Where do you advertise your litter please?

Alkemist · Where do you advertise your litter please?

Can anyone point us in the direction of good places to advertise a litter? We already know of the KC, and the breed club, but we are a little out of touch and don't know which places are worth advertising in.

Thanks
Nina

weima

Champdogs. Have you got tiny feet on the way Nina?

josie

Oooo, tell us more Nina!!!!! You could start with advertising right here!

Alkemist

Well, early days but fingers crossed we will hopefully have some at Xmas. I believe they may not be little paws, the sire usually gives lovely strong pups Very Happy

When I know for sure I might well put the litter on here, but at the mo I am 'making lists' of places that are recommended to put an ad. I am trying to register with Champdogs, forgot they had puppy lists too - doh.....

Nina

edited as I didn't want anyone to think Anya would give bitrh to elephants lol

weima

Do you mind me asking who you've used? You could always PM me Wink

I would avoid Epupz but Champdogs does seem to do very well.

suejan

Why the below statement Claire?

I would avoid Epupz but Champdogs does seem to do very well.

I advertised my last litter on there as do many cc giving judges.

IMHO it's not where you advertise, it is how you deal with the people who respond. The good thing about epupz is they don't control how long your add is so you can really go to town with how good your litter is and what you expect from buyers. You should be able to weed out the fakes from the genuine callers by your questions etc.

I sold 3 pups via epuz,all to previous wei owners who had googled wei puppies for sale. Its one of the 1st sites that comes up.

I know people say it's a site for puppy farmers, my argument is give them something good to compare with.

I don't advertise on champdogs as i have had many people say they (rightly or wrongly) look at it as it gives the impression of serious show folk wanting to sell to the same.

Also look at breedadog.com, (sold a pup via that who is excelling at agility) and breedersonline. There is also the gundog club.

Hope this helps,

Sue

weima

BenB

Worth trying ukgundogs.org

Got my last GWP from there and there are separate sections for HPRs and others.

Helen

A friend advertised her two last litters in shooting times and got a few enquiries.

Helen

newbie

I think its a hit or a miss with advertising some get good results others dont i personally didnt do very well with any advertising and got my litter of 10 pointers sold through word of mouth eventually ! the last one went at 5 mths old then i got 2 back at 7 mths its an experience i wont be repeating thats for sure .

cressy

I guess it depends what your target audience is........

If the pups are likely show prospects then Champdogs, workers then Shooting Times etc, if you do the KC Pup list then give as much info as you are allowed as there are often so mnay you need to stand out IMHO.

Of the 7 dogs I have owned 1 came from his breed club pup list (Chase) although I wasn't really looking but he was too good an opportunity to pass up - you would have laughed seeing me deliberate over phoning his breeder Laughing

. Cressy came from an advert in Dog World and all the others came as word of mouth or conversations.

I think it makes sense to 'network' and let as many peeps as poss know there is a litter available in your location and see how things go from there.

Alkemist

Thanks everyone for sharing your info on where to advertise. I would never have though about a lot of them, so thanks Smile

When I am sure it's taken I'll be popping ads in a few of those mentioned.

Sue, deliberating Shocked

?????

Nina

countrygirl

Like Ben I would have said uk gundogs they seem to get alot of hits you an see how many people have looked at the adverts, there is also gundog finder and sporting gundogs offers the first 2 weeks free all have separate sections for hpr's.

Having said all the above dont know what other people experiance is at the moment but there are still pups left from Wookies litter and they are now 4 months old Shocked

and I have heard of several people in the same boat.

Caz

weima

There are lots of Weimaraners that aren't selling and I know of some who are 4 months+ and not sold. However, I am getting loads of calls for docked pups and don'treally have any trouble selling those.

cressy

Alkemist

Sometimes Sue you just have to go with it and see where it takes you.....

OK now I am seriously worried about not selling pups. I've left her till she's nearly 4 and I can't really leave it much longer. Much as though I would like her litter docked, I don't think I'd have a chance really.

Nina
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weima

You'll have to put them on the breed club lists too for added exposure and as an AB you get to go on the puppy sales register free.

Claire

I am still asking myself a million questions as to whether I should take a litter from Whistle and one of the important ones are will I be able to sell them Shocked

It will be my first ever litter and I just feel I have so much to think about but especially the docking issue because of it being totally illegal in Scotland. However where there's a will...... Wink

josie

You could always keep them all, Claire Laughing

Alkemist

Claire I am only in the WCGB so I guess I'll not make the others lists, but I'll get on the KC one at least.

