Breeding A lot harder than expected - Page 2

roadmaster- what was the purpose of the breeding? Just asking




Kim

If it were easy to sell puppies at a very high level everyone would be doing it.  

The question is do you have what the buyer wants?
What is your target customer?
How are you getting the message out to your customer?

There are so many factors when selling, anything.

What is your goal and do you have a firm plan to get there?

Business Model--->Business Plan--->Performance Metrics--->Advertising Strategy--->Operations--->Financial Analysis--->Rinse & Repeat

I help from time to time if anyone needs some professional perspective.  <---(Division Director Sales and Operations)

One time poster - promoting his ad - and it´s a " repeat litter " ...???

Susie,
I was told to just answer their questions. You needn't have any of your own. 

Where did it say this was a 'repeat breeding'?  In the OP, it states this is 'my first litter'...so I'm a bit confused.  If it is a repeat breeding, perhaps the OP purchased the bitch already bred, so it's the first litter for the person but not for the bitch?  Plenty of 'checkbook breeders' out there who purchase a proven brood bitch that's been bred back to a male she'd already produced previous litters with for the seller...could be one of those situations. Folks think, 'wow, it will be easy to make my money back on the litter, especially since the dogs from the prior breedings are doing well in sport/show/etc.', without realizing that if they themselves are newcomers, they have no 'name' to trade on, and are far less likely to even know what they're talking about as far as the venues the dogs are suitable for when prospective buyers make inquiries.

Whenever anyone asks me what it takes to be a good dog breeder, in addition to the expected points regarding health checks and some form of unbiased evidence the dogs being bred are competent in some form of work the breed was meant to perform, I also caution that a good breeder should be prepared to take back any puppy or dog they are responsible for having brought into the world at ANY time in the animal's lifetime, for ANY reason, and that they should also be willing and able to keep any dog or puppy for as long as necessary until the correct home for the animal has been found...which could mean keeping an entire litter of pups for their entire lifetime, depending on the breed and whether that breed is sought after in the breeder's general vicinity.  If you were counting on all puppies being gone before they were 12 weeks old, and you can't keep them any longer so you're considering putting 'clearance sale' prices on them just to get them out the door, you should NOT be breeding dogs ever again. EVER.  Want to make money breeding something?  Buy a cow, breed it, and either sell the calf, or feed it out until it's ready for slaughter, and sell the meat. That way, you can always eat your mistakes.

Too many 'breeders'.
I just wish the dozens of ppl who visit this board and see ppl asking about
what they should do to start breeding would actually take notice of the
replies.  It isn't only about the sales (or lack of) and after-service;  its also
about the 'surprise'  of the sheer hard work, and possible disapointments,
medical emergencies etc of raising a litter.  So many people do breed,
at least one litter (and more if all goes reasonably well that first time), yet
so many of the resulting puppies - not just our GSDs but all breeds - should
not exist, they turn out inferior specimens, or they end up in Rescue.

Like Prager says, its a great life if you can cope with the downside;  if you
really love it, you go on doing it no matter what.  The difference between
my mentor and myself:  she loved doing it (properly),  despite the hard work
and the pitfalls.  I saw what breeding was like, and decided it wasn't for me.
Sure I like having puppies around as much as anyone; but raising the odd
litter (without having to sell them) or older puppy bred by others was different,
and, for me, enough.

Hexe, this is out of the ad:

German Shepherd /  Working Line Puppies
AKC Registered  No limits Born May 28th
​Vet Checked 1st & 2nd Vaccinations dewormed
This is Skylars Noir Von Der Evans Haus &
Rali Von Schone Stadt  Repeat litter
Black Males & Black Female
Price $375.00

The pups look healthy, the kennel looks clean.
I simply don´t like people asking for advice, but not repeating to all the people trying to help.

My response to the op:
There is a difference between "working line" and "working".
If you want to sell "working dogs" potential buyers want to see some proof of working ability at least of the parents, and HD/ED results of the parents, too.
You need to be involved in some kind of training/working, otherwise you won´t find any serious people interested in your pups.

first question about a male or female in breeding should be if they have the quallity's to improve the breed not just to multiply the breed, sadly when i look at adds i see to many litters of starting breeders using their own male and female sometimes to save on a studfee and want to make money or sometimes because they see their own dogs true pink goggles
asking advice from experienced breeders isn't enough, i know of to many people who asked advice but didn't follow it because they really believed there dogs were a lot better than those breeders said that kind of people will never learn and always will keep on making the same mistake, sadly their inpact on several breeds is becomming way to big
a guy came here from switserland to breed he's female to idefix after he's own breeder gave my number to him as he asked what stud to use he doubted a long time because of the 2day travell but he's breeder convinced him, supernicefemale, mondioring3, i told luc i was thinking about taking a female from that litter instead of a studfee, well i didn't get the female he only had 4 males theire now 11months, 2 are trainning french ring,1mondio and one is whit paris metro brigade all of them are working way above average and the result is if he breeds here again he needs 37 puppy's so mabey it was difficult for him and he didn't make a lot of money but he's rep as a starting breeder still stands and he will have no problems to find homes for he's next litter
as for me i really appriciate the guy's effort and i'm convinced that supporting starting breeders like him is the only way to make sure in 20years i can still get a good mali so i dropped the studfee but he assured me in december he's comming back and i can pick any puppy he ever breeds