WHAT ARE THE BEST PRACTICES FOR HANDLING A DELAYED PUPPY PICKUP?
It’s really great for us breeders when people are ready to pick up their puppy the day they’re ready to go! Last weekend, I was able to deliver 5 out of 6 puppies in one trip—it was magical. But then there was that one … there’s always that one, right?
The one puppy buyer who says, “We can’t pick up the puppy for a week, maybe two…” or—gosh—sometimes people ask you to hold the puppy for weeks! It’s stressful.
What can you do? Well, you can always tell them no, but then you might risk the sale. So if you are going to hold onto the puppy, how should that work? If you just hold the puppy with no extra charge, it’s too easy to be taken advantage of. The easiest way to prevent this is by charging a boarding fee.
I recommend charging per night—it’s easier to calculate than per day, since you’ll need a cut-off time for what counts as a full day. But first, you need a pickup window that’s standard and has no additional charge.
Here’s what I recommend: Start by creating your free pickup window. If your puppies can go home at 8 weeks old, maybe your window is the week between 8 and 9 weeks. So if they were born on a Thursday, buyers can pick them up that Thursday, the following weekend, or any day through the next Thursday. That’s your one-week window. No charge for pickup in that window.
I have this written into the pricing section of my contract. If you want to buy a copy of my contract, I have it for sale—get it here. I allow my buyers two weeks, since my dogs are a little more expensive and I only have a few litters per year. That makes it harder to conveniently bump people to the next litter.
After that window, boarding fees will apply. I’ve seen as little as $15/night, but usually, $25–$50 per night is standard.
This pricing does two things:
- Compensates you for time, feeding costs, and disruption.
- Encourages timely pickup, because it adds a cost to delays.
Have you ever noticed people ask you to do something, then back out once you quote a small fee? They were hoping you’d take the hit for their convenience. That’s human nature! But by putting a price on it, you either get compensated—or they figure it out themselves.
Last step: Get full payment during the free pickup window. Sometimes delays are due to money issues, and they want more time—at your expense. That’s why we charge and why full payment is due when pups are ready to go. Without it, they may never come up with the money. Then you’re stuck—puppy unpaid, not picked up, but contractually reserved. My contract addresses this, and yours should too!
SHOULD YOU BREED MULTIPLE BREEDS OR JUST STICK WITH ONE?
This question comes up a lot. You might be in love with multiple breeds, you might feel like you’re hedging your bets by having two different dogs to offer potential buyers, or to take advantage of the market swings with breed popularity. However, the truth is, it will always be simpler to have more dogs of one breed than to have two breeds. Here’s why:
Every breed has its own set of ideal puppy buyers, which are people looking to buy a dog within the breed. Your marketing will be most effective when you pick to market to a smaller niche within the larger niche of ideal puppy buyers for the breed.
To illustrate this niching down, think of people who want a little yorkie. You have a variety of people who want a yorkie. For example, you have younger women who want the accessory dog that they can dress up, take everywhere, be their partner in crime. Then you have the older woman who wants a companion animal to spend time with, someone to watch the news with, cuddle up and read a book with, and to alert her to someone at the door because she might not have her hearing aids in.
While both of these people would do well to get a Yorkie, they are vastly different buyers. When you are designing your brand, your word choice, your marketing and where to market, you’re going to select vastly different strategies and brands for these two buyers. You might want hot pink and black for the younger women, but you might want lavender and cream for the older woman. The more effective you are at speaking directly to the specific ideal buyer you choose, the more effective your marketing will be. When your marketing is effective, it will sell buyers on your dogs before they ever talk with you. That’s the goal, bringing you warm leads.
If you have two breeds, then what you’ve done is duplicate ALL of the work of branding and marketing. You need two different ideal puppy buyers, two brands, two websites, two different marketing strategies. The thing that I love about marketing is that, when it’s done right, it greatly reduces the workload on you; but when you take on that second breed, you double your workload unnecessarily.
I recommend two breeds if you adore both and can’t imagine giving one up. In this case, the breeds have intrinsic value. However, it will nearly always make more sense to cut down to one breed, and then make that program bigger once you’ve got a steady stream of clients. This allows you to produce more puppies without doubling your marketing efforts. That’s the sweet spot.
If you’re torn on two breeds and what to do, take a look at what brings you joy, the buyers you like working with, and which program is ultimately more sustainable for you. That’s what you should go with. Make it easy on yourself. What will give you consistent predictability that you enjoy? That’s the breed you should go with. Marketing can always be adjusted, but sustainability is harder to manage. For example, if one breed is an easy keeper, but sells for a little less, chances are it will be easier to get your price or margin up and keep the sustainable breed over the more volatile one.