Other Claire, could you not 'move' to your mams?

Nina

suejan

The majority of wei homes, and true for dog breeds in general, are pet homes. They research a breed they like, and (hopefully) after much deliberation decide to buy one.

They contact the breed clubs as that is what it says in books etc. At the time of my last litter the sec of the wcgb told me she had been inundated with enquiries, and there was only myself and one other litter advertised on the club web-site.

I had 3 or 4 genuine callers, ( one pup was sold to a previous wei owner from that list) and I stress genuine as the majority were time-wasters who had not researched the breed, and I will not sell a puppy to these homes.

In the computer age, whether we as breed people or not like it, we must realise that people will use search engines and either google, yahoo or whatever for weimaraner puppies for sale uk.

If we want to promote breed club puppy lists, their webmasters must use search engines that allow the clubs name to be viewed in the 1st page of search engine results.

Google the above line, the 1st 2 pages are free adds and, in order, pets4homes, k9puppy, breedersonline, thegundogclub, uk classified, pedigree search and ourdogs.

Claire, not everyone who googles these sites can be poor weimaraner owners. They just haven't got anywhere else to look. There is nothing wrong with these sites if you vet people properly. No one is 100% immune to being scammed, but why encourage the puppy farms to list litter after litter of badly-bred and poorly health - checked dogs. If we all started to list our litters, prospective buyers would be able to compare the 'them and us' situation. This may encourage people to ask why are health checks so important etc. If they buy from us, Then in future the breed a litter for a new sofa/holiday brigade will have second thoughts. Yes , puppies in rescue may rise for a short period through over supply from thes unscrupulous breeders, but it may stop them from producing litter after litter, the quantity of whom end in rescue we will not know.

After 'that pedigree programme ' on the tv, people are advertising non-kc reg wei puppies as free of health problems. So why not have an ad that asks people to speak to you and discuss why these things ARE important? You may get a pup for £300 pounds less, but you'll spend that on an excess every year for hd.

Also the stud dog owners should play a big part in selling their dogs offspring. If my dog is used, I encourage people to come and see him and to see (hopefully) what may be passed on to the puppies.

There is no right or wrong way to sell a puppy to a good home, it is finding that one good home amongst the many 'consumers' out there, which is more important.

If you know your bitch is in whelp, ask prospective purchasers to contact you to have a starting point, obviously hoping that the whelping goes well.

I have always found having a litter very stressful. I understand how difficult it must be for you to make this desision, so I really do wish you the best of luck and my best regards no matter what path you decide to take.

Sue

Ghilliegumdrop

Well I bought Merlin from someone who was advertising on epupz and have not regretted it for more than an hour at a time......like when he lurks round doors with underwear in his mouth, when he digs in the garden, when he nicks Mike's sandwich etc etc. He is working well and he has been placed every time he has been shown at Champ and Open shows.
I keep in touch with his breeder and also the owner of his sire.........in fact the guy who owns his dad has joined the Brittany club because he was so impressed with what Merlin is doing. So we cannot tar everyone with the same brush that advertises on epupz, although there are some puppy farmers on there. You just have to sort out the good breeders from the bad.

suejan

Well I bought Merlin from someone who was advertising on epupz and have not regretted it for more than an hour at a time...

Jan Ha Ha,

Don't forget I kept Mina from a litter advertised on epupz, she makes your lad look like a saint Wink

She dug a hole so big underneath the caravan we had to move it as the leg was sinking!

Seriously, 3 are being shown, 2 starting kc agility, 1 starting training for working trials , very brave! One is being used for rough shooting as well as a pet, and the rest (looking at the pics) are having a whale of a time as pets.

Everyone at somepoint has e-mailed or phoned me to say they have forgotton, or didn't take me seriously, when I said going to the loo by yourself is a thing of the past. Wink

countrygirl

at present adverts on epupz for Weimarans run into 5 pages Shocked

Im a member or wcgb although I dont have the breed and in there newsletter they list litters the vast majority not breed by members, but you are all aware of these facts its those quite gray pups with blue eyes Crying or Very sad

Caz

Claire

Yup, weimaraners are quite the fashion accessory Evil or Very Mad

I'm an area officer for weimaraner rescue (for those of you that don't know) and in the past 3 weeks I alone have rehomed 6 dogs Sad

And my books are not cleared yet and are not likely to be either. I work flat out in the day job and then I come home and work flat out on rehoming unwanted weimaraners. The number of weimaraners I have rehomed this year are well into double figures. At one point both breed rescues had over 50 dogs on their books looking for new homes Sad

suejan

Yes you are right,. It is shocking, which is why when you get reputable breeders on there imo is makes such a difference.

