We're going to meet our breeder for the first time in a couple of weeks and we're wondering what questions we should ask him and what we should look out for in his home. My wife has spoken with him quite a few times on the phone and has been emailing him for some time now and we know a fair amount about him. What should we be looking for in the dogs environment? Are there any specific questions we should ask him? The puppies aren't due until January and he was fine about us wanting to see him and his dogs before the pups are born.

As well as things we should ask are then any serious faux pas that we should be aware off?

Thanks,

Chris

As far as questions are concerned, hopefully he has asked you lots of questions, about your family, particularly children, lifestyle and work committments, is your garden well fenced? does everyone in the family want this puppy? do you want to breed in the future? do you realise having a puppy is a full time occupation bringing big changes to the home of responsibility? If you havebeen questioned within an inch of your life about all this and more you can be reasonably confident that he cares a lot for his puppies and is very concerned about their future. Depending on the breed, have both parents had the relevant health checks to screen for hereditary disease. Does he offer free insurance- he jolly well should- its free for him too. Does he have lots of breeds and dozens of dogs? this is not the ideal place to buy a puppy from as he probably wont be an expert on your breed and will not have had time to give puppies the attention they need. I would prefer to buy a puppy from someone with less than 10, or so, dogs

As far as the premises is concerned there are many ways to rear puppies well. The place should be clean and tidy, and unsmelly and preferably the any puppies there should have their own quarters and not be sharing kennels, rooms with other dogs. A good pointer is how healthy looking and friendly and forthcoming the other dogs are. The breeder should answer all your questions happily and fully. Will they be reg. with the Kennel Club, will you have the reg.cert to take away with you when you take the puppy home. Will the reg. cert be endorsed in any way? there are 2 basically - 1 : Progeny cannot be registered, so if you want to breed this may not suit you and - 2 : Not entitled to an export pedigree.

Puppies should be wormed at least twice by eight weeks and so ask how many times he will be wormed. Will they have any vaccinations? That isn't usual at 8 weeks, though some breeders give a parvo jab at 6 weeks. When the time comes I would ask your vet if there is any Parvo about in the breeders area or your area. If there is it may be worth asking the breeder to have this done before you get him, I do this if I am asked and just charge the cost of haviing it done. Parvo is a very nasty virus that often kills unprotected puppies that come into contact with it. If the puppies are kennel reared, they really should come in the house daily from an early age, even if it is just for a few hours. If the puppy is kennel reared, I would want to have him at 7 weeks if possible, though some breeders will only let a puppy go at 8 weeks onwards, which is fair enough- shows they care anyway. There is so much more, but hopefully this is a start and someone else can carry on!

Buying a puppy is a major decision and as you know not undertaken lightly. It is good you are being so cautious. I always advise people to work out what questions they want to ask and write them down.
This serves two purposes,
1. You don't forget to ask something important such as asking to see the British veterinary Association health scheme certificates for the sire and the dam of the pups.
2. You don't get sidetracked by chatting or cuddling puppies.

Make sure you understand what the breeder is saying to you, about the breed, caring for your pup etc... Most breeders will offer you a contract of sale, which should state exactly what you are getting for your money. It may cover health as well. As the other poster here has said look for signs that the other older dogs if present look happy and healthy, are confident and not nervous.
Look at how the puppies are kept and if they are happy and healthy. Do they have watery eyes for example? If so it may have entropian, a condition whereby the eye lashes turn in rub the eye.
Many breeders these days will get their puppies checked before sale by their vet. Some breeders will do a first vaccination and all breeders should worm the pups before they go to their new homes.
To find out what health problems may affect the breed you have chosen, go to your vet before you visit have a chat with him/her and ask what questions you should ask. Your vet should be able to tell you whether or not a breed needs to be hip xrayed, elbow xrayed or eye tested for example.
Good luck and let us all know how you get on.

Thanks for replying to my questions. We've already been given the hip scores for the bitch and the first choice male, they were 7 and 9 respectively with the breed average being 13 on 6th November 2001. The breeder owns both the bitch and the stud dog although he does have another male lined up incase the first mating is not successful. He is hoping to use one of his own dogs due to the limited numbers of males available.

They have also eye tested clear, although we haven't seen the certificates yet.

Having never bought a pedigree puppy before we are very keen to ask all the right questions etc and to make sure we are buying from the right man. We're not saying that this breeder won't be the right one or that there are any problems with his dogs etc but we just want to make sure we do everything right. (Just thought I'd better add that incase the breeder is reading and gets offended).

Chris

As a breeder reading your post, I would be impressed that you are so keen to "get it right", you'd have a puppy from me any time!
I always ask puppy buyers to go away and think about everything I have told them before committing themselves to buying a pup, so they have a "cooling off period". If they are still keen then I am happy for them to buy a puppy. I am always pleased to meet potential owners who have really "done their homework" on the breed first and do ask questions.

We went to see the breeder today and we were very impressed. He has 10 dogs altogether and apart from the oldest bitch they all live in kennels outside in the garden. The kennels were very clean and the dogs looked very happy in there.

We were introduced to the 'house dog' and another of the bitches and they were both very friendly and forthcoming. We had our eldest and youngest children with us - Ellie, our middle child, is staying with my parents - and the dogs were quite happy to be prodded and poked by the kids. The young bitch that we saw had never met a baby and was great with Issy, even though Issy did try to pull her nose off!!

Assuming the mating was successful and the litter contains at least 1 bitch we're getting our puppy on 24th March!!! Thanks for all you advice about our visit, it made us feel a lot more confident about going to see the breeder.

Fiona - Mrs Buggleywoo

The next posting will be about 'how to choose the right puppy'!!

Choose the one that falls asleep on your foot. It worked for us.:D

Glad to hear it all went OK.