Puppy Selections - Page 1

I'm curious to see what breeders have found to be effective puppy selection policy.
 
“First come first serve” seems to be the easiest and most straight forward. However letting the puppy owner have free will to pick a puppy doesn’t always seem to be in the puppy’s best interest.  Often the biggest or certain color is picked despite the temperament not being a good fit.  As a puppy buyer looking for the best puppy to train, title and breed, it’s frustrating for me to be lower on list while Joe Pet Owner gets the best working puppy and spays/neuters it.
 
On the flip side letting the breeder choose the puppy for the buyer based on what the buyer wants is only as good as the breeder’s ability to read puppies.  I’ve had two puppies selected for me because I wasn’t able to see the puppies in advance; one turned out great, the other I was shocked the breeder chose for me because the puppy was nervy, fearful, and independent from the start.  I personally would much rather be able to pick a puppy from my own observation and testing, with the breeders help.  My biggest qualm with breeders choosing a puppy is that sometimes I feel a connection with one puppy over the other. And if the differences between them are marginal, I'll pick the puppy I connect with; that is obviously something the breeder can't feel or select for.
 
I guess Im wondering if anyone has thought of a creative way to combine both methods: Matching the puppy with the correct owner while still giving owners the freedom and option to choose their own puppy.

If I have multiple puppies that would be suitable for a particular home I let the buyers pick or I have them come and give me their choices by collar color and tell them that it's a matching process for the happiness of the family and the pup.  So far it has worked well.  I would refuse to sell a high drive pup to a sedentary family environment which would be a disaster.  Just seems to work for me.  I do not even let prospective buyers see pups that are clearly not suitable for their home situation. 

Judy

I have always chosen pups between the buyer's parameters (gender, physical attributes), then told them if there was another puppy that fit their temperament parameters better, though maybe not their color ones. I haven't had many people decide a color in advance, as most have been looking for temperament and working ability, but all things being equal, of course I'd let them have their color preference. I typically send them pics of pups I am considering for them and by the time I am ready to decide for sure, they feel like they "know" the pups. I had a lady fall in love with one pup from the beginning. I had 3 earmarked as pups who might be good for her needs, and he was one of them. She had a feeling about him, and since all things were equal and she had sent the first deposit, I let her take him when it was time to decide. It was truly love at first sight and every day since! ;-)

In a case where I refunded a deposit, there were equal number of deposits and puppies. One puppy could've gone to 2 homes, but was PERFECT for one home in particular. The other puppy wasn't quite perfect for the remaining home, so rather than send the pup, I send their money back and they were happy for my honesty, though disappointed they didn't get a puppy. I sold the remaining puppy several months later as he was rather...special. LOL

Puppy-picking is certainly not an exact science. It'll be a cold day in hell when I put paypal buttons on my website though!!!

In the system where the breeder chooses the puppy, what do you do when there is one puppy and two homes that would be a good fit? 

Would you let someone come evaluate the puppies themselves if they wanted to?