23/05/2026
I used to think the hardest part of breeding was producing the puppy, but it is not… The hardest part is looking at a perfectly nice person, who genuinely wants one of your dogs, and admitting that wanting the dog does not mean the dog belongs there!
That sounds obvious until you are the one holding the deposit. It sounds obvious until you are the one who has to disappoint someone, knowing they may feel rejected, confused, or hurt by a decision that was never meant to be personal.
I hate disappointing people! It’s probably one of the things I enjoy the least in this world… I really do, but I am getting very tired of disappointing my dogs more!
There is a difference between a good home and the right home! A good home can love the dog, feed the dog well, take nice photos, buy the dog whatever it needs, vet the dog, and mean every word when they say they care…
However, the right home does more than love the dog… The right home gives that dog the best chance to become more of itself!
That is the part people do not always understand. A dog is not just placed into a house… a dog is placed into a nervous system, a routine, a noise level, a skill level, a set of expectations, and an entire way of living!
The dog is placed into someone’s patience, timing, emotional regulation, habits, blind spots, and ability to read what is actually in front of them. The dog may be deeply loved and still not thrive!
That sentence has taken me YEARS to fully accept! When you are a breeder who actually cares, you want to believe that a good person plus a good puppy will automatically create a good outcome! Sometimes it does. Sometimes it does not, but pretending otherwise does not serve the dog!
Sometimes the puppy is too sensitive for the home. Sometimes the puppy is too confident for the home. Sometimes the puppy needs more structure than they will realistically get, and sometimes the puppy needs less chaos than the family can realistically provide… Sometimes the people are wonderful, but the dog would spend its whole life being managed instead of understood! I am no longer willing to call that a successful placement just because the owners are kind. Kind matters, but it is not enough!
This has become especially clear to me as my program becomes more intentional. I am not just producing puppies.. I am trying to preserve something specific… I am trying to preserve temperament, stability, confidence, softness, resilience, structure, function, type, and the weird little quirks that make my dogs feel like mine. That means I have to be more careful with where they go, not less!
The better the dog, the more careful I have to be… People often think the “easy” puppy can go anywhere because the puppy is easy, but I think the easy puppy often deserves the most thoughtful placement! That kind of dog is not accidental. It is the result of years of choices, and it can either be protected or wasted!
I have seen dogs become better than people expected because they landed in the right hands… I have also seen dogs become smaller versions of themselves because they did not!
Same genes, but two polar opposite outcomes…
That is why placement is not about customer service… It is stewardship! My job is not to make the waitlist happy, reward the person who has waited the longest, or match someone to the colour, s*x, or fantasy they built in their head. My job is to look at the puppy in front of me and ask where that puppy has the best chance of becoming who they are supposed to be!
Sometimes that answer will disappoint a person, and I can live with that. What I cannot keep living with is the feeling that I knew better and placed the dog anyway because it was easier, nicer, or more comfortable in the moment!
That era is over for me.
The dog comes FIRST, and I do not mean that in a cute way. I mean it in the uncomfortable, inconvenient, refund the deposit and, trust my gut way!
