Screening - Page 3

I was just sharing my experience, that's all. :)

Dawulf Your experience is the reality. You can only do your best. But in the end who knows who will be good dog owner. I go and visit with the buyers of my dogs in person or on the phone,...( after they buy the dog) .I read between the lines so to speak. That is one of the good way to keep a tap on bastards who are no good.  And I am not against repossessing the dog. I have done it once in NY when neighbor called and told me to go check on the dog I sold to these "nice" people with expensive car and nice clean house, nice clean kids and nice clean yard.  I went  there and nobody was home I looked  behind the house and there was my dog . Now  7 mo chained up. I went there to pet him and to my horror I have seen that he has choker ingrown in his neck. I was horrified. I  unhooked the dog and was taking him into my truck . The owners came at that moment and just looked at me. I said:" Say no word."  And drove away.  Screening my butt. You never know for sure. 

 Prager Hans

OK Prager you are talking about "judge of character"...  Some people are good at it and some are not.  How can you be assured if someone will abuse your dog?  If you cannot communicate with the people to begin with that would be a red flag;  if they do not listen to your experienced advice, red flag.  Watch how they handle the dog;  sometimes the shiney new car, clean house, clean kids is an OCD indicator, red flag;  and YES I have also had to repossess a dog and a few others that I had wished I had picked up before they died of neglect or??  Sounds like you are angry and justifyably so;  I had to stipulate in my contract every G.D. thing I did not want people to do and they had to initial each one.  Still would find out shit I did not want my dogs to go through;  sometimes just by drive by and sometimes actually accusing idiots of neglect of worse.  No matter what you are not going to be 100% on judging character but process of elimination can help protect the dogs somewhat.  Say NO more often, it feels pretty good and protects the dogs sometimes. and I found the doctors/lawyers/ high priced people I call them NOT to be necessariy the best homes.  Also JMHO.  Nan

You can only do the best that you can, and pray to God you made the right choice for your pup.

I require you come in person to my house to have a meet and greet with me AND my dogs.

Believe it or not, I think the dogs are excellent judges of character. I have sent more than one person away without a pup strictly because my dogs did not like them.

    I usually have a pretty good waiting list for pups, long before they are ever even bred. 

This gives me great opportunity to have several talks with people prior to them leaving.

I also make it perfectly clear, I am here, forever, for one of my dogs. Call me anytime, for any reason.

My dogs can ALWAYS come back home, if you no longer want them, I will come get them.

Believe it or not, the biggest problems I  have had, have been the couple times I sold to breeders.

Sorry, but dogs are NOT meant to be kenneled 24/7. I despise those that use them, and than 'rehome' them, when they are no longer monetarily useful.

    Rehomed = dumped in my opinion.

I go with my gut feelings and common sense but I have made mistakes. There is no sure fire way to know unless you go live with that person for some time.

All you can do is your best and hope in the end it all works out for the dog and the people. One thing I do require is a fenced yard.

Bumper sticker!? LMAO. Plenty of bumper stickers abound to pass around for all.

nans I agree. Obvious  red flag can be screened out. As I said I have not sell dogs to many clients...... and believe  me I needed the money bad. But in larger scheme of the things obvious red flags are rare. Unless they are crazy people who want something are on their best behavior To me there are screening flags I will not discuss here for obvious reasons. I do not want to tip my hand. My friend John is saying that I should get people IQ test and common sense test before I sell them a dog. Sometimes I do not think that it would be a bad idea. But what I am talking about is  that even when there are no exceedingly rare and obvious  red flags and all seems OK the dogs may and do end up in wrong hands.

And another thing I am saying is that  reasonable person should not necessarily  blame the breeder/seller but the perpetrator of the abuse. I hope that is not too much to ask. 

Prager Hans

Kitcat I agree 100%if people have problems with my dogs I advice training though first before I take the dog back. Just now I am training a dog for a guy who was going to return him and actually I would love to have the dog back. He would fit perfectly into my breeding program and could replace a dog who died of torsion. I offered him free training. After 2 session the man said: :Wow IU ddi not know that my dog could do this and behave so good" That makes me smile.

 But sometimes there are people who want to return a dog because the inter spousal power struggle and  they give you backward reason why they want to return the dog. Like  I have client who has a dog for long time and livers on a farm and now I was contacted by his wife that he(!!!)  ' HAS TO"  return it because the dog  chases chicken. But it is his wife who wants to return the dog and not the guy whom I actually sold the dog. As I said there is no way you can screen for at least  90% of all potential mess ups. 

Prager Hans

No GSDadmin yours is not bumper sticker by no means. 

Sorry, nothing easy here, either, just plain old gut feeling. Now, I do check people out via a few different channels, but I've learned the hard way that even references are not always accurate. Vets, I can't be a hypocrite like that...my own dogs don't see the vet a whole lot and they see various ones depending on the issue, so someone could check with one of my vets and find that a certain dog hasn't been there in 3 years. Does that mean I'm unfit to have a dog? I've had references say someone hung the moon and it turned out that person was trying to blackmail the person they asked to give the reference (yeah...um, not getting a dog, LOL!). 

I do ask about previous and current pets. If they didn't die of natural causes or were given away, I ask about why. If they gave their last dog away because they were moving, no way are they getting a dog. My mentor used to say applications are crap, and that any moron can make themselves sound good on paper and answer what a breeder wants to hear. He refused to sell a dog to someone he didn't speak to and I have also adopted that. He used to say "If I just let the morons talk about themselves long enough, they'll screw up." LOL

I spend a lot of time on the phone with people. A huge percentage of them end up wasting my time, but I won't do it any other way. I've noticed the ones that sound too good to be true almost always are and they typically end up being the biggest time wasters or the ones that screw you in the end. As far as care issues go, I have been quite fortunate, I think, in that I've only had one problem concerning a dog's health or safety that required my intervention. 

I don't have enough dogs to sell that I can't afford to spend a ton of time with everyone. I can, so I do. I just had a bbq on Tuesday for people who will be getting pups from my 6 wk old litter. Obviously, only the people within a reasonable driving distance could come, but it was a great way to have a Q&A and at the same time have some fun and see what people are really like when not feeling pressured like they're in a job interview.

I'm with Nan that if I can't communicate with the person, they're out, because if there's an issue, we're going to need to be able to communicate. I routinely refuse those looking for "top sport" or because their last 5 dogs were inadequate for some reason, not because I don't think my dogs have what they're after, but because it seems every time that's the main criteria someone asks me for, it ends up being a person who is a serial dumper, it wasn't really the dogs in the past who had the problem, they've never kept a dog past 2, has "training methods" that are against my principles, and the egos tend to be not only massive but totally undeserved.  Now, if someone asks for a top sport/companion, those usually end up fine. It's all in their priorities and where their focus lies.

Do they view the dog as a companion or a tool? I can work through almost anything else but I am too soft to sell my dogs to those who see them only as tools for personal gain. I guess it does all boil down to one simple question; how do they view a dog? 

People can, and will, tell you all kinds of lies and stories to buy a puppy, if they really want one.  Sometimes its hard to see who is honest and who isn't