) - Minimum order is 2 x 15kg bags per order which works out at about £75 - £80 depending on what you are buying (puppy, adult, working & endurance).

Eukanuba also do puppy packs, you get a plastic box (which I save as a "treat" box) which includes a 1kg bag of food, some discount vouchers, a clicker and a training book.

It's just coincidence that I joined their breeder club, as I said I have been feeding Eukanuba for a long time before joining - I feel that it is the best around and wouldn't feed anything else to my dogs. If you want the contact info let me know and I will PM you.

Well since I posted this I have contacted several manufacturers about this and none charge for the puppy packs and some offer discounts on orders.

I do not feed my whelping bitch the same food as she is on regularly....and as she can get quite soft poo's I need to be wary. Last year I used Pro Plan to feed and wean the youngsters but didnt know about the breeders schemes (mixed with mince etc). Pro Plan was ok but I decided to try Beta this year after reading a few good reviews on it.

I thought it would make a good sticky to have all the info in one place to help people decide what to feed their pups and mum on....as obviously it helps if the company is going to provide a 15kg sack of food for weaning for free and 3kg of food for each pup to go away with as well as lots of really great feeding charts and info.

As for the data protection act...yes I know it is in the puppy contract.

Thanks LucyMissy I appreciate that but I have already contacted them and they are going to send me out some information.

Pups should be here soon so not in a huge rush as don't want to order puppy packs till I know for sure how many pups :) (plus space is an issue already having bought 30kg puppy food for mum and weaning and 10x3kg sacks for puppy packs...this was before i knew about the breeders schemes how typical lol)

kelly - durrr!  ok, call me thicko!  What's a sticky please?

Lol bless....sticky is a post that remains somewhere and doesn't move like the ones at the top of each forum topic i.e should I breed my bitch etc....just makes it easy to find.

we live and learn!  :-)  Thank you.

Personally my bitch is on the food she is always on.  It suited her before being mated and she looks fantatsic on it with 4 week old pups begging for her!

The food the puppies are on is from a manufactuer we use for two other dogs and comes recommended by friend and appears, to my knowledge, be a very good food.  The puppy packs are free but fantatsic but we didn't choose them for what they offer.

Also breeds are different.  What suits one breed of puppies doesn't another as much.

Yeah that's a very good point. Just thought it would have been a handy sticky that's all was only a suggestion :)

> I thought it would make a good sticky to have all the info in one place to help people decide what to feed their pups and mum on....as obviously it helps if the company is going to provide a 15kg sack of food for weaning for free and 3kg of food for each pup to go away with as well as lots of really great feeding charts and info.
>

I would have thought most breeders are happy to stick with what suits there dogs.. Just to go for a brand because its free, is not what feeding is all about.. its about giving the best to your pups, the food I give my dogs, does not have a breeders scheme.. and certainly wouldnt change it just to get a free bag of food.. that just seems wrong to me.. but each to their own.. however.. if I was already feeding it, thats a different matter.. ;-)

Champdogs has a really good search facility  :-) 

I think its mainly pet orientated forums that have stickies Jean.. 

kayc I don't think there is any need for that tone.

I am well aware there is a search facility but the point of a sticky is it's in one place. You may be surprised but there are people that haven't bred before and don't even know about these schemes and I felt it would have been use to them to see that there is) I am not suggesting that what you feed your dog is based on the puppy packs but I know of many breeders that don't use the same brand of puppy food to rear a litter on and many are on here and therefore it may be of use to them if they want to try something else. AGAIN it was only a suggestion.

No tone intended Kelly, just simple statement of fact..

and no.. it doesnt surprise me at all.. in fact, not much surprises me anymore .. ;-)

Fair dues :)

You may be surprised but there are people that haven't bred before and don't even know about these schemes

I would hope that anyone who hadn't bred before would have a mentor in their breed who would give them exactly that sort of advice. :)  What may suit one breed wouldn't suit all........

When one thinks about it, there must be a reason why Champdogs has existed for so long without succumbing to such a "sticky".   

The good thing about Champdogs is that we don't have adverts floating across our screens - and as the "stickies" that are shown at the top of each forum are threads that contain FACTS  it would be difficult to put one on such a complex subject which consists of OPINIONS.

Champdogs is fine as it is - good breeders are advised by their mentors with a first time litter as to what food that breeder considers best FOR THE BITCH/LITTER - not the pocket of the breeder!

Admin will I think, take a dim view of allowing such a "sticky" as it could open up all sorts of claims for advertising et al!

From a 'buyer' perspective the value of a puppy pack is not the free food from the manufacturer but the years of experience that come with a good breeder. 

The measuring cup was useful and the leaflets interesting but it was the breeders recommendation, and the condition of her dogs, that sold the food to me and her that I called with all my questions about mealtimes.  Was I feeding enough, when to increase, what to look for in poos, when to change to adult etc.  I remember way back at our initial meeting (when we were being assessed), the breeder explained what she fed her dogs and why.  This was the sort of knowledge that informed my decision about what to feed.

In addition to the small bag of free food supplied by the company, the breeder had ordered all us puppy owners as many large bags as we wanted using her special breeders rates.  Her long term history with the company even got us a bit of extra discount I recall.  All the owners from this litter also got bulk buying rates on vet bed and Odour Fresh!  I was very grateful for the money off, but even without that, I'd still have chosen this food.

I suspect that experienced dog owners won't be seduced by puppy food packs with lots of extras like bags, boxes and vouchers; and your novice owners will want to know what you feed.  I'd trust my breeder's experience over the manufacturers recommended feeding charts any time :)

And as a Pedant, and a member of the Society for the Correct Usage of Apostrophes, could I ask that the title of this thread be corrected - from BREEDER'S SCHEME'S to BREEDERS' SCHEMES

Correct grammar - pleeeeese! :D

ooopss thanks Lokis mum ...or should it be Loki's mum :P

I'm only messing...thanks I am usually a stickler for grammar too shame on me.

Touche - but long long ago when I first registered with Champdogs, one could use lower case & upper case and numbers in names - but no "symbols" in one's name - don't know whether it is still the same or not!

> And as a Pedant, and a member of the Society for the Correct Usage of Apostrophes, could I ask that the title of this thread be corrected - from BREEDER'S SCHEME'S to BREEDERS' SCHEMES
>
> Correct grammar - pleeeeese! :D <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" height=10 alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif" width=20>

This made me laugh out loud!!!-I printed the home page of the Apostrophe Protection Society last year and sent it to my daughter's English teacher after reading a printed sheet that was set as homework with little or no apostrophe use- I did not get a reply. I also bought my daughter Eats, Shoots and Leaves

lol I doubt they will allow punctuation of any sort in your username

:)

> Correct grammar - pleeeeese!

That made me laugh :-)

A tall order with such a disparate bunch.

One can but dream :o)