What do breeders do with unsold puppies?

[jenn D]

I've often wondered what happens when breeders don't sell all of the puppies in their litters. What happens to these dogs? Do the breeders hold onto them until they get someone to buy them? Do the "mark down" the asking price? Do the puppies get desperate and sell the "leftovers" on craigslist?
I've really wondered about this because I don't know how you could sell all of the puppies you get from multiple litters. I know we've been over the cost of many doodles in discussions here. I understand the testing, the cost of food, vet etc., but in my own limited discussions with normal folks, I'm the only one who was willing to shell out the "typical" asking price for a doodle. Maybe it's just my city and it's demographics. We don't have any doodle breeders advertising that they breed my specific city. So I figure no one will pay the price here. But this can't be the only place. Do most breeders sell all of their puppies? It seems like a huge risk to bank on. And no I do not want to breed dogs. I'm merely curious as To what happens. I just can't believe all these pups get sold. Maybe they do?

[jenn D]

I meant do the breeders get desperate, not the puppies (in my first couple sentences). Lol

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The reputable breeders rarely have unsold puppies; they usually have waiting lists for their puppies.

The disreputable breeders do all kinds of things with unsold pups. List them on CL, sell them in Walmart parking lots, leave them at shelters, abandon them, etc. And some of them do the right thing and contact rescue groups. 

[Adina P]

I was going to say what Karen said: depends on the breeder!
I think even the 'reputable' ones do end up marking down older pups, though, if they have some.  

[Shoney & Ruby]

Good question. I always wonder [and worry] about this.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I know of beeders who sell every pup long in advance of their births.

[Alex]

I think its a fair question. Of course, there are some "gold standard" breeders who rarely or never have unsold puppies, and in a perfect world we would have all adopted from them.

But in my humble experience, we probably didn't. We met LOTS of breeders in our doodle search, restricted attention to only most reputable on the basis of the available information (on here, and other sources), and looked over a pretty big area (lets say a 6 hour driving radius on the east coast). Even the best ones fell short of the "gold standard" in at least one significant way. And my guess is, have probably, at one time or another, had unadopted pups at 10 or 12 weeks. So, I also think its a good question to wonder what these reasonably reputable, but not totally perfect, breeders do at this point.  

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

I went to an open house to meet Finn's breeder, her dogs, and it even happened that she had two pups that she was keeping from FInn's mom and dad.  Finn wasn't even a twinkle yet. I loved the doodles but I still had to convince myself that I would pay that much for a pup.  I saw at least 9-10 people write checks for litters 6 months to a year in the future.  I couldn't believe it but I thought I'd better make up my mind or my pup wouldn't get to me until 2020 LOL.  But continually finding good homes I think, takes as much work and thought as raising pups.  This breeder kept email lists of anyone who had bought or had been interested in her pups. That's how I got Finn because he was a leftover but still a baby so no discount :)  I've seen her discount a pup that she has taken back as an adult, but only after she's worked on training etc.  I think better breeders also network with other breeders to help each other. Don't even want to think about the disreputable ones. 

[Laura and Angus]

Our puppy was one of the last couple left from a breeder not too far away from us. He was there with his sister and was a little older (we met him around 9 weeks and picked him up at 11 weeks). Of course his sister was snatched up before we returned to pick up our baby. Our breeder seemed to discount the price for our puppy and his sister based on her past litter cost. I couldn't tell if this was because of the time of year (we got him in the fall when it was starting to get cold) or if she wanted to make sure they went home. But I will tell you that her next litter from a different dog was at the lower cost - perhaps she was lowering her prices in general?

At any rate, I don't know how she has pups left over because already I've had a couple people ask me where we got our puppy because they want one just like him haha. 

[Lynda Kamrath]

Yes, I think the most reputable breeders already have their pups spoken for before they are even born.  At least that has been my experience.  Then, if the puppies are still around after the normal selling period of 8 - 12 weeks, they sell them as "overaged pups".  I got Harpo at 13 weeks as an overaged pup.  He was from an unplanned, but ALD regular breeding stock.  A lady from the IDOG rescue told me about him as she knew I was looking for a replacement dog because my labradoodle had died.