Puppy search - losing hope

[wintersgold]

I was wondering whether anyone has had a similar experience & could offer any advice.
We've been actively looking for a golden retriever puppy since January this year, with no success yet
I've been checking the Kennel Club website & Champdogs, I've written to our local golden retriever club - nothing. It's absolutely disheartening

All the litters I've seen are either reserved or there are some issues with the health checks/breeder. I've been in touch with some breeders but either they haven't responded, or we haven't been happy with them.

One breeder asked me to pick out a puppy from the litter when it was days old! When I questioned her, she became very defensive and I decided to steer clear of her. It's very important to me that the breeder genuinely cares about her dogs, the puppies' future homes & does everything 'right' (health checks, raising puppies, allocating them to the right homes).

I do understand that I need to be patient, but it's really hard. I'm almost tempted to go for a labrador instead (there seem to be a lot more labrador litters from good breeders) but I really do prefer goldens.

Apologies for the really long post. Would welcome any advice, I'm beginning to think we'll never find a puppy from a breeder that fits our expectations

I am sure there are circumstances where they don't break even.

@Wolfiefan , they are still making a profit , unless they are seriously saying they are paying themselves x£ per hour for having to actually look after the pups .

X post - may be different if a section is involved but that can’t be the norm for most breeds - especially not retrievers .

So 2-3 months?! Sorry OP, but that’s nothing. We were on the waitlist for 12 months for ours, and that was quick compared to some!

Also, if you want a decent breeder, you need to get on the waitlist BEFORE the pups are born. If a bitch has not had all her pups spoken for before birth, I’d run a mile.

There’s no point getting a puppy that is of questionable background - you’ll increase the risk of having your heart broken if they end up with problems.

Email all the breeders, before they say they’ve got a litter, and ask to be put on their waitlist in preparation for the next litter.

Good luck x

Also, if you want a decent breeder, you need to get on the waitlist BEFORE the pups are born. If a bitch has not had all her pups spoken for before birth, I’d run a mile.

I don't necessarily agree with this. Most of the litters we looked at were people with working dogs who were looking at keeping a pup for themselves and had a litter maybe once every 5 years. Not licenced breeders who keep waitlists. Our breeders ended up with a lot more girls than expected so had a couple of pups looking for homes after birth. All the people we spoke to were advertising one or two pups not whole litters. Personally, if everything else checks out, re. health tests etc. I'm far happier buying from this sort of environment than licensed breeders churning out litters regularly.

OP - we found our pup through champdogs. I did consider a really large search area and ruled out far more than we considered, but we got lucky eventually.

@Floralnomad there is a difference between maybe making a profit. And just breeding for money.
Honestly to do it properly costs time and money. It’s not a fast road to big money. Unfortunately few people do it properly.

Don't rule out pets4homes. Just be very fussy! I got a lovely lab from there but only 3 postings out the hundreds felt right to me!

Agree with wolfie - but the ones that do it properly are great. We all have to make money to live on at the end of the day.

There are very occasional litters advertised on P4h that are legit but most are absolutely not. Kennel club website not much better. I found one litter one there that were inbred to a father/daughter degree.

We found ours by a two pronged approach... Contacting several well known stud owner and then meeting a dog in the woods who was brilliant and tracking down breeder details. The breeder turned out to use one of the stud dogs I knew was absolutely top notch. We waited 18 months for our pup.

I'm sure you would not bit it just isn't worth cutting corners with GRs. They have a poor genetic hand, health-wise, and you need to select out the bad stuff as far as possible.

The FB page mentioned above is also very good.

On one of the sourcing groups on Facebook I've seen a 'pups available' post 2/3 times this year I'm fairly certain of it.

It's my understanding that you wouldn't necessarily expect to start looking for a puppy and find one even in the same year.

Re: cost of pups, not many people have the luxury these days of not having to work at all for a living, and both breeding and caring for dogs is not something that can be done in a home where everyone is out all day. People do have to make money to live. You have to charge SOME extra above cost, surely, otherwise the only breeders you'd get would be retired people or puppy farms. Or a sideline for WAGs.....

As a previous poster said 3 months isn’t that long. Think it took about 6 months to find a breeder for our lab despite being loads of lab litters.

Also worth noting that there are some decent breeders who use p4h. In fact I’ve come across quite a few breeders who use champdogs AND p4h. But You need to understand what to look for. Health tests, research of pedigree line, previous litters etc. A good breeder will also vet you!

The majority of breeders are definitely interested in the money. Though I concede margins are not fat if they are looking after their dogs properly!

Some really valuable information, thank you

I'll have to keep looking- finding a puppy has been far trickier than I'd imagined!

[quote Wolfiefan]@Floralnomad there is a difference between maybe making a profit. And just breeding for money.
Honestly to do it properly costs time and money. It’s not a fast road to big money. Unfortunately few people do it properly.[/quote]
That's what I thought too, one of my friends is a fantastic breeder (sadly her breed isn't one that suits us, otherwise we'd take a puppy from her in a heartbeat) - she only has a litter once every couple years, and competes with her dogs all the time (they're working collies). I can't imagine she makes much of a profit to be honest.

That said I do understand that most (good) breeders will probably be making some kind of money from their litters

I went through champdogs when we were looking for a golden retriever. I think you have to be prepared for a wait. I made contact with some lovely helpful people who were able to pass my details on to other breeders who weren't advertising. In the end we went for a golden retriever lab cross who is fabulous, but I still get emails asking if I am still looking for a golden retriever pup. I am tempted every time!