What questions do you get asked as a breeder?

Sleeping_Lion

I got an email this morning asking if I had a bitch pup, when could they collect and what price. I politely replied that we weren't planning any litters until the end of 2009, and didn't even know yet which stud dog we would be using with Tau.

I also told them generally the questions to ask a breeder and to look on here for ideas of what to expect, but that if they approached responsible breeders with the questions they asked me it may well turn them off. Am I right in thinking that? From the phrasing (probably not intentional) it was a very short and blunt enquiry, and I just wondered how many of you get enquiries like this and what is your response?

Ettinsmoor · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 9:58 am Post subject:

Joanne I get quite a few of these and most of them are actually spam emails. If you go down the route of replying which I used to in the past but don't normally bother now you start to get some rather odd requests like they can't come to collect the pup will you ship it to them etc. etc. Then finally they will send you a cheque for say £2000 to ensure there is enough money to cover everything etc. etc. and will you send a cheque back for the difference!!

So ultimately they get a pup plus whatever you send them back and although the cheque originally clears it is found at a later date that it is fake and you are out of pocket plus the poor pup ends up goodness knows where Shocked

. I think that is how it all is supposed to work anyway.

Sleeping_Lion · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 4:27 pm Post subject:

Thanks Jill,

This seemed a genuine request but just a blunt and badly worded one, although I do get obvious spam emails asking about the dogs as well. It just dumbfounded me that someone perhaps thinks that if I had a pup all they had to do was pay the amount of money to get one!?

Ettinsmoor · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 4:35 pm Post subject:

Well Joanne I had one that came from someone in a North Norfolk village that seemed to be really genuine but at the end of the day it wasn't Shocked

. I didn't actually work out what the catch was at the end of the day but I obviously wouldn't sell to anyone I hadn't met ,talked to, and felt entirely happy with first.

There are some very weird folk around.

Sleeping_Lion · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 4:41 pm Post subject:

Love your new siggy pic btw!

Ettinsmoor · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 4:42 pm Post subject:

Thanks Joanne Very Happy

Diana · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject:

Jo I got the same email from the phrasing. They were obviously just searching 'choccy' lab pups Wink

To be honest I just replied to them with litter details of litters I know are upcoming as I would anyone else, attaching my 'FAQ's on buying a Labrador puppy sheet' as I always do. I hope from it they pick up the important points.

I also always put on my email a good price range for a puppy, so between £550 and £750 to put off any who think that £250 is relalistic! Wink

As a breeder, but more commonly as a stud dog owner, I get between 2 and 6 email and phone enquiries a day. the questions vary enormously, some rub you up the wrong way immediately, some are wonderful, somke detail their lives like a job interview, some give you two lines of text.

I have given up judging people. Some with two lines of abrupt text, if you call them back, know everything and are wonderful and just have no clue how to write a decent email. Some who write a wonderful email, are nasty and abrupt and patronising when you call. Its so various that basically I wrote the sheet I have to try and avoid having to lecture anyone anymore Wink

Then I point them to LF and its a done deed!

Di

Sleeping_Lion · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 6:15 pm Post subject:

Thanks Di,

So far I've had well informed enquiries, this is my first 'blunt' Shocked

experience, and just wondered how often to expect them and the way people deal with them.

Joanne
x

Diana · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 7:18 pm Post subject:

.... well usually I save them till just past six o'clock. Go open a bottle of wine, then write to them in the manner of someone who is a tolerant as a tolerant person raised in tolerantville Wink

Anything else is a waste of time Wink

Di

Helen-S · Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 6:09 pm Post subject: