The Honest Dog Breeder Podcast

We're trying something new! A Q&A! I've been collecting questions off the website for months, people write in their questions for me to answer on the podcast. This is our first Q&A episode. Inside are four questions asked by listeners.  Want to submit your own question? Go to any podcast episode at and look in the right column (or the bottom of the page on mobile). 

Are you guilty of doing one of these? It happens to all of us. In this episode I discuss three common things breeders do when trying to sell puppies that backfires and loses the sale. I also give you some alternatives to contemplate to have a better success rate in selling.  Want to learn more about selling your dogs? Check out the Dog Breeder Society ! We have many masterclasses to help you learn...

If regulation and licensing doesn't work, then what's the solution? How can we change things for the better? How to we mitigate puppy mills and accidentally bred dogs? In this episode I discuss my vision for how we can solve this problem and honest breeders are a big part of the solution. Learn more about the Dog Breeder Society  

Would regulation and licensing help the dog breeding industry? Would it protect buyers and stop puppy mills? The jury is still out, but I'd like to chime in with my thoughts on licensing and regulation, why people want it and how it might work and where there would be struggles.  In the next episode, Part 2 of this discussion, I will give my thoughts on a better, more lasting solution (and you're...

Frustrating isn't it? Puppy buyers get scammed and then they question you, worried you're a scam! In today's episode we discuss five ways to prove that your dog breeding program isn't a scam. 

It's nice to have a list of quick things you can do to get some benefit in your program. Here are 16 things you can do in under an hour to get some traction in your breeding program.  Learn more about Breeder Copy Hub or the Dog Breeder Society

Often we feel we need to justify our breeding program, the fact that we are dog breeders, and dog breeding as a whole. This concept often has breeders collecting certificates and badges, sheepishly mentioning they're a breeder, and sometimes it has us judging other breeders. In this episode we discuss justifying your breeding program and why we feel the need to do it. 

Marketing puppies in your dog breeding program is something that stumps a lot of breeders. In this episode we discuss the ways you can market puppies. Where you should start your marketing efforts and how to put it all together.  We discuss everything from the ideal puppy buyer, branding, websites, email social media, and brokerage sites. Learn more about getting started in breeding, the Dog Breed...

Interested in breeding dogs, but aren't sure if you'll like the lifestyle? It's a good question! In this episode I discuss what the day-to-day life of a dog breeder is, the good and the bad, where you'll love it, and where you might get hung up.  I also discuss how much time I spend on various tasks within my breeding program each week and month, as well as some of the start up time investment.  L...

A lot of people schedule a free strategy call with me and want to know if they are good enough to breed dogs–if they have the right skills to do it, or if it would even work. I understand that. I myself wasn't sure if I was the right person to start dog breeding. I'd love to share the skills you need to have in order to be a dog breeder, but, before I do, let me tell you a few things that might be...

Want to know what you really need to start?  Here's my no fluff answer. The three things that are necessary, everything else is negotiable.  Get the Roadmap to a Successful Breeding Program  

It's the number one question asked when starting dog breeding. "Is it profitable?" is a great question and a very important one. In this episode we discuss the common misunderstandings about the industry and it's profitability, which is also inseparable from ethics and being an honest breeder. Ready for the answer you've all been waiting for? Learn more about breeding honestly inside the Dog Breed...

Have you ever caught yourself thinking about your pricing? If it's right or not? Maybe you're driving down the road and are wondering if you lost that last sale because your price was a bit too high? Maybe you're wondering if your price is too low? Did they think your dogs were good enough? Pricing is something that I work with all the time, not just with coaching clients, but with my own breeding...

Does the idea of bookkeeping and organizing your receipts and expenses make you want to pull your hair out? You're not alone! Sometimes the hardest part of bookkeeping is getting the flow and system down so you know what you're doing.  In this episode I share 5 tips that have helped me organize my dog breeding expenses and create a system that's easy to manage and gives me the information I need t...

I've been a DIYer most of my life. It's been great for a lot of things, especially when I was broke. However, there are so many hats in dog breeding, that it probably makes sense to delegate some of the tasks. In this episode we discuss how you can sort out what you should do yourself and when you should hire someone. How to figure out your area of genius and what to do with the things that don't...

I made things difficult for myself for over a decade. I was in my own way. In this episode I reflect on how I got in my own way and how it affected my breeding program. I give you tips to see how you might also be in your own way, what it looks like, and how to step out of your own way! Spoiler alert: you're a big part of me getting out of my own way! Thank you!

Ever stuck in line at the post office and think you're wasting time? I do. In this episode I discuss 5 things you can do on your phone that make it easier to manage your breeding program. Most of them you can do in line at the post office!

Everyone says you need a website, but very few people actually talk about what they means, what it looks like! In today's episode we'll discuss websites and how to approach the layout and design of your website to better communicate with your buyers.

In this podcast I discuss three things to consider when planning your new year of dog breeding and also I share a personal reflection on my own breeding program, what went well, what didn't go so well, and some of my plans to make things better going forward this year.  Have you heard about the Breeder Copy Hub ? It's a dog-breeder-specific content planner we release monthly! It's available to mem...

Recently I've been talking with a lot of breeders who are struggling to sell puppies, I've seen some constant themes creating difficulties in their marketing. In this episode I discuss 4 mistakes I see breeders making over and over again in their marketing.  We've released a new masterclass inside the Dog Breeder Society that helps you integrate stories into their marketing for better results. 

Part of selling yourself as a breeder, beyond the quality of your dogs, is selling your knowledge and support. When buyers feel supported, they are better able to provide and take care of their dog, when that happens the relationship between the dog and the buyer improves and a beautiful bond is formed. The buyer will think the dog is just amazing—and while the dog is amazing—a big part of that su...

During the normalizing of the market I found myself flush with puppies, Pepper had a giant litter and I had WAY more puppies than usual–with a waitlist of very few. This episode is about all the shifts I made after getting complacent with my marketing and how it helped me sell my puppies, including the puppy who was born with one eye. 

In this episode we discuss the dilemma of buyers calling when you don't have puppies, and no buyers calling when you do. I discuss some techniques for what to say to buyers, and then give my ultimate solution to help you with this. 

The final installment in this series...let's discuss practical ways to downsize a breeding program that doesn't take you out of the game, doesn't kill the bloodlines you've worked hard to create, and yet allows you to reduce the number of puppies you're producing and the stress that can go with marketing during reduced demand. There's a cheatsheet for this episode at honestdogbreeder.com/70 You ca...

This episode is the second installment to our three-part series on the changing market, whether you should pause your breeding, if you're being ethical, and the upcoming, how to downsize your program, while retaining your bloodlines.  Here we discuss what ethical and unethical dog breeding is, and then we dive into how the economy and supply & demand play into that ethics.  There's a cheatsheet th...