I know it’s hard; I’m in the middle of it myself.
WHAT ARE THE BEST QUESTIONS FOR THE PUPPY APPLICATION?
People always want to know what should go on the puppy application, but I think a better question is: what is the purpose of the puppy application? The purpose is for it to be a conversation starter. You want your puppy application to ignite a conversation between you and your potential buyer. It’s the offer to start the dance between you two to see if you’re a good fit for one another. Are your dogs the right dogs? You the right breeder? Will they be buyers who will be successful with your pup?
When I first made a puppy application, I took all the questions I used to ask people and I put it on a simple form. It saved a lot of back and forth and gave us something to chat about. “Oh, I see you have little kids. What are you worried about with little kids and a new pup?” Or, “Oh, I see you have cats. That can be a little hard with a new pup. What are your thoughts on it?”
These aren’t interrogations, and they aren’t meant to be pass or fail. Like I said, they are conversation starters; they help you get to the bottom of things to see if you’re a good fit for one another. On a side note, as a conversation starter, I believe you should get back to everyone who has taken the time to fill out your application. No one should be ghosted. Sure, you can delete it if it’s obviously spam, but everyone else deserves a few minutes of your time.
Another thing to think about: the application process is not where we disqualify people. We might note some red flags we want to discuss, but it shouldn’t be designed to fail some people.
Here’s how to make a question better on your application. Say, for example, you’re concerned about fencing. I don’t have a fencing conversation on my application, but a lot of breeders do. These questions often say, “What is your fencing?” Or “Do you have fencing?” These put people on the defensive. So it’s better to ask this, “How do you feel about your fencing?” Then, maybe in a multiple select box, the answers might be,
- “I have a great fence, and I’m not worried the dog will get out,”
- “I don’t have a fence, but I have a plan for management,”
- “I’m not sure about my fencing; I would like to discuss options and get some help.”
I think it’s perfectly reasonable for someone to need a little help with fencing, and so they may hesitate to fill out your application if it merely says, “Do you have a fence?” and they’re embarrassed to say “No,” or worse, they lie because they want to get a puppy.
Use your puppy application to build rapport, trust, approachability, and to learn about your puppy buyers. Start the conversation and find those pups amazing homes.
Want to Get the Roadmap to a Successful Breeding Program?
SHOULD I COLLECT DEPOSITS EVEN IF I DON’T HAVE PUPPIES?
Ah, one of those strange myths in breeding world folklore! You’ve probably heard both:
- “Don’t breed until all your puppies are sold.”
- “Don’t take deposits until the puppies are born.”
Well, let me ask you then, how are you supposed to know those people are serious about getting a puppy unless they place a deposit? And if you can’t accept a deposit until puppies are born, then how are you supposed to breed a litter to get those puppies without deposits? Some people will tell you to build a waitlist without taking money, but we know that leads to a bunch of people ghosting you once you call asking them to place a deposit to lock in their spot.
So let’s clear this up: Yes, you can—and should—collect deposits year-round.
This is extremely important for cash flow management. Let’s say you average breeding around 50 puppies a year. If your deposit is only $500, then that’s $25,000 in deposits that you could be collecting all year around. Wouldn’t it be nice to collect about $500/week to help with dog breeding costs and expenses? Dogs have to eat all year around!
Taking deposits all year around has two major benefits: the first is that you get the cash flow as I just described, but the second is that you are getting people locked in when they are excited about getting a dog—which we all know doesn’t always line up with when we have puppies. You want to capture that excitement and get them on the list right away. Once they place a deposit, they stop looking for a puppy and breeders, and they begin to prepare for the puppy. And this is the energy you want with your waitlist people: preparation, not continual searching.
There are two caveats to this: the first is if you have a very small program and inconsistent fertility. That can be complicated, and you may choose to wait to collect deposits, or at the very least, have enough money in savings to refund if you can’t produce a puppy within a certain time frame, usually 6 months or so–unless you are extremely clear about the length of time they’ll be waiting.
If you have a variety of moms–at least 2, but probably 3, 4, or more–then chances are you’ll have multiple litters, and so, if the one breeding doesn’t work out, they’re only a month or so away from another litter, and this is just fine. It’s smart to get them on the waitlist for a dog from your breeding program, rather than talking up a specific mom. The way I spin it, all my moms are good, they produce slight variety, but usually within each litter there is the opportunity for a dog that’ll fit their needs. If this is the case with you, no problem, collect deposits! However, if your dogs vary a lot, either through size, coat texture, or temperament, then you’ll want to be a little more careful.
