2021 has arrived, and still no update on Florin I'm afraid. It will happen, hopefully soon! In the meantime I have to repeat that my list is currently closed and that I don't know anyone with puppies that I feel comfortable recommending, but I recently wrote some guidelines about looking for a puppy on a standard poodle facebook page that I run so I am sharing it here in case it helps anyone with their search. I will add to this by saying please don't spend stupid money on a puppy, there are very ethical breeders out there who are producing/planning litters of puppies whose price will start with a 1.
The very first thing is to ideally make contact with breeders before you are actually ready to take on a pup, in this way you can get a feel for the breeder and their dogs, hopefully you can visit and meet the adult dogs (before there are any tempting puppies available), see how they are kept and get an idea for how and where the puppies will be reared. At this point you can also ask about (and verify by checks on KC website and sight of certificates) that the potential parents have had the relevant health testing. Health testing is very different to a vet health check, as a minimum they should be hip scored and have a BVA eye examination, I would also expect some DNA testing, there are very few acceptable reasons for not having health tests in place, someone 'knowing their completely untested lines' would not be one of them.
Just to further complicate things, just because a dog is KC registered and has good health testing results doesn't automatically make it a suitable dog to breed from, temperament is critically important as is breed standard and remember that KC registered does not in any way guarantee a quality puppy, it just means you have more reference points.
So many times people will say I don't want to show so it doesn't matter if it's not top quality, to a point this is true, if you are looking for a pet then no, it doesn't matter if it has a colour fault or its ears are a bit high set or the tail isn't carried as quite the right angle, but if conformation is not correct this will often lead to health problems as the pup matures and to be frank, if you want a poodle then surely you want one that looks like the breed is meant to?
Ask questions, lots of questions one of which should be why have you planned this litter? Ask how often they have a litter, if they are producing more than a couple of litters a year, chances are that the pups are being bred for profit, not for the betterment of the breed. Ask how many litters the bitch has had and how old she is. The KC restrict the amount of litters from any one bitch to 4, be wary of those who don't kc reg their puppies or also breed crossbreeds as there is no way to know how many litters they could be producing.Ask how long they have owned the breed and how long they have been breeding, if the two numbers are very similar it could point to them jumping in and breeding with very little proper knowledge of the breed standard or of pedigrees and any problems that may be in them. Ask to see the contract of sale, there should be one and it should lay out what you can expect from the breeder and what they expect from you.
If you see a litter online and you haven't had the chance to do your own personal research then google is your friend, google names on the advert, telephone numbers and email addresses, this could reveal all sorts of information, especially selling patterns. Again, if you are buying online, spend some time going through as many adverts as you can, look for pictures of different pups but with the same background. Not everyone can take a good picture of their puppies but you should be looking for pictures showing clean relaxed and happy puppies in a reasonable environment (poodles are people dogs and this is possibly my own view and experience rather than fact but I would never consider buying a puppy that hasn't been reared in a true home environment, that means actually living as part of the family, not just coming in at night). Expect the breeder to ask you questions, they have hopefully put their heart and soul into these puppies and will want to ensure that you can provide a suitable loving home for them.
Be wary of breeders that hold "puppy parties", choosing your puppy should be done in a timely manner where you can spend time with the puppies watching their behaviour and discussing specific requirements with the breeder, you cannot do this if multiple owners are invited to meet their puppy at the same time. Unless there is only one puppy that matches the sex (and possibly your choice of colour) in a litter then choosing a puppy is ideally done when the puppy is at least 5 weeks old as this is about the youngest that you can start to assess the temperament and structure of the puppy, if you choose a pup based on nothing more that it's collar colour at 2 days old you have no way of predicting if that pup will be suitable for you and your lifestyle as it matures.
If you are unfortunate enough to take home a puppy that is far from the puppy that you were led to believe you were getting you really should ask to return the puppy for a full refund, you should do this as soon as possible as it is a hard thing to do and will only get harder as time goes by, you can still report the situation should you feel it warranted as suggested below.
There will no doubt be people reading this who have obtained a puppy without worrying about any of the above and have ended up with a wonderful dog, that is great and I am genuinely pleased for you, but you took a huge risk and whilst there is still an element of risk in taking on or breeding any puppy, isn't it sensible to advise others to do everything they can do put the odds of getting a healthy, well adjusted pup, in their favour? Lastly, and possibly most importantly, if you do not like what you see when you visit a puppy, WALK AWAY, do not ever hand over money to 'rescue' a puppy from a situation, all you do by handing over money is reward the person who has caused this distress and encourage them to do it again. Instead report the breeder to the RSPCA, HMRC and their local council, stop them doing it again. This puppy will hopefully be a treasured family member for 10 -15 years, surely it is worth doing some research and possibly travelling a fair distance to maximise your chances of getting it right .
Please remember, this is just a guide, there will be things I have missed and some occasions where not everything will apply, common sense should always be used.
We have been making the most of the cold frosty weather, it's great bringing back clean dogs every day :)
Kittens - Bernard is currently enjoying Fawltys company, we hope to have kittens in about 9 weeks time. The picture is Bernard with a previous litter of kittens sired by Fawlty.
