just a quick question when people are coming to view my puppies if i ask for deposit is this refundable or not as i have had lots of people interested and theres not enough pups to go round any advice please

If you've more owners than puppies, why take a deposit as if the original person changes his/her mind you've someone else for that pup.

the reason is for this so i know they are sold and when someone else wants one i know whos is whos i didnt know how this worked with the depoists

Vet your prospective owners carefully and select only the ones you are perfectly happy with then take deposits.  Tell the rest of your people they are on your reserve list - that's what I do anyway - and if there are no puppies left from your litter you can put them in touch with other people in the breed who have puppies.

I first got the idea of Deposits being the thing to do when I read the 'Book of the Bitch' and thought the reasoning behind the advice sound, and with my own experience with my first litter have done it ever since, has saved on time wasters, and means I don't need to disapoint or mess about nice people.

I don't take deposits.  If I have more homes than pups, then I chose what I consider to be the best homes.  If people change their minds, then I'd rather they did it BEFORE they take my puppy, rather than have it disrupted 6 months down the line!

Nor me...in this situation I would tell the rest that the pups are sold but will consider them again if anyone goes back on their word. If someone does change their mind they are more likely to admit it if they dont think they will lose money.

thank you echo what would be a reasonable amount to ask for

I ask for £50.  I usually state it is not refundable but under exceptional circumstances I will give the money back.  You have to play it by ear.  There are some good examples of puppy contracts on the boards somewhere.  Does anyone remember what the post was called - probably puppy contract.

Dont you think that not returning it when you have another owner straight away is rather unfair?

Not really I tell my people that once they ahve a deposit down then the pup wil not be available to anyone else, but if they are in anyway unsure they will have to take th3e risk of pup being promiseed elsewhere.

It costs a breeder to readvertise their pups, as they will have passed the potential new homes elsewhere.

I prefer to take a £50 deposit, as I don't think it fair to keep the remaining people in limbo, and prefer that they go on another breeders list. 

Having passed on good homes to others with my first litter I found myself with two pups unsold due to time waters and then had to wait for new enquiries as my other people on my waiting list had got a puppy elsewhere. 

In a numerically small breed like mine people would be most put out being kept waiting and then find they were too late to get a pup from another litter, or another breder woudl be most put out if I then pinched an enquiry back as I ahd a pup after all, and then they had to find a new home for one of theirs.

Am I losing the plot here? We have countless threads saying good breeders dont need to advertise. In a numerically small breed it is surely unlikely another breeder will have a litter ready and waiting, so these potential owners will still be on a waiting list. And it only costs £15 to go on the KC list anyway.

It isn't as simple as that if you are let down by puppy enquirers and have passed on enquiries to others then it will mean you have to let the world know you still have pups or wait until someone contacts you afresh.

Bitches are seldom obliging enough to produce just the right number of the right sex of puppy either so breeders swap around to ensure everyone is happy.

I never use the KC listing, and it isn't one you can ask to come on and off of.

In  a breed like ours (120 pups a year) the balance of suitable good homes and pups available is fairly evenly balanced. 

You may have several litters of the breed 'on the ground at once', or have no pups for months, or like recently out of 3 litters there were only 3 bitch pups born al the rest were male. 

Oobviously there were some very disappointed people having to wait on another list for bitches, but there was a surplus of dog pups and breeders had to wait up until some were up to 16 weeks before the right kind of homes became available.

I just wondered why you do not use the kc listing?

With my own breed not being very well known you simply rarely get enquiries through it, as those who have heard of the breed are most likely to contact the breed club who keep a list of pups available and litters planned.

Also by the time I register my pups (at around two weeks, and another week or two before the registrations are completed and you get listed) I would hope to have most of my pups already booked.

Anybody who pays can use the KC listing (unless the system's been changed recently) - even commercial breeders and puppy farmers. :( Breed clubs are more discriminating! ;)

Thats very interesting. God you learn so much when you look

I beleive they limit the list to those breeding less than five litters a year, unless they are 'acredited breeders' (one would hope the leater would not be breeding in volume).