I am the puppy co-ordinator for the gwp club, we very, very rarely have club members listed on there either, although it is not for a want of me trying to encourage breeders to follow the club rules and health check etc.

In the last year I have had only 2 members of the gwp club register their dogs through the club. But there are lots of litters out there. I am trying my best to encourage those who know better via health-screening and quality puppies to advertise those for what they are worth.

Again if we can encourage advertising with the appropriate health tests, for eg GWP's, we can say tested clear for vwd. Who cares where we see this advertised, AS LONG AS IT IS DONE!

If a litter is advertised on epupz vwb and hd tested clear, who am I to argue? I'd rather them do it properly on a site put down by 'TOP BREEDERS' than not do it at all!

Yes, there are ads for blue-eyed wei's, there are also ads for puppies from the breed cc record holder in gsp's. Exclamation

This is not where we place our ad's, but what we do with the ads, and how we CAN SHOW GIVEN THE EFFORT AND EXPENSE PUT INTO WELL BRED PUPPIES, come to us rather than the puppy farmers. Exclamation

Barb · epupz

"although there are some puppy farmers on there."

there are not some Jan but a lot!! certainly on the wei pages. One day I counted 142 puppies for sale- it was fairly obvious from the price where they were coming from.
Like Claire I am an area officer for IWRRS and part of my area is mid and south wales. Nearly all the young(under 12 month old) dogs I take in are sold cheaply without papers and "I bought him/her of that website on the internet" Sadly to say I think the problem is only going to get worse Sad

josie

One way to look at this is:

Many of these websites exist by advertisers paying to advertise - that is - our money as sellers funds these websites and enables them to exist.

If we don't agree with such websites allowing anyone and everyone to advertise (including puppy farmers), and having no requirements or vetting in place to prevent this, then it would be a good idea not to advertise on them because the money is only supporting these sites.

Just another perspective...

suejan

If we don't agree with such websites allowing anyone and everyone to advertise (including puppy farmers), and having no requirements or vetting in place to prevent this, then it would be a good idea not to advertise on them because the money is only supporting these sites.

But it doesn't work like that.

If for example there are now 5 pages of puppy farmer ads, how is it going to make a difference if we as honest WANT THE BEST FOR OUR PUPPIES don't? Please look at my previous posts to see why I DO think it is a good thing we advertise on sites like these. And the feedback through the dog papers and the kennel club re that programme, we are stupid if we think advertising our well bred puppies on select elite sites is enough.

We need to act now to educate the public before god-knows what draconian measures are brought in by the government, (they did it with docking and fox-hunting, I know what I am saying is not popular but we need to have a wake up call) and prove to the public we have puppies not bred by puppy farmers , which have been health-checked.

Don't forget, the government won't distuinguish the good breeders from the bad. Lets get out there on these sites and MAKE THE PUBLIC AWARE that CHEAP IS NOT BETTER.

Boycotting these sites is NOT the answer, there have been puppy farmers and those wanting to make a quick buck around for along time, WE HAVE TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC THAT THESE ARE THE WORST PLACES TO BUY PUPPIES FROM, how do we do that , 1st off from putting quality litters on there.
What IS STOPPING BREED CLUBS FROM PUTTING ADS ON THESE SITES? HOW BETTER TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC? But what happens when you get breed club members breeding several litters a year etc? The problem willre-surface.... This is not a simple DON'T ADVERTISE YOUR LITTER THERE, it really is what and how you handle the response.

I know I will be putting this across at my next agm(s)

josie

I think it would make a big difference if all "reputable" breeders stayed away from such sites. It would really make it clear that they disapproved of the "atmosphere" of the site as a whole and it would make the site much more clearly be about puppy farming and disreputable breeders. There will always be people who don't care where they get a dog from, who want a cheap price etc - but why should they bathe in the reflected glory of reputable breeders just because their litter is advertised alongside reputable litters?

