.com Forum · Alpha Dog Forum

At what point do you decide to sell a dog? After a certain number of shows with no points? Siblings are doing better? If you have a young dog that has finished, how or why did you decide to sell? On a similar note, if you have youngsters equal in SOP, how do you decide ??who to keep? Everyone comment. All comments/opinions are greatly appreciated and looking forward to a good discussion.

When to sell??

It depends on your goals.

If I am working with a breed that is 100 SOP...

Dogs winning with ease stay in the ring. Females who aren't showing well get bred to a nice male and I move onto the next generation. Males who aren't showing well move on unless I have limited stud choices.

Will

I work with and promote Brussels Griffon. I offer quality individuals up from litters that I think would either show well for someone or produce outstanding prodigy to provide someone a great start in the breed. I select the highest SOP pup(s) as my keepers usually and place siblings that are still very high quality up for grabs. Occasionally I will offer a mature dog that has provided exceptional offspring for me to get someone else some benefit.

I would rarely sell adults unless I am asked for stock by a user I know or someone starting in the breed after a couple of chats with them to find out their intentions.

Once I have finished showing/ breeding them they go to FH. Grand Champions and some favourite Ch are kept on the retirement bench on Pet House food til they are deceased.

I have got more wary in my old age, lol, some newcomers, especially just lately buy up 3 or 4 and then FH them straight away, who knows why?

After spending my SD time deciding which dogs to let them have, which will do best for them,which studs to mate them to before they go and then they get dumped .... is annoying! So if I get offers out of the blue I will message with them a bit first.

Mostly I FH pups I dont want, though if I get too many very good ones in a litter and I've used someone else's stud, I'll let them know to see if they want one. If I put any up for sale on the board I always put them on approval so I can see if it's going to be a good home first.

I all too often have too many dogs in too many kennels and spend too much time not being able to do anything because I don't have enough time to deal with the overflow properly so it gets put off until I have the time. Which I never have.

So, I roughly grade all my litters into "keepers", "maybe", and "probably not" according to the possible usefulness in the future. The "maybe" group gets "Quick Listed" until they hit 14 days and start counting then they generally get FH'd. The "probably nots" get FH'd immediately. I'll probably do a bit of reassessment at that point of both remaining groups to adjust for the changing nature of the breed. Some of the previous "keepers" become "maybe" and get "Quick Listed". If there are several players, I'm more ruthless, if it's more or less just me (quite often is) I'll try to keep a few more in the "for Quick sale" list.

I think it's important to the game that casual drop-ins see dogs available. If they buy, I'll write a welcome note. If I never hear back - no problem, if I do I offer my help to get them started. If they make an effort, I'll offer them better dogs. Sometimes this will mean an older girl who has produced well in the past but is perhaps just becoming a bit redundant to me but still better that a "current castoff". These "older" producers are sometimes the foundation bitches for someone new. The overall health of the game depends on replacing the dropouts with fresh blood. Always start out welcoming and assume the best until it's proven otherwise.

I have "hoarding" tendencies! (It's probably really good that I never actually got into breeding the real thing - lol.) Once titled EVERYONE has a good chance of sticking around well into old age. At 200-300 days I will start looking at the geriatrics when I need to trim and they will start going to their retirement homes. I do not generally use the "Retirement Couch".

I generally only put pups up for sale, unless players particularly request breeding stock, in which case I find out what they need and put up older bitches and males instead of FHing.

I only put pups up if they are show quality (and if I get surplus to requirements). Just lately in a couple of kennels, I am struggling to get show quality dogs for myself, let alone pups to sell. Traits also determine what stays and what goes. If a pup has a trait I am trying to establish, it stays.

When I have surplus pups I will put them for sale until they turn 14 days.

I have been known to put up exceptional pups on approval, rather than see them wasted, or offer to a kennel who may be interested.

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Last edited by Aussiewolfsister on 3/21/2021 11:14:55 PM

Thank you to everyone for the helpful comments ??