When you are getting a puppy...

[OrangeFootedScrubfowl]

How do you visit different breeders and not offend the rest when you pick one? I feel like arranging to go to see the litter makes them think I am going to take a dog.

Am I being stupid?
There are three breeders with what I want available, so I am emailing them all but I feel a bit disloyal, like I am cheating on the roans with the black and tans.

It's perfectly normal. I always visit more than one breeder, how can you choose otherwise? You need to meet at least the mum and see the pups (usually around 5 weeks old or older). As long as you don't promise to take a puppy on, just make it clear that you need to have a think, or even come out and say that you are seeing other litters as well. When you do make a decision it's only polite to let them know, but any breeder who expects you to turn up and commit to a puppy is being unrealistic.

In cases where I was unfamiliar with the breed I asked for a visit simply to meet the dogs and decide if they were for me. A responsible breeder will be only too happy to introduce the breed to a potential new owner and sometimes it does turn out that the breed is not suitable for that owner.

Generally when seeing a breeder you will have visited them before they have had the litter.

So you would go and talk to them, get the feel for the breeder meet the Mum etc, ask to speak to owners who have already had a dog from the same mum if possible.

Then you can put your name down with a suitable breeder for when they have the litter.

If I were buying from a breeder I would visit them for the first time when I was viewing the litter - the fact they do not have a waiting list of owners would concern me, I would want the breeder to quiz me more than I quizzed them.

I would only ever contact a breeder if I had a word of mouth recommendation, or knew of them personally.

I did my research by email - sensibly worded questions. The process of elimination to choose one breeder was quite straightforward (distance from our place, breeder not strange/weird, breeder showing the right level of concern re selecting new owners for their pups, whether pups were raised in a normal family environment, focus on breeding for personality etc). I got the initial list of breeders from the breed club.

If there had been something wrong when we visited the breeder to see the pups for the first time we would have made polite 'we'll think about it' noises and left, but the email vetting worked well for us.

Our dog is quite a popular breed though which made it easier as there are a lot of good breeders to choose from (and dodgy puppy farms, but they're easy to avoid). I imagine it would be less straightforward for a less popular breed.

Thanks, reassuring to hear it is quite normal!
Unfortunately only ever contacting a breeder I knew or from word of mouth won't work for me as the only people I know with pet dogs are breeds I am not interested in, and the only breeder I know is a rather haphazard one who I wouldn't buy from, and again, not a breed I am interested in anyway!
I'd never get a dog at all!
So, these three litters are the ones from the whole of the country who are going to be available at the end of July/start of August - for the summer holidays - which would be handy I thought. They all seem quite similar by email so far.
All raised in the home, not puppy farms, no resident children for any though. Maybe I would be better waiting for one with children in the home? I guess one would turn up later in the year.

We normally have people come and meet the parents before the pups are born and then they would come and chose a pup. If by any chance we have pups born who aren't spoken for we are wary if people come out and buy one straight away. We also like it when people come back a few times to see there pup.
The only time we get pissed of is when people don't let us no either way.

We breed and have no problems with visiting us and other breeders. If the pups have arrived my only rule is visit us first or on another days . I don't want to run a chance of cross contamination so we never let people in if they have visited another litter that day :) just let the breeder know in advance if you are visiting more than one in a day. Good luck