Personally, as a buyer, I looked at a lot of different websites when I was looking for pups. I did look at epupz, but I would not have contacted a breeder who advertised there. Rightly or wrongly, I'd consider someone as being quite desperate to advertise on epupz and, as a buyer, I didn't contact anyone advertising on there. (I found Slate through word of mouth and personal recommendations on the Weim forum - her litter wasn't advertised anywhere at all - and I found Grey whilst learning more about the breed - someone I'd contacted with questions about the breed was expecting a litter. So neither of mine were found through any form of advertising at all.)

Claire

None of my dogs were found through advertising. I rang round lots of breeders, some local and some not so local and I opted for the one that did the appropriate health checks and I liked the sound of on the phone. So I visited that breeder, liked what I saw at the time and was able to build up a trust so I waited 2 years for my first bitch and was not disappointed.

One of the main problems, as I see it with epupz, is even though reputable breeders advertise on there and advertise the various health checks they have done etc. etc. there are a lot of people who just want their chosen breed for as little money as possible and the reputable breeders are quite rightly charging more than puppy farmers.

I was shocked quite recently when a friend of mine rang me to say her friend was buying a weimaraner puppy from a known puppy farmer because the dog was £400 cheaper than the pup they had originally booked from a reputable breeder. I tried to explain the facts but unfortunately this friend of a friend wasn't listening, she saw the £ signs and that was the attraction Sad

Sadly I think epupz attracts a lot of people like this and whilst there are obviously a few reputable puppy buyers browsing that website I am afraid it is not one that would advertise on. Infact, I no longer look at epupz because I can't bear it and I'm busy enough in rescue as it is without giving myself more grey hairs by the number of dogs, pups and adults, being advertised on there Mad

I can see both sides of the argument, but IMHO if reputable breeders advertise on places like epupz then it is likely to make those looking for a "cheap pup" think that the website must be ok and they are getting a bargain because some people are just greedy in charging more than others. We know that isn't the case, but inexperienced people don't!

tashap

have to admit the enquiries I made about ezpups made me think twice about advertising on their site and others like it, most people looking are only interested in price and generate pet homes so the lower priced litters where little or no checks have been done tend to sell.

I used Champdogs but i don't show myself so its not just for showfolk neither of the dogs I used are heavily shown but both have been entered for conformation purposes or a bit of fun and been placed. Both dogs are worked instead. The majority of people that contacted me were genuine I did have a few idiots but that was to be expected. A very good site to advertise on.

The breedadog website I didn't get any interest from at all and I was a little upset that if I wanted my 5 generation pedigree that the owner of the stud dog had to pay for their dog to be advertised on the site. As they didn't have any interest in advertising him at stud as he is very selectively used this was very disappointing as the pedigree is an important part of the research of any litter. In the end the stud was put on the site and the fee paid to get the pedigree up but there were no referrals from that site.

The Gundog Club got my ad wrong and it ended up with people being sent to an arab website so I was asked if I was a terrorist on two occassions, it was an easy mistake to make but a paying ad you do expect the text to be correct at least so I was disappointed.

I did advertise on the club websites and would do so again the club do get lots of people asking about puppies and I had some good referrals from them direct both from people that had seen the puppy list and those who had made requests to the club direct and been advised of the litter. To get in the club magasine is a bit hit and miss as it depends on when they go to publishing mine were all sold before it went to press but born just after one had been produced.

The funny thing is that word of mouth sold most of my pupsters and they are lovely homes, two experienced with the breed and competing and one to one of my tutors at college who owns a farm and a shoot so is working him.

I also had a good response from the Kennel Club list but lots were time wasters.

There is of course the referrals from the owner of the stud dog too...

Nina I wouldn't be put off using champdogs your litter is a good diverse one with dogs brought in from abroad so will I am sure create interest. You have the added bonus of international interest as you show in Europe.

One thing I would say is a good website it a MUST. Alot of people that approached me had taken a good look at mine before contacting me and making enquiries about my puppies.

Alkemist

Thanks Tasha for your kind words....... and I've taken note about the website, I am having problems updating mine at the moment Sad

Does anyone know the rules about the WA and litter adverts? Or NEWS even?

Nina
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weima

I know about NEWS as I am the secretary Very Happy

You have to be a member that is all. We're not like the WCGB who state you must be a member for 2 years before you can advertise.

If you want to be a member you can download a membership form from the website. I can propose you if you do.

I must admit I do get quite a few enquiries & NEWS' puppy list does seem to work well.

Alkemist

Thanks Claire I'll be on to it asap.

Nina