A responsible dog breeder will have a questionnaire for potential owners, and will also have a waiting list for them. This helps you to provide yourself with a good idea of what owners will be like and it allows you to approve them even before you have puppies.
If you haven’t already done so ,while you are waiting for your breeding stock to mature and be ready for breeding, it is a good time to develop a web page that you can use to find homes for your puppies. On the page, you should have information about who you are and what you are going to accomplish through breeding. You should also have a questionnaire.
- What is your personal information?
- What type of home do you have for your new puppy?
- What do you want to get from your new puppy?
- Have you read the breed standards?
- What types of things are important for your puppy to have?
- Do you want a male or female?
- Do you plan on breeding your puppy?
- Do you plan on showing your puppy?
- Where will your puppy sleep?
- What food will your puppy eat?
- Who will be responsible for taking care of your puppy?
- What type of life will your new puppy have?
- Will your puppy have an area in your home that is just for them?
- Will your puppy get enough exercise?
- Do you have children or do you intend to have them?
- Will you teach your children about the responsibilities of having a dog?
- Will you make sure that your children treat your puppy correctly?
- What will you do with your puppy while you are at work?
- Do you have a fenced in yard for your puppy to run in?
- What type of exercise will your puppy get?
- What type of training are you going to have for your new puppy?
- What will happen to your puppy if you are no longer able to take care of him?
- Would you allow us to come to your home and see where your puppy will be living?
- Do you plan on sticking to the breed standards for raising your puppy?
- What dogs have you owned in the past, and have you been happy with the breeds?
- Which dogs were you not happy with and why?
- Why do you want to own one of our puppies?
- What do you expect a puppy to provide you with?
- What will you give to your new puppy?
Providing a list of questions to your new owners will let them know what type of home you expect the new puppy to have. This is going to be important because it will help you see what type of people are applying to own your puppy. If they fill out the questions and send it back to you, you know that they are going to be responsible because they have taken the time to fill out the answers to the questions. You can also get a good idea of the type of home that they will provide and then you can approve them.
Once you have the questionnaire, you can begin to allow people to fill it out and
place them on waiting lists for your puppies. These should be lists that you will contact every so often. When you have a litter of puppies, you can allow people on the waiting list to have first pick at the puppies.
Please note: This article is part of a collection of dog-related content that we purchased the rights to. Opinions expressed may or may not agree with those espoused by Master Dog Trainer Adam G. Katz. When in doubt, please refer to the advice given in Adam’s dog training book. This article is provided for your enjoyment, only. It’s relevance to real world working dog training may be limited.