The second caveat is, if you feel very uncomfortable taking money from people, then you need to figure out why. Chances are you don’t believe in your program or trust it will produce. If it’s a bit of nervousness over taking money from people and holding it, then I recommend you keep it in a separate account, and just let it sit there. This way you’re covered if anything happens and you need to refund. If you feel bad taking the 25-33% of the cost in a deposit, then start lower, and see if you can begin to build your comfortability with taking more. There’s a balance to strike between having them invested in the purchase because of the deposit, but also taking too much and it feels disingenuous. I feel 25-33% is usually the range. I select the number based on easy numbers to remember, like $500 if your dogs are $2000 or $700 if your dogs are $2100. Nice, easy numbers to remember.
I promise, if you’re new, it only gets easier!
HOW DO YOU TACTFULLY TURN BUYERS DOWN?
You know how it goes: you get a puppy application, you’re excited, it’s nice selling puppies, and then … oof, you read through it, and there are layers of red flags. The people simply aren’t prepared for what comes with managing one of your dogs. I believe in giving everyone a chance—at least in conversation. But my goal in that conversation, if they’re one of the red-flag people, is to determine if they’re simply needing education and support, and would be capable if they understood, or if they are simply not a good fit. When the latter happens, and I’ve determined they aren’t a good fit, then you have to turn them down. So how do you do that? Rejecting people is never fun.
The first tactic I like to use is to be completely transparent and honest, sometimes slightly exaggerated; or, worst-case scenario, about what having one of the dogs would be like, with the goal of getting them to conclude that the dog would not be a good fit for them. Then you’re not doing the rejecting, but you are preventing them from getting one of your dogs.
For example, I had a woman who had this really beautiful idea of a GSP puppy and her infant getting along like two buds out of a fairytale. But she was a single mom, worked all the time, and didn’t have support from the child’s father. I politely told her what I saw as her biggest struggle to overcome, simply that the initial18 months of raising a GSP puppy are extremely taxing. I explained how the dogs aren’t mean and wouldn’t bite her baby, but they’d probably knock him over, they couldn’t be left unattended together if she was cooking dinner, and that the GSP would take a lot of dedication and time invested while he went through everything, and that she probably wouldn’t have the dog she wanted for four years. It was possible, I told her, but was it worth the stress for her?
How did she respond? Well, she ghosted me. But, while I didn’t reject her per se, I was completely honest with what I saw her future to be. It seemed to shatter her romanticized idea of what this dog was going to be, but that was a good thing; it brought her back to reality. Truthfully, she would’ve done wonderful with a rat terrier, but I’ve found people rarely would consider switching from a GSP to a rat terrier or vice versa. It’s just how it goes.
The next tactic is to find flaws in their desires against what your dogs can provide, and then tell them that you think they’d be disappointed with one of your dogs.
For example, apparently there is some article on the internet that a lot of people read that says GSPs are very protective and good watch dogs. Yeah, well, mine are terrible at those things. A robber would come in and the dog would think he was there to pet him and get him cheese, so that’s not going to work. For people who want a dog that’s loving with everyone, and then will be protective, that’s a hard shake. You need a dog with a lot of discernment, often trained, and that’s more German Shepherd territory, if you ask me; albeit, if they want a GSP, then they often are a little afraid of German Shepherds—or at least the shedding.
However, when I get those buyers, I need to set their expectations right away: “So these dogs aren’t very protective and they are terrible watch dogs, they’re more likely to invite the robber in rather than tell you about it.” That’s what I say to set the stage. I usually pause as they process this. Then, if they say nothing back, I propose the question, “Is the protective and watch-dog nature a nice to have, or is it a necessity? If it’s a necessity, then I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed with one of my dogs.” At which time they’ll either tell me it would be nice, but isn’t necessary, or they’ll tell me they’ll get back to me, and they usually never do. Both are fine. If they accept that the dogs will be poor at being protective and watchful, then I’ve done my job at setting proper expectations, and they won’t be frustrated or feel deceived by me and the puppy later, which is all you can really do.
If none of these tactics work, which they do 98% of the time for me, then you can always opt for the vague, but effective, “I’m sorry, I don’t think my dogs will be a good fit for you.” You can sort of leave it at that, and they’ll think you’re weird or bad with people; but at the very least, they’ll go somewhere else to get a dog, which is fine.
Well, there you go! A few questions and tactics on handling the finer details of dog breeding. I wish you the best of luck, as always. Know that a lot of these things are developed over time, so if you aren’t good at it now, you probably just need more practice.
Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Honest Dog Breeder Podcast, with me, your host, Julie Swan. I’m so glad we get to spend this time together, thank you again and I can’t wait to see you in the next episode!!
