We've had our lovely girl scanned today at 5 weeks for our and her first litter! We are delighted that at 5, possibly 6 pups could be seen straight way.
I'm hoping to advertise the litter on champdogs shortly but wanted advice on the best way to run a waiting list? The stud dog owner has been very helpful throughout and is always available at the end of the phone if we need it but are quite relaxed about waiting list as if pups are very nice its not unknown for them to run all of the litter on.
I am hoping to keep a bitch for the showring if their is one suitable and some very good friends have been waiting 2 years for a bitch too so I will only probably take 4 other provisional enquires (maybe one or two spares) to be on the waiting list. So, do you allow people to 'book' a sex that they prefer as we obviously can't promise they will get what they want or would you take an enquiry that would be happy with either ?? I would get back to the prospective owners once born and all ok to let them know whats available and would allow families to choice a dog or a bitch based on the order they came to me or would you want people that definitely know what they want?

Thanks in advance!

I have always made it clear that no one can chose until I have. I have also said I don't know how many of each sex there will be. Some are particular on a certain colour(which is a nightmare) & I can not tell what colour they are when in the bitch(this will depend on your breed).
With my last litter & gave them all the 3rd degree long before the bitch was even mated, so I knew whether or not I wanted them to have a puppy. I only had to let one person down as there wasn't the sex for them when they arrived....

Everyone will be different on how they collate their waiting lists...there isn't a wrong way, just your way.

Thank you for that and luckily the pups will all be the same colour and yes no-one will be getting to chose the actual puppy until they leave at 8 weeks and I've made my decision but once I know whats available once born I will let people reserve a dog or a bitch .... I'm just not sure about before they are due as I'd feel bad if families had to chose one or the other but if there wasn't enough bitches for example and they would have been as equally happy for a dog puppy but they were all booked .......

I think once I'm happy for them to be on the waiting list and if they genuinely want one of the pups its sex shouldn't be the only factor to their decision,  I'll take provisional bookings and if they have a preference it can be discussed once they're born and we know whats available.

I think you are probably going to get many different responses here, as there is probably no 'right' way to do this - just different solutions that fit different breeders' circumstances.

What I do is:

I take enquiries constantly (with at first just the bitch advertised on my website - since I haven't chosen a stud more than 6 months in advance).  I tell these people I've added them to my 'to be updated' list, and I don't vet people at this point.  I keep people on the list updated with info on the stud once I've chosen him.  After the mating, I send out a detailed questionnaire to all the people on the waiting list and then turn down many people on the basis of that.  As well as all kinds of other stuff, the questionnaire asks them what sex they would like, what colour, and whether they would be flexible or absolutely want that combination of things.  I point out, on the questionnaire, that I will be more likely to be able to have a pup for them, the more flexible they are on these factors.  Then I phone and speak to all the homes on the phone.  I'm actually thinking about attempting Skype next time, so I can see people. 

After the birth, I look at the pups I have, and I look at the questionnaires I have, and I decide who I can offer a pup to and who I can't.  All things being equal, I do prefer homes which are flexible on sex and colour, because I assess the pups at 8wks and I like to assign them to a home on the basis of that assessment (which is both conformation and performance).  If someone only wants X colour and X sex, and I only have one pup that meets those criteria, then I have to decide at birth if a certain pup is going to be for them, if that's the only one I have which meets those criteria.  But luckily the homes I tend to prefer are those who want a performance/ dog sports dog and they also tend not to mind colour at least.  I do not let people reserve a particular puppy or choose their own puppy - I've lived with the pups for 8 weeks and know them better than someone looking at them for a snapshot of 2 hours, when they may have just been wormed or be sleepy or for whatever reason, not be displaying themselves as they usually are!

So - at birth I commit to who's having a pup, but ideally not which exact pup.  Before the pups' birth and during pregnancy, I take on more enquiries and I do not operate a "first come, first served" waiting list - because I want to choose the best homes from all those available.  If a super home appears a week before the pups are due, and they pass their questionnaire and phone interview, then they will send others down the list... Just as puppy buyers can (and do) back out during this period...

That's how I work things anyway.

We ask everyone to email first with an outline of their dog experience, details of family life and anything that they think we should know.  We first reject the one liners and "we wanters" , then we have a long phone chat during which it's often possible to find out lots about the potential buyers without them really knowing what we are looking for. It's surprising how much people give away to a friendly ear, not that we are trying to trap anyone but occasionally problems they haven't thought of crop up and can be looked at. We also have a look on social media which can give a fair idea what people are like.

