I have been approached by a potential puppy buyer who is travelling to view one of my puppies (10 hour round trip).

'On paper' she seems ideal, but will have to meet and grill first.

If she is suitable and she wants the puppy, she has asked me to keep her until after Christmas as she has a holiday booked at that time. I have no problem with this as I obviously want the best and right home, although the puppy will be over four months old.

I am not sure how to handle the 'legalities'. Should I take a normal minimal deposit, larger deposit or full payment? How should the contract differ to normal contract - if at all. What about insurace - who is responsible? Cost of food etc. If I am only able to take minimum deposit - I am still obliged to sell the puppy to this buyer?

Any advice would be welcome as all sorts of scenarios are going around in my head.

Get payment in full.  So that in effect you are boarding the puppy.

I did this one time and they were supposed to pay in full by 8 weeks, but never did, and then pup had an accident, (result green stick fracture of front leg) and of course it cost me quite a bit.

had the pups been transferred into new owners name and Insurance started then the Insurance would have been in force at time of mishap.

I never charge anything for puppies staying longer until they are over 10 weeks (as I consider 8 to 10 weeks normal homing age).  I then charge for the vaccinations, something for their keep to cover food time and trouble with socialisation etc.

Depending on how soon the holiday is after pups are ready to go then pup could always go to new home and come back for the duration of the holiday.  I have done it this way too, and it worked very well for both families.

When I had puppies which were - technically - ready to leave on Christmas eve, we specified that none of them would leave until after 3rd January - to which all purchasers agreed - and one lady asked if we could keep keep her pup until after 16th January as she would be on holiday.    She offered to pay the whole cost before hand, and also offered to pay the equivalent of kennel charges (which we refused) from 3rd Jan until she picked him up.

When I held a puppy to honour holidays until 12 weeks, they insisted on paying full price at 8 weeks, I'd have been happy to wait.  They are a super couple and wonderful owners :-)

We arranged that the pup would be vaccinated at the same time as mine and they paid the cost of Vaccination fee too.  This meant that their pup could go out as soon as they collected him :-)

Food/board was minimal as our breed don't eat that much, again I wasn't going to charge but they insisted.  Insurance, that kicked in when the owners collected the pup.

As I was keeping a pup myself, I wasn't worried about keeping another one, but it was hard work as they got older!   Two lots of training and socialising etc.

I had suggested keeping him as they had asked about boarding kennels and young pups. 

The couple travelled up to see the pup weekly until they went on holiday, then collected him the day they got back.

Hi Barbara,

The puppies are 8 weeks tomorrow. I won't be letting them go until 10 weeks anyway (8th November), more than happy to keep any puppy until twelve as they are toy/small breed. Four in the litter.

The two boys in the litter are reserved for superhomes, unusually not far from where I live. The other girl in the litter is going to my son for my granddaughter to show.

This remaining girl is already tugging at my heart strings - has followed me around since she was up and walking, separating herself from the group to search me out.

I already have two, boy and girl which is enough - my kids have said I can't keep her (there does come a time when children start telling their parents what to do. I think it has something to do with hair turning silver. LOL)

I am worried as well that by keeping her until after xmas that I will be too invested emotionally. It is hard at the moment to think that the  two boys are going out of the family.

I have thought that I would be more than happy to have her back for the xmas period. I understand that the holiday is in the UK at some holiday lodge/cottage and that they are worried that she will be disrupted by changing homes during this period, but thinking about it, my boy (just 11 months), I took him away at 3 months old to a holiday cottage and he was fine. Didn't know the difference really. Still with the family he knew and my girl. Perhaps she doesn't want xmas disrupted by a puppy. We shall see.

Well if your breeds homing age is later anyway I'd want pup paid for at the usual age you'd normally home.

Re holidaying and holidays periods. 

What you have to remember those of us who already have dogs and have a pup at busy times work around the pup and they are not a novelty.

In many new homes a new pup would perhaps have too much attention from all and sundry during a  busy family time.  Which is the main reason we don't as breeders like to home over Christmas, but happily do so to known doggy connections.

Yes it is hard not to get attached to those staying longer.  have done it numerous times especially with puspm going abroad.  Another reason to have puppy actually already sold ;)

Hi again Barbara,

If I agree to keep the puppy until after xmas, should I not have some sort of contract that specifies a date at which she must be picked up by?

To take full payment, is the way to go, I agree. But what if Xmas runs on into the New Year?

Separate issue: I was already approched by one family to keep one of the boys until Xmas eve as they wanted a Xmas present for their two children aged 17 months and 3 years old. My reply took some thinking about to remove every swear word that I knew!!!

By the time they have the puppy it'll be so attached to you, and you to it. Possibly housetrained etc - you doing all the work that a new owner should be doing. Our older dog now we had just before Christmas (just the two of us, not a noisy young family!), on Boxing Day he travelled to Scotland with us and was perfect. The week after Christmas the breeder had him back for a few days due to a prearranged holiday, in the uk but not dog friendly. I know these potential owners live a long way from you but they don't seem that keen to me to be honest. I think I'd prefer a pup to go to a home that was so excited and keen to care for it early on.

When my daughter bought her dog (over 9 years ago now) we were in a similar position is as much as the pup wasn´t ready immediately and we then had a holiday booked.  We asked the breeder if she would keep him until after our holiday to save him having to go into kennels and we paid in full, wrote regularly and it all worked out perfectly.  The breeder was quite happy with that arrangement even though she did have a house full of dogs and our dog bonded to my daughter instantly (actually he chose her rather than she choosing him).

Well, as Arched commented, the prospective puppy buyer was not that keen as it turned out.

When I said that she would need to pay for the puppy upfront, along with insurance etc., she has withdrawn her interest.

I am glad that cleared everything up looks like you had a bit of insight into how they would see a puppy which is great. hope you find a good home soon unless the kids relent lol and yes I had noticed that at some point the children seem to think they have a rather large say in what yo are doing and my hair is still blonde !

It's a sign. You need to keep the pup. ;-)

This is me: Big Grinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn LOL

Ha, Ha!  Sounds like Pup is definitely in the right place and does not need to go anywhere either before or after Christmas!

Yes, it is looking like she is a 'keeper'.

Daughter number two came at the weekend and melted, and actually gave her a name!

You need to do what is right for you, not what your children say. If you feel you can give her the care she needs then you keep her :)