I was just thinking about how you breeders make sure the home your sending your pup to is ok??

I was thinking about personally visiting prospective puppy owners at their homes, so i could see for myself where the pup would live and the neighbourhood, but is this going a bit far??

Would people walk away if i asked to see where my pup is going?
I dont think its a problem, but would any of you be offended if i as the breeder wanted to vet the home before sending my puppy away with the new owners.

Look forward to your responses
Gems

Hi

I wouldn't be offended at all if you wanted to come and look where the pup would live, in fact I would be quite impressed that a breeder would want to go that far to ensure the pups welfare and it would show that the breeder you have picked is a good one.

Nikki

i wouldnt be offended at all,I think its the right thing to do.Ive done rescue for years and to be honest some of the homes have been dreadful.People who just bought pedigree pups and taken them away,when to be honest if the breeder had gone they would have said no in my opinion.I think you owe it to your pups to give them the best possible home that you can.I could not just let somebody give me cash and take a puppy.I wouldnt sleep at night.Vet references are another good idea as well.If your prospective new owner was offended then they probably arent the right ones.

As a prospective dog owner id be happy for the breeder to pay my house a visit, but things like driving for 2.5 hours and £40+ petrol costs may put them off.

Kub.

We cannot be sure that the home is okay even if we go and vet it - we can see if it is secure etc but not how the potential owners will treat the pup which is the biggest concern.

There are ways to check out a home to some extent without visiting - if someone says - we are right opposite a park - this is easy now to check up on with the facilities available on the web.  If they have had a pet before then a quick word with their vet or dog trainer can also be useful.  Mostly though it will go on how you feel about someone

When carrying out home checks for welfare, I've always visited the potential owners homes. However when it comes to pedigree, the breeders I know usually settle for you visiting them. Probably because it'd be hard to travel around the country, rescue is more localized. I know breed rescue have volunteers nationwide to carry out home checks.
I certainly wouldn't mind, I'd want the breeder to be confident he/she had made the right choice.

I took all my pups  to there new homes last weekend after the 178 mile round trip 6 hours later!! It felt good knowing were they would be living rest of there lifes.  All the new owners said how nice it was that i dropped them off.

I'd rather buy a pup from someone who checks prospective homes, than someone who doesn't. At least you care enough as to where your babies are going :)

When we got our own first dog I think it's fair to say we were carefully scrutinsed over several hours and since then became involved in showing so over time became well enough known for breeders to see how well we cared for the physical condition of our dogs and also assess how good a rapport we obviously had with them.  Plus some had stayed over with us and knew the dogs were house dogs and DEFINITELY our pets first and foremost ;)

Earlier this year we had our first litter and either vetted prospective owners ourselves or had friends nearer to the new homes vet owners for us - nobody seemed to mind ;)  Obviously a lot still goes down to *gut instinct* as sometimes the perfect looking environment isn't always the best.  After all a huge garden may simply mean the dog doesn't get much exercise outside of it and someone living with a tiny yard may walk for miles daly to a local park / moorland etc.

I certainly wouldn't be offended if I was buying in another dog from someone to whom I was an unknown if they wanted to "check us out" - HTH.

Best of luck, Teri :)

thanks everyone, its nice to know im not mad, well ok i am mad, but not mad in wanting to personally check homes! :P

I agree it is down to gut instinct and even if the home seems ok, it doesnt safeguard the pups future, but i would feel a little more happier viewing the home.

thanks again :)

We always check prospective homes and new years day the year before last we visited one, unannounced, to make sure it was the right one for one of our pups and it was.  They were due to pick up their pup a few days after.  I woudn't be offended if a breeder wanted to visit me and my home.  Dont take personal recommendations, always visit/check out the home yourself.

There can be a catch 22 in checking homes.  You don't want to travel all over the country to check them before the pups are born in case there are not enough pups/correct sex/colours to go around the potential homes.  Then when you have the pups you cannot leave them long enough to travel all over the country to be able to check them out

Also like me you may not be mobile enough to travel to far fluyng parts of the country.  I am partially sighted with only 20% vision and it is hard enough to get essential journeys covered by friends and family, son't think they would take to well to ferrying me everywhgere.  Also as has been said the actual housing of the dog is the least issue.

Most breeders hope to get to know the potential new owners before and after pups are born, have them visit and go essentially on gut insticnct, and still we get it wrong, usually where we least expect a problem.

Must admit I do hate having an unplaced pup left at the leaving age as that doesn't give you so much time to get to know the new owner.

When i went to buy one of my ddb, i was questioned so much i thought they were going to tie me to a chair and beet me with a big stick, i did wonder if they were the mafia, but jokes aside it was really nice that they cared so much.

Another thought...something that happens in my breed, is that we all know each other & so for example I have 3 of my pups going to the Southeast of England & a friend of mine in the breed has done the home checks for me because theyre quite close to him & I trust his judgement. Can you organise a similar thing amongst other breeder/exhibitor friends? it works both ways & I happily do homechecks here for breeder friends up-country. :)

Thats nice sam, yes i agree there are always ways around things and i think i will make it my policy to check homes, even if it does mean travelling miles! At the end of the day i will feel happier about my babies going!

thanks again everyone

Another thing thoug is to ask the whole family to come and see the pups, expecially if with children, you would want to see how they behave around a puppy and will they respect it?  When we had pups we would let prospective owners come round as much as they like, luckily they all lived local at the time and were round afew times, this to us showed they were really intrested and made the effort.

Good point, Ice queen. I had a family come round to view a litter, and one child was scared of my adults, and didn't really want to touch the pups. They didn't get one ...