~ Articles ~

About Placing Puppies

About Placing Puppies... I am so bummed. My pups usually reserve before they are born. They zoom out of here... and it's probably because I have been doing this a long time, have had years to work on the genetics of my program, and my farm site has a lot of followers.

I have to be careful to balance my placement of pups with my goal of genetic evaluation and ultimate improvement of both my program and the breed. There are days when my table is covered with scribbled pedigrees! And I love to do this for others as well, -- make mock peds, and help plan pairings.

The litters I do have varying levels of genetic importance in the future of my program. If I have a litter that I hope to retain pups from, I only offer a small reservation list so that I leave myself multiple spots for pup evaluation. Then, I let people know I will be assigning pups, in order of those reservations, working with each person, as late as possible before the go home date.

This not only gives me the opportunity to get to know individual pups before they go so I know who to retain, but it also helps me place pups where they will best fit.

The best place to show pups is on your farm website, along with your other farm projects. That is the only place I post them other than this group. People get to know your animals individually... so they will wait for a pup from your beautiful dogs.

Did you know that people stalk farms sites? They do! I have quite a list of farms I stalk for many domestic breeds and even though I have a wonderful small place here of my own, I love to visit your farms... and mini-donkey farms, and Andalusian horse farms, and peacock and poultry farms... and ebay hatching egg categories.... I do this for fun, and many many people do. Most people live in suburbia or in cities, and our farm sites help people to dream, and to envision their future goals.

As people within the CMDR get to know the breed better, and what lines and what studs are available, they will begin to get a sense of how their litters fit into the breed as a whole, and which pups to retain for other breeders, if they themselves don’t retain them. This is where my head is...thinking of my program’s future, and of the breed as a whole constantly. Do you have an unrelated outcross dog that you innovated in? If it’s a good dog, it’s gold to the breed -- make sure you really strategize with those pairings, pedigrees, and pup placement. Have your dog stamp the breed!

I love it when a litter doesn’t place and I end up with 5 month old pups. I get to know what I am producing. There is such a need for trained adult dogs.... I get calls for them almost every day. There is never a need to worry about placing pups.

Photo: the Caspian Melian litter with Yoshee and Smalls and Isaac! <3