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#116 – Should You Invest in Your Facilities or Retirement?

#116 – Should You Invest in Your Facilities or Retirement?

by Julie Swan | Aug 25, 2025 | Business Management, Facilities Management

Jump to Show Notes In the last few episodes, we’ve been discussing setting up your future for success, capitalizing on your heyday, and creating a retirement that can support you whether or not you want that to involve puppies. If nothing else, having that retirement...
#110 – Why Outsourcing Isn’t Guaranteed to Save Your Breeding Program

#110 – Why Outsourcing Isn’t Guaranteed to Save Your Breeding Program

by Julie Swan | Jun 20, 2025 | Business Management, Facilities Management, People Management

Get the Hiring Prep Cheat Sheet Jump to Show Notes What’s your biggest pain point right now? Is it cleaning puppy pens and adult pens? I swear there is always more poop to clean. Is it social media? Are you thinking to yourself, “Yes, I have been meaning to tackle...
#109 – Is Your Dog Breeding Business Leaking Money?

#109 – Is Your Dog Breeding Business Leaking Money?

by Julie Swan | Jun 12, 2025 | Business Management, Dog & Puppy Management, Facilities Management, People Management

Get the Pricing Cheat Sheet Jump to Show Notes In business, there are two ways to make profit: you have a good margin or you have volume. In dog breeding, it’s very hard to do volume. The more puppies you produce, the more systems you have to have, the more cost that...
#107 – Do More Puppies Mean More Profit?

#107 – Do More Puppies Mean More Profit?

by Julie Swan | Feb 11, 2025 | Business Management, Dog & Puppy Management, Facilities Management, People Management

Get the Know Your Numbers: Business Finance Planning MasterClass Get the MasterClass Jump to Show Notes Have you ever had a litter born, raised, and then they go home and it was perfect? They all had great homes, you got the price you asked, and when that litter money...
12 Days of Breeders – 12 – Dakotah and Hunter of Bear Paw Ranch

12 Days of Breeders – 12 – Dakotah and Hunter of Bear Paw Ranch

by Julie Swan | Dec 14, 2024 | 12 Days of Breeders, Business Management, Dog & Puppy Management, Facilities Management, People Management

Jump to Show Notes The 12 Days of Breeders is a series of interviews conducted with members of the Dog Breeder Society who are doing innovative, creative, and inspiring things in their dog breeding business.  In each of these interviews we cover challenges each...
12 Days of Breeders – 11 – Courtney Guthrie of Desert Canyon K9

12 Days of Breeders – 11 – Courtney Guthrie of Desert Canyon K9

by Julie Swan | Dec 14, 2024 | 12 Days of Breeders, Business Management, Dog & Puppy Management, Facilities Management, People Management

Jump to Show Notes The 12 Days of Breeders is a series of interviews conducted with members of the Dog Breeder Society who are doing innovative, creative, and inspiring things in their dog breeding business.  In each of these interviews we cover challenges each...
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Recent Posts

  • #131 – Why Dog Breeding Feels So Overwhelming – and What to Do About It
  • #130 – The Breeder You Need to Stop Being
  • #129 – What Actually Makes a Good Dog Breeder?
  • #128 – Q&A – All About Puppy Deposits
  • #127 – Setting Up Your Year for Success

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#131 – Why Dog Breeding Feels So Overwhelming – and What to Do About It

Welcome to the Honest Dog Breeder Podcast with me, your host, Julie Swan. Where each week, we dive in to discuss all things dog breeding, so you can build a breeding business you love, producing dogs that fulfill their owner's dreams. I believe you can have an honest...

#130 – The Breeder You Need to Stop Being

In the last episode, we talked about what actually makes a good breeder. Not checklists, not rules, not appearances. Good breeders are defined by the quality of their decisions. But there’s a deeper layer that makes those decisions hard to change, and that layer is...

#129 – What Actually Makes a Good Dog Breeder?

If you ask ten breeders what makes a good breeder, you’ll get ten different answers: Health testing. Registration. How many dogs you have. Where the dogs live. What you feed. What you do — or don’t do — in your program. And most of those conversations don’t stay...

#128 – Q&A – All About Puppy Deposits

1. Should puppy deposits be refundable or non-refundable? Breeders love to use non-refundable deposits because they mean that they don’t need to worry about paying people back if they cancel, so in theory it locks in that they want a puppy. It’s also nice because, in...

#127 – Setting Up Your Year for Success

The new year always brings a lot of noise. Big goals. Big plans. Big pressure to do everything differently all at once. But before we rush forward, I think it’s worth slowing down for just a moment and taking an honest look at where we actually are. In today’s...

#126 – Is Your Dog Breeding Program the Bringer of Good Things?

I love that stores are closed on Christmas Day—it forces you to not go anywhere and not do anything. My favorite thing to do on Christmas is sit with the family, enjoy our new gifts, while we talk and share stories. Yet, as it always goes, when I have too much time to...

#125 – The Secret to Higher Priced Puppies

Recently I got rejected. The kind where you think everything is going well, and then it doesn’t. I was trying to get a guest on the podcast, and when I asked for them to come on the podcast, they were all excited. Then they realized that I had a smaller audience on...

12 Days of Breeders – 12 – Dana Filatova of Kismet Labradoodles

The 12 Days of Breeders is a series of interviews conducted with members of the Dog Breeder Society who are doing innovative, creative, and inspiring things in their dog breeding business.  In each of these interviews we cover challenges each breeder has encountered,...

12 Days of Breeders – 11 – Andrea Gardner of Desert Sky Poodles

The 12 Days of Breeders is a series of interviews conducted with members of the Dog Breeder Society who are doing innovative, creative, and inspiring things in their dog breeding business.  In each of these interviews we cover challenges each breeder has encountered,...

12 Days of Breeders – 10 – Megan Smith of Acadia Goldendoodles

The 12 Days of Breeders is a series of interviews conducted with members of the Dog Breeder Society who are doing innovative, creative, and inspiring things in their dog breeding business.  In each of these interviews we cover challenges each breeder has encountered,...

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