They are put on a dog or bitch list with the understanding that nothing is guaranteed before birth or after,  no-one visits before 3 weeks and they are usually told that we will try to match a puppy with their needs, our small breed is quite individual between puppies and easier to match than some breeds that are more even in personality.  We keep in touch by FB and they visit usually once or sometimes more before pickup day, so far this has worked very well and we have only had 2 returns in 27 years, lots of buyers remain friends although some disappointingly don't stay in touch.

I have no first-hand experience of using the CD waiting list, but again I did take names and contact numbers of people who called me re a possible litter.   But that's all.   I didn't advertise (didn't need to other than one time as I've written before) and certainly didn't BEFORE I had a litter on the ground and even then, not within the first few weeks.   We only bred for our next generation and as mine is a breed that you cannot do more than have a 'feeling' about certain puppies (after years of experience at that), I was not ready to commit ANY of our puppies for some weeks.

I guess how you handle this is up to you but be warned, you do not want to get into a situation like I had with a litter from my Champion imported bitch (UK title) to a visiting American Champion.  After a veterinary disaster (we sued) 5 of the original 9 puppies were lost so we were left with 4, 2 of each sex.   I had two fellow breeder/exibitors almost literally fighting over the two males.   It got very stressful and in the end, I kept one of each and one of the breeders had the other two ..... and later sold them abroad.   I trusted this person and didn't put any endorsements on them.   Big mistake.   Ghastly situation.    As you can gather, I didn't enjoy selling our puppies and if I was still breeding, would never again sell to a fellow breeder,  and might have been tempted to keep THEM ALL, had we had the space.

Keep your options open, for as long as you can if you want to keep something to show!

When I did mine I had a questionnaire they filled out before going on the list, included in this was if they had any preference for sex or tail type (my breed comes in short or long tail) and if they would be willing to have the oppersit sex/tail if one was not advaible in their prefured choice.

This way I knew what everyone was after. I would them make it clear I could not guarantee what would be born and that if they only wanted say a male and all girls were born I'd be happy to pass them onto another breeder, but if prefured a male but would take a female then that wasn't an issue providing there was enough girl's for them to have one . I told them I would keep them updated and when the puppies were born I would be able to say if there was a puppy advaible for them or not but I wouldn't be able to say which one or let them pic untill I made my pick at 6 weeks old, but they were welcome to come visit the litter befor that.

The main tip I would give you is not to mention where people are on the waiting list, we have made that mistake in the past.

I get as much information as I can from people when they first get in touch by phone or e-mail, I have a page in my note book for each person/family, I note down details of their family, other dogs, previous dogs, work information etc, I can then review this information before a visit to ensure I am not repeating myself (I still end up feeling like a broken down record though).

I do not have a formal questionnaire, instead I usually start with finding out why this breed and that opens up all sorts of conversation about their dog experience, what research they have done etc. I will bring up price early on, many people do not like to ask but some are not prepared for the current cost, especially those who have lost their oldies and have not been aware of the increase in price over the years. I will always ask their preferred sex but also if they would take the opposite sex if there were not enough dogs/bitches available.

I allow visits from around 4 weeks but make sure that they are clear that no pups can be chosen at that stage. On one of our most recent litters I allowed everyone to give me their first and second choice and they all got one of them, each new owner was convinced that they chose their pup. With other litters we have chosen the pups for the families and explained our reasoning, each was happy.

Very similar to all above :)

With any enquiry (pups due or not) I put them on my "interested" list, I often get an idea from a phone call or email as to if I would consider them future owners.

When a scan confirms pups I re-contact anyone I liked and give them my questionnaire, stating clearly that I match pups to homes so filling it out does not guarantee you a pup. I also make it clear at this stage that I pick first and if they have a gender preference they may or may not get the gender they want. (Ie. In our breed dogs are 99% of enquiries are for dogs and bitches only 1%. I've had a couple of owners that have opted for either after talking to me about differences and quashing any rumours!). Last time I knew I wanted the best bitch.

At about 4/5 weeks I whittled down to a few of those with questionnaires I liked the most and they visited and after meeting them I would say yes you'll have a boy/girl. But I will tell which when I've picked mine. In the last litter I could guarantee the boys to families at about 6/7 weeks (families came again to visit). And the family having the bitch I didn't keep were happy to find out on the day of collection which bitch was theirs (but still visited again at 7 weeks to keep in touch).

I then contact anyone that filled in a questionnaire for that litter to say they were unsuccessful this time, but offer to keep their details or help to point them in the direction of fellow breeders that might have pups comming up :)

With my first litter I was super scared of doing a waiting list - but this worked so well. I reiterate to everyone that I match homes to pups and it's not first come first served and I've never had anyone dislike this approach.