Where to advertise puppies if not Pets4Homes, please?

[Maffy]

I would be very grateful for advice.

I've have been looking at previous The Doghouse posts and many advise avoiding Pets4Homes.

Where would be the best place to advertise our lovely whippet x spaniel puppies, please?

Our vets are still working from the car park only, so no noticeboard, and Facebook has stopped pet adverts. Rather new to this.

The puppies are very cute, but we cannot keep them all!

Thanks in advance.

@NeedAHoliday2021 KC reg just means pedigree. It’s far from proof of a good breeder
@gogohm family bred? Backyard breeders after a bit of extra cash? Who don’t know enough or care enough to do health tests before breeding and choose sire/dam carefully.

This thread makes me sad. So many unwanted dogs in the world.

Gumtree shouldn’t be allowed to advertise pets.

@notHarris

I would say that it's not so much where you advertise them that matters. What matters is that you put more importance on them having a good home than on collecting money. So thoroughly vetting potential families, asking questions, meeting them more than once, seeing them interact with the puppies will all be important. Word of mouth would work well as they'd then have somebody to recommend them. Even though your vet has no notice board you could still contact them and ask if they know of any clients who are looking for a puppy.

Definitely this. Where are you op?

@Gubanc

Of course it wasn't 'rehomed' via a rescue, there's a rehome section on pets4homes where people sell their dogs cheaper.

I use pets4homes to advertise my kittens, everybody has to start somewhere (not too sure about the new website) and I know a lot of reputable breeders use this site.

No they don't.

I got mine from pets4homes and she is a really nice dog. And I’d get another from them.
Just check their situation before you buy.

I’ve had multiple pets from pets4homes… mostly free rodents with unsuitable cages although I did get my dog on there too. He was £30 and had bad kidneys so used to wee in the house. His first owners were very upfront about his issues (he was 12 weeks old) and the fact they couldn’t afford his vet bills. The money was to try and prevent him going to a dog fighting ring (although I’d have charged more). They met us 4 times before we took him home. He’s a great dog, fully house trained and happy on a specialist kidney diet and his medication.

I’d personally avoid the site if possible as there are better places to sell puppies. Can you contact the rescue?

My older dog came from P4H.

Really, truly, it doesn't have to be a terrible choice for anyone. We met the breeder three times, including the time he home checked us. He was happy to answer lots of questions, show me pedigrees, and let me see photos/ videos of sire and dam in work. He wanted to know all about us, and almost five years on, we are still in contact - we became FB friends even before we bought the puppy, which allowed us to check each other out at length. I know of breeders on ChampDogs I'd be less happy to buy a puppy from than that guy.

BUT you have to do your due diligence very carefully if you are buying through the site, and even more so if you are selling through it. In your shoes, OP, I'd try and FB friend any potential buyers. It gives confidence to both sides. I'd also look for local buyers - the feed merchants is a great idea, also local kennels, riding stables etc.

WhoWears...
yes, they do

All the reputable rescues will have waiting lists of home-checked families waiting for puppies. They usually last approximately 5 minutes when they've gone through the door before they're reserved - plus the rescue will offer the new family a lifetime of support and be able to take the dog back in if it doesn't work out.

Selling privately, you need to have a puppy contract that includes you taking the dog back if it doesn't work out, that means the pup doesn't end up back on a freelisting when it gets to the "bitey shark" phase and the family have had enough.

This is the RSPCA puppy contract:
puppycontract.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-10/The%20Puppy%20Contract.pdf

FYI all the freelistings are absolutely rife with illegally imported puppies, and scams. I report them daily.

We bought our dog from pets4homes and the family she came from were lovely, we still see them regularly and if I ever have my questions they're there for us. They even offer to dog sit for free because they miss her they're absolutely brilliant people who care for their dogs so well.

A friend got her dog from there, poor thing turned out to be far too young to be weaned let alone away from mum, full of worms and the whole thing was a mess.

Both of us were perfectly happy and convinced we were getting them from a loving home. I'd probably not buy from them again, because you really just can't tell. But I have no idea where would be a good alternative.

@Maffy

Thank you for the kind and helpful comments, for the others; 'if you cannot say anything nice...'.

There are also useful quotes about jumping to conclusions too, but if it is really necessary to know, the bitch was rehomed to us with the surprise bonus of being in whelp. The spaniel is a deduction; I've heard the CMS never answer the phone anyway...

@mayblossominapril - Thanks, I had completely forgotten about the feed merchants; shall definitely try there.

Great replythough still didn't shut some people up

A rural vet may know of homes by word of mouth if no notice board. Local good dog boarding venue? Dog trainers? Local dog Facebook page?

I too would think a rural home.

I think a photo would help though

But it isn’t likely to ‘shut people up’ because if the dog was rescued through a reputable organisation then they will happily take the puppies back and ensure they go to well vetted homes.

Although most reputable rescues are unlikely to rehome a pregnant dog.

Plenty of people rescue a dog informally though.

I imagine whippet X spaniel could be quite a challenging mix of high energy and drive if not experienced and will need careful homing to active homes not random school mums.

If not bothered about money I'd ask a lurcher rescue if can help find homes for the pups now to go at 8wks they do all the initial work checking homes out & if they need to be rehomed anytime in the future are are more likely to be taken back to be found suitable homes than wind up on free ads. Of course decent breeder do have puppy contract to return and it does happen but by then maybe a handful adolescent or adult dog and be harder to re-home so you need to consider how feel about that.

The pup market seems to have dropped out, lurchers have traditionally always been cheaper but seeing a lot of unsold pups post 8wks going for 250-600 and some 6m+ where owners need to sell on for various reasons. Saw one breeder yesterday where they still had 5x 5month lab X left which much be hard work and they'll be lacking socialisation.
Therefore more puppies have been available in rescue this past fortnight but are always more popular especially for those that have cats or kids.

So you didn’t know the Bitch was pregnant but you DO know what breed the father was?

@Hoppinggreen

So you didn’t know the Bitch was pregnant but you DO know what breed the father was?

RTFT. OP has already said spaniel is a deduction.

So she doesn’t actually know what the pups are at all?
Not sure that’s any better, especially if she advertises them as Spaniel crosses.

Definitely contact rescues to help you find owners if you can’t find them through word of mouth / people you know. They will be able to help vet people.

If you decide to try to find them homes yourself, then have a look online for breeder and rescue application forms as well as puppy contracts. One of the biggest things to ask people is how they plan to train their puppy and what their plan is if the pup develops any behavioural issues. Also ask if there is any reason they can think of why they might have to rehome their puppy. And as someone else said, create a puppy contract so that if there are any problems, the pup will come back to you.

Pricing them can be difficult. Go too low and you might attract people who haven’t though it through - or people looking to buy cheap puppies to sell them on for a profit (it happens a lot). Go too high and obviously that’s an ethical issue. That’s why it would be better if you try to find a rescue that can help you. They often have waitlists for puppies since so many people want a puppy!

We got our pup from p4h

We didn't qualify for a rescue as the garden is too small, even though, we both WFH and have fields a five min walk from us.

And KC breeders were asking £2500 for a pup, now if that isn't making money I don't know what is. There us no way they needed that much, especially as they were selling for no more than £600 a few years before.

We got ours for £500.

Did the OP ever come back after that preposterous story?