Whippet breeders questions

[homeworkinghubbard]

Hello everyone,
We're going to meet a breeder who's just got a beautiful litter of fawn whippet pups, but I'm now dwelling on all the questions the breeder will (and should) be asking us to check we're a good match for one of her puppies. What kind of thing will they be asking? Some people have reported a whole afternoon of questions, and I just want to be prepared either for the questions, or if the questions mean we wouldn't be a good match for the puppy.
Thanks everyone!

This Champdogs blog post is written as a guide aimed at breeders and covers the sorts of things a responsible breeder should be asking.

Champdogs also have a good guide to buying a puppy plus a list of questions to ask a breeder which I'd recommend having a read through. On top of those I'd also be asking why they still have puppies available. Is it because the litter is much larger than expected? Have they had people drop off their waiting list?

Whippets don't have much in the way of health testing requirements (although the good breeders are gradually starting to pre-emptively screen for heart issues) so the main concern is the inbreeding coefficient of the litter.
This article explains why the COI is such an important consideration. The breed as a whole is in a pretty poor state as far as genetic diversity goes so it's imperative that breeders are doing what they can to maintain what genetic diversity there is. The COI should at least be lower than the breed average (9.5%) but preferably as close to 0% as possible. You can check the COI by entering the parents' full names (presuming they're KC registered) here on the KC site.

Just to add, I'd also try and have a good chat with them about how they're raising their puppies. There's a lot the breeder should be doing in order to set the litter up as well as possible for when they eventually go off to their new homes.

This site gives a good breakdown of the various developmental stages of puppies and gives a list for each of the basics the breeder should be doing.

This is an example of really excellent breeder who is going all out to make sure their puppies are as prepared and well rounded as possible before they go off to their new homes. It makes such a difference getting a pup from a breeder who has already started work on things like recall, house training, being apart from the rest of the litter, crate training, etc.

That's brilliant, Cornflake, thank you