When I purchased both my puppies I offered a £200 deposit purely because it had taken me so long to find the right pup that I didnt want to lose them! I was also one of those people who visited once a week to see my babies! I think people dont expect to get a refund if the were to mess someone around, when people buy a puppy they should not have made the decision lightly and so wont be pulling out on the 'deal'. I would only refund in exceptional circumstances like unexpected loss of job or worse and I also think if someone seemed unwilling to leave a deposit that they were not that keen and so would send them packing..... Oh and in the eyes of the law I think you have to have written it down or at least verbally stated that the deposit is non returnable. Hope this helps

yes thank you so much for all your imput i will consider this

I wouldn't ask for a deposit.  If someone changes their mind like that then I wouldn't want them to have a pup anyway.  I wouldn't want people to take it just because if they don't they will lose the deposit.

Cant remember where it came in but I only take a deposit from the people who are having a pup.  If for a valid reason they drop out I am lucky enough to have a long reserve list.  I didn't say I would not return a deposit but that it depends on the circumstances.  If you tell them from the off what you intend to do it sorts out serious enquires straight away.  Ive had people on my list for 12 months and got to know them very well and the ones that are having puppies will be paying deposits on week 4 if they are happy with the puppy when they see it in the flesh.

I email my people at least twice a week and talk with them on the phone, everyone knows where they stand.  When people are paying hundreds of pounds for a pup and have waited years for a particular line they are not going to change their minds overnight without good reason, good reason means return deposit not take away pup they dodnt want.

I don't ask for a deposit. I was told (by a solicitor) that they remove a great deal of the breeder's right to change their mind about the suitability of the prospective purchaser. A deposit is a contract, which the purchaser can insist the breeder upholds, even if the breeder would prefer to return the deposit and sell the puppy to someone else.

But breeders should be as possitive as they can before asking for a deposit that the home is the right one for that pup, I can see your point though.

I was, but have had to change my mind twice. Once when I phoned what had seemed to be a very nice family and found they'd lied to me about their circumstances; the second was when the partner of the (again. very nice) girl I'd agreed to sell a pup to tipped another (6-week old) pup off his lap onto a hard floor, then scruffed another for chewing his jumper.

Sometimes people are good actors. :(

Almost makes you not want to breed for worrying about them

Hi Jeangenie

Do you get friends in the breed to do drive by's or find out more information about prospective pup owners.  I had a call a couple of days ago from someone in the breed telling me that the person who had just approached me and been referred by someone else was not what they seemed.  They would have been on the reserve list anyway but the OH is doing a drive by to see if their residence is what they say it is.  We do the same for others.

It can be a nerve wracking game cant it?

Yes, and I've done home-checks for other people in return. :)

It must be so much easier to be commercial and not give a flying fig about the pups once they're sold.

I agree with Jeangenie on this, people can be very plausible and tell you what they think they want you to hear. If you don't take a deposit and several visits later (I had my owners visiting weekly from a few days old) you decide they're not suitable it's surely easier to say you've changed your mind or that pup is no longer available. Also as someone else said I'd rather the prospective owners said if they'd changed their mind or were having doubts, which they may not if they've paid a deposit.

To anyone with experience,  :)

This is a little of track really, but once you have decided who is suitable to have one of your puppies and you have taken the deposit, what arrangements do you make to receive the final payment? Do you ask people to pay in cash, cheque in advance or do you just trust that they are not going to rip you off at the last moment with a duff cheque?

It's alot of money left to pay at collection time if you are only taking £50 deposit.

chocymolly

Yes I ask for a cheque cleared beforehand or cash on the day.  Even the nicest, best intentioned people can live surprisingly haphazard financial lives :) and I prefer to stay out of that.

I explain that I only accept cash or Building Society (unstoppable) cheques.

I have never taken a deposit and have no intention of doing so in the future (not that I breed very often).  I can't see the point.  I will have spent a very long time talking to potential owners before I will commit myself to letting them have one of my babies, and if something goes wrong at their end and for some reason they can no longer have the pup they've been waiting for for ages, then I wouldn't want their money. I am in the fortunate position of having more people wanting my pups than I want to produce.  I don't think anyone should breed without having a waiting list. 
And if it was returnable, what would be the point anyway?

Well, i'm sorry, but I go with instinct - if I consider that someone is good enough to have one one of my babies I would not dream of adsking for a deposit - I feel that I can trust them, and hopefully they would feel the same about me.