Hi all,
I have two boy pups left for sale and have had no interest in them whatsoever. Apart from a woman a few weeks back who, i thought was totally unsuitable and so turned her down for one of my pups.
Apart from them eating me out of house and home i have done everything in my power for them. They are fully vaccinated, micro chipped, house trained and have all the relevant paperwork etc but the phone doesn't ring. I decided a few weeks before Christmas that should anyone enquire about them i would not re-home them before Christmas as i didn't want them to be bought in haste as a last minute gift no matter how wonderful the new owners might have been.
The pups that have so far been sold have gone to wonderful homes and i am pleased to say i still get updates and pics.
I admit this is my first time breeding but i have learnt so much from this forum in the meantime. Can anyone recommend where i can advertise. Should the original price remain the same.
The original advert with the K.C. has now expired which is where most of the enquiries came from should i update this advert? I don't want to go through a newspaper as i am ashamed to admit i made this mistake once already and was besieged with totally inappropriate phone calls. I like most breeders on here want only the very best for these pups however long it takes.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

I had exactly the same problem with my last litter (11 years ago). They stayed, and threw all my future plans out of the window.

If the worst comes to the worst, you've now got two lovely well-bred dogs!

I find it always goes very quiet just before Christmas - except the ones that want them as Xmas gifts!!!!!!! - but find probably 2nd week of January things start to pick up again.

Isn't it interesting how people's experiences vary?

I used the KC site for the litter sired by my lovely young boy - litter was larger than I had expected and people backed out who had booked :(  and only had one phone call - and that was just someone doing market research on how much to charge for their pups!

I was going to use the breed clubs but first decided that I would try an ad on one of the free sites and also an ad in the paper. I waited with bated breath to see what sort of enquiries I had. I was delighted with the quality of the homes offered :) The enquirers had noted the differences between my ad and the ad of the "puppy producers" and had got in touch. Not all wanted a pup yet but were delighted to find a responsible breeder not too far away to visit and talk to about the breed and I will help them to find a responsibly bred pup during the course of this year.

I think that we responsible breeders should use the free sites but be very careful what we say, stressing temperament and relevant health tests and breed knowledge. So many people start their puppy search by googling so we should be where they will look first to show them the difference between the responsible and the not! Sadly times have changed and the majority won't go to the breed clubs first.

How old are your pups now?

If I were you, I'd be advertising absolutely everywhere.  It is a pain in the bum to get totally inappropriate enquiries, but besides the fact that it takes time to vet and talk to people, there's nothing to lose.  You never know, in 20 inappropriate enquiries, there might be just one which is a good home - well worth wading through all the inappropriate folk for, I'd say.

Hi,
Pups are four months old now and cheeky too! LOL!
When i advertised in a newspaper it covered my entire county. There was a woman who enquired about a particular pup then continued to harass me for days with the help of her so called friends. In the end i threatened her with police action if she and her acquaintances didn't leave me alone. It all got a bit scary to say the least with me and partner sleeping down stairs next to pups.

What kind of breed are they?

Just a thought as I was speaking to someone funnily enough the other day but if the money is not an issue do you think they would be suitable to be donated to the hearing/blind associations as possible hearing dogs for the deaf etc?  or to the police?

I know a few people who 'nanny' these kind of dogs for the first year and it is such a lovely/rewarding  thing to do.

Good luck though and whatever you decide to do, I hope you find great homes for your boys.

:)

Balibee the breed cannot be mentioned on the board - that's advertising.
Zebedee, your best help should be from your breed club.  Potential owners looking for good breeders will contact them.  Also make contact with other exhibitors that you have met at shows - their details are usually in catalogues.
If you work your dogs, then make contact with others that you have met there.
Although I agree with the principle of good breeders using free websites, I've only ever had one decent enquiry that I let a puppy go to. :(

Also at 4 months and now they are fully vaccinated, you need to get them out individually to socialise them.  This is very time consuming as you've also got to put time into the pup that you're keeping, but it's also essential that they get out and about at this age.
Good luck. :)

I totally agree with what's been said and also ridgielover re the free-sites as it's all very well shunning them because of the unscrupulous breeders on there but that's where most puppy buyers end up looking first (if they don't know any better) when they google their chosen breed.  These sites will always exist, no matter what, we can't control the internet. If decent breeders don't advertise on these sites then it will only be full of puppy farmers happy to push puppies onto the naive because it's the first place they've looked.

Of course it goes without saying that you have to vet enquirers carefully wherever they've got your details from.  If you do advertise on these sites, make sure your address is kept private for security reasons.

Good luck in finding your boys homes, you've been given lots of good advice x

I had a litter born 10 weeks ago and due to an unexpected last minute change of stud dog lost all but one of my waiting buyers. With 9 pups of an extremely demanding breed  that was quite scary. Hence I decided to advertise absolutely everywhere, good and bad places. You name it, I advertised there. It was a COMPLETE waste of time. The ONLY two places I found buyers from was ChampDogs and my own website, all the other adverts were no use at all and I wasted a lot of money. I advertised both online and in the dog papers and magazines. In the end I went out and found buyers myself by looking for them -i.e. contacting previous puppy buyers, asked a contact at the police etc if they would be interested in a pup. I got 7 homes and had to keep 2 pups instead of one -but others in my breed have had to keep more than that and are still trying to sell.

Advertise and wait. 

Make sure to point out in adverts the advantages you are giving the pups in training full vaccinations etc.

When anyone breeds a litter you cannot guarantee to have pups sold by any particular time frame, you have to wait for the right home to emerge.

One year when I had a November litter I did find that there was zero interest/enquiries at this time (mid December to mid January) right until about the third week in January when interest snowballed.

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