Hi all, hope someone can help.

First of all, I am not an experienced breeder nor doing this for a career. Just wanted a litter from my health tester Cocker before we had he spade with view to keeping one of the pups.

I bred a Litter and all went well with delivery/rearing. Total cost to buy one was £650 with £200 deposit on viewing. All were reserved before they were ready to leave at 8 weeks.
Come 8 weeks, I had them vaccinated and health checked (as well as looked over at 1 week) and one puppy was found with a very slight Grade 1 heart murmur. We informed the couple who had reserved him and asked if they wanted him with a heart murmur. Lady on the phone said they 100% want him with a heart murmur and arranged for us to go and drop him off.

On Friday we travelled 5 hours to drop him off at his new home (so we could see where he was going + we relocated mid rearing so felt it right to bring them back) and all seemed okay. My wife went in alone and buyers Husband only gave my wife £200 out of the £450 owing and said he will transfer the rest once they have had a heart murmur confirmed by their vet. They then quickly ushered her out of the house. She got a signature saying they owe the final £250 on vet checking and confirming murmur.

Come the following Monday they took the dog to their vet and have supposedly been told that the puppy is extremely ill - Which he wasn't when he left us the Friday before. I've contacted their vet and been told that he isn't ill and the murmur will likely fade.
They're only offering us £125 out of the £250 and won't return the puppy. We've offered to refund them the whole amount they have paid to get him back.

All microchip, vaccination card and everything else is in my name, they just have the puppy.
Obviously what they are doing is illegal - But am I within rights to expect the full amount within X amount of days or I can collect the puppy?
What has everyone else done/would do in this position?
Thanks in advance.

Tell them (preferably by recorded letter) what the conditions of the agreement were that they signed to, that you have spoken to their vet who has confirmed the puppy was not I'll and did have the heart murmur which they knew about and accepted at the time of sale and that they have one week to pay the remaining balance or return the puppy for a refund or you will pursue the matter in court.

I have wrote a "letter before legal proceedings" ready to send to them in the morning.
Just had a phone call from them saying that he is making a final offer of £175 out of the £250 but nothing more.

So I mentioned legal proceedings if no payment or return of puppy and he withdrew the offer of £175.  Said that they are taking him Vet's next Friday and come that day if he is well they will transfer us the amount or if he's "unwell" they possibly will make another offer to keep him (less than the full amount) or return him.

Still send the letter or wait?

Should also note that I have kept all the texts/WhatsApp messages as well as recorded all the phone calls.

I would still send the letter - they don't sound ideal puppy owners and I would be wanting my puppy back.

Send the letter......they're having you on!

I'm with Harley on this one.  I would most definitely not want these people to have my precious puppy.  I would be in the car and going to fetch him back home.  (Yes, I've done it.)  The money would be the least of my worries.

We're now 5 hours away and have told them I would much rather just refund them and have him back. So serving the letter and then going to go and try and get him.

Yep, definitely send the letter.  You already know he's liable to lie about whatever the vet says and I'd not want someone like that keeping a pup (not that I breed, but you know what I mean).

You need to get that puppy back.

Not a dig at you but serves anyone reading to not hand over a puppy or any 'goods' without full payment. No payment no puppy or no goods.

Good luck and keep us informed on how you get on. With owners like that I would not be wanting them to have the pup. Hopefully they will see sense and hand back the puppy and get their money back.

Only once in the few litters we had puppies to sell from, did I not take payment in full at the time the puppy went off to his/her new home.  That was with a lovely family I honestly thought would give my puppy a good home and life.   I let them pay the bulk of the cost up front, and stage pay the remainder, which they did.

Finding good homes without complications was the one part of breeding the litters we did, which were only for our next generation in any case, that I hated.   I have to say I had far fewer problems with my Canadian litters, than I did after coming back to the UK!!

Did you manage to get pup back - or the rest of the money you were owed?

  It would be good to have an update.  Hope things ended well for you and the puppy.

Hey, the 5 days to return pup or pay the rest of the money is up tomorrow.
I will update you with their decision and also what happens from there.

Ah, I see - thanks for the update.  Fingers crossed you get pup back.  Good luck.

I have had a similar experience just recently. I let somebody have a pup on payment terms (my suggestion, not theirs I have to add) - I felt sure it was a good home, the person was pretty wellknown in dogs, and back when I got my first pup of the breed there were pups available much sooner than I had expected, so the breeder offered me the same; pay in instalments. I felt like I wanted to offer someone the same kindness that had been offered to me.

Long story short, got two small payments then no more. No explanations, no apologies -and when I queried it was just told "will pay you asap". After close to a year I had enough and sent a letter stating I wanted the dog returned immediately or the full price paid within 21 days, or I'd take legal action. 2 days later the dog was back with me. (When I checked through his paperwork, my letter was in with it, ripped into pieces.)

Had this person TOLD me they were having troubles, apologised, made any effort to let me know they were trying their best, I would not have minded. We could have sorted something out. It was the fact that I was just being ignored that got to me. The owner was clearly upset at returning the dog, but as no efforts had been made to ensure they could keep it, I felt I had no choice. I certainly paid for my pup as soon as I possibly could all those years ago, and had I had problems, I would have made very sure I kept the breeder informed as no way would I have wanted to lose the dog.

How sad. At least you got the dog back. If they had no money, what would have happened to it if they were faced with a vet bill? Sounds as though the dog had a lucky escape.

Oh wow you got the dog back. Brilliant. That's great Marianne