Is it a sign of the times I wonder?

Was out walking my boy near my house over the weekend, in a very popular spot for dog walker, ramblers and basically anyone on a bank holiday weekend as there is a hug chain pub nearby.

My boy came across a breed of dog(not going to mention breed) and I got chatting with the dogs owners. They mentioned that they had a litter at home, 6 week old puppies and basically offered me a bitch!! , they'd only been speaking to me a couple of minutes and knew nothing of me... How very worrying...This breed really doesn't need to fall into the wrong hands, I do oh so worry...:-(

It does make me wonder how many others have been offered or spoken to about their current litter out on a dog walk, not the way i'd go promoting a litter thats for sure or trying to drum up a sale, Jeez....

I never mention my litters out on walks or anywhere else locally as to me it only takes someone to tell someone else and I fear litters could be stolen. Until my litters are heard in the garden my neighbours don't even know they are there.

I was offered a Yorkie pup at the vets when I took my guinea pigs for a consultation !

Funny that is the same as me mountaindreams.  I ended up in a row with my OH who happened to mention our litter in our local.  He really couldn't understand my worry.  He said you might get a home for one, and I replied I am only interested in people who are actually actively looking for one of my breed, not someone who hears of a litter and thinks 'ooh wouldn't mind one of those'.

It's bad enough with family, friends and acquaintances getting gooey and considering having a puppy, and I have to point out all the negatives, because they are just being swayed by emotion when there are puppies on the ground.  This includes some of my doggy friends in other breeds or those in other doggy activities who should know better.

On the other hand when I don't have puppies and people meet me with the dogs and want info on the breed that's another matter.

In fact someone who did that had her husband come to see the dogs and they had been thinking of getting a dog of Spitz type.

They ended up getting a puppy from a breeder some hundreds of miles away, I was given the task of keeping an eye on them which resulted in training classes, ring-craft and them exhibiting (was very handy having a local lift to shows too ;).  They bred from their bitch in the fullness of time too.  Sadly they no longer show due to his work commitments meaning he is often abroad, so his weekends are devoted to wife and family.

I'm all for promoting my breed, but not encouraging puppy sales.

Thing is in the current climate the kind of puppy buyers one needs are not two a penny, and even with a decent waiting list I don't think any breeder can count on having all puppies homed before 12 weeks old at least. 

We on here understand that a puppy is homed when the right home comes along, not when pups reach a certain age.  Those casual breeders want their puppies gone before they get hard work, often as Young as 6 weeks, we have seen posts about it here..

Works both ways.

Each time I take a litter to be jabbed or eye screened, there is always someone who asks can they buy one.
I was putting my recent litter into the car after their 2nd jab when a young girl rushed over and said ....
"please wait until my dad gets in so he can buy me one" !

Yes Cavalier pups can look very cute but to want to buy a pup on such a whim is frightening. Since I dont tell strangers anything about my pups ( and certainly not on these occasions) I assume these casual enquirers assume they are cheap, still looking for homes and Im desperate :-(

All sold long since of course :-)

Each time I take a litter to be jabbed or eye screened, there is always someone who asks can they buy one.

Ditto with my Papillon puppies.

>>I was offered a Yorkie pup at the vets when I took my guinea pigs for a consultation ! >>

Yorkies and guineapigs being so similar<rolleyes>!!

> Thing is in the current climate the kind of puppy buyers one needs are not two a penny, and even with a decent waiting list I don't think any breeder can count on having all puppies homed before 12 weeks old at least

So, so true.  And some posters on here will remember the pup that I kept, after he had been cancelled.  I turned down so many people, that I thought no sensible puppy owners were out there, due to the recession.

Since the recession hit, I have found that the type of person enquiring for pups are more likely to be "whim" buyers.  Barbara is right about keeping on pups later than usual for this reason.

When people say "oh, I've had no problem getting rid of mine" you know they say yes to anyone who enquires.  Sadly, I have seen this happen in show homes too.  Not everyone who shows dogs has the pups best interests at heart.

I don't think any breeder can count on having all puppies homed before 12 weeks old at least

my litter last year some of the pups were still with us at 16 weeks old due to lack of unsuitable homes.

I've never bred from dogs but I do breed tortoises. I dread people seeing them and often never mention that they are in the pen at the bottom of the garden (it is fenced off from the rest of the garden so could easily look like a vegetable patch or similar.) They have specialist needs, not too similar to a dog who's needs are mainly behavioural etc, with heat and diet etc and need a lot of dedication in that way. They are very cute when hatched and I've had hatchlings as small as 9grams on hatching but they don't realise that they will soon be the size of a dinner plate and need a pen the size of a small garden!

I have turned down so many homes because they just aren't right and it frightens me that some people sell to whoever asks for one. The torts are now in a similar situation to the dogs where so many people buy them from dodgy outlets that they are hard to find new homes for. When I started out with tortoises there were far more homes than tortoises and now it is the other way around.

I never tell anyone about them and would be totally the same with my dogs if I ever bred, I totally understand what you mean.

Josh

When people say "oh, I've had no problem getting rid of mine" you know they say yes to anyone who enquires.  Sadly, I have seen this happen in show homes too.  Not everyone who shows dogs has the pups best interests at heart.

Not always true...my waiting lists can be very very long!!!!
But I get your drift. Don't like the "getting rid of" though   Placing mine would be kinder, Thanks
Aileen
PS but then again I breed only rarely.

I hate the term "Get rid of" or when people say "I'll take one puppy off you"! Sounds so horrible.

> When people say "oh, I've had no problem getting rid of mine" you know they say yes to anyone who enquires.&nbsp; Sadly, I have seen this happen in show homes too.&nbsp; Not everyone who shows dogs has the pups best interests at heart.
>
> Not always true...my waiting lists can be very very long!!!!
>

I'm in the same position Aileen. I offer one puppy per year to the open market ( so to speak) the others are many times over subscribed.

I think so much depends on breed. My large breed there are never enough homes for these days. We have a lot of unscrupulous breeders that will breed regularly and sell to anyone, no questions asked. The fact that I only have a litter every 2 ½ to 3 years now go against me as people will no longer wait as they used to! The irresponsible sell all their pups no problem. I have four sets of littermates here now -that says a lot I think. Most responsible breeders are the same, would rather keep two than sell to the wrong home. My small breed I can REALLY cherry pick with as I could never have enough of them.

we are lucky in our breed about 350 pups are born in a year, people are prepared to wait and travel to get pups, infact corgi rescue who deals with both corgi breeds has a three year waiting list of people waiting for dogs, the last litter i bred last november the four pups we were going to sell were spoken for before they were a week old, one to a couple who have mums litter brother and the other 3 recommended by friends in the breed having had sold them their last corgis and when due to mams ill health and had to sell the 2 we were planning on keeping let same friends know and within a week they were in there new homes all to experinced corgis owners and people we know or who good friends know who are as picky as us when selling pups know

Wish you were desperate Tooolz and I could buy one, lol! :-D

> we are lucky in our breed about 350 pups are born in a year,

We have had one tenth that number last year (29 pups for the year, actually beaten by Finnish Spitz), and even 20 years ago only half that.

First quarter this year has 29 so maybe we won't die out in UK yet (well bred by decent breeders and KC registered, as the IKC and DLRC and non registered figures are doing quite well, and rescue has a steady influx).

well im not surprised,is there anything cuter?

> Don't like the "getting rid of" though&nbsp;

Neither do I Aileen.  I was making a point about the sort of folk that use that expression.  It really gets my goat.

Last year, when I took my litter to the seaside, a lady who always watches out to see if I have any pups around, asked if I had "got rid", and I know she wants one from me.  I just say that I don't "get rid."

It also annoys me the attitude some people have, a neighbour came up to my husband who was out making sure the young boy dog didn't harm his sister while they were playing rough. the neighbour asks 'you having trouble off loading your pups' thankfully my husband replied sensibly and said 'no, we have them for racing these are the ones we are keeping' (pups being 6 months old). The neighbour then replied that he knew of people in Glasgow that want them if we ever want to get rid of them.

My first litter of Siberians and I was very cagey about them as I knew a lot of 'wrong types' were wanting blue eyed wolf marked bitches for breeding, people just hoping to cash in and make money from breeding these dogs.

Reminds me of a call I got with my litter 3 years back, a chap desperately keen over the phone to bring the money straight away and in his words 'take the dog'. I had to carefully explain that he was viewing the litter which were too young to go and we were seeing if we got on with each other and were satisfied with each other as well as looking at the puppy. Made the appointment to view and he never turned up.....

> Made the appointment to view and he never turned up.....

Whew!  What a relief!