Puppy owner questionnaire — Wagmore Farm Cardigan Welsh Corgis

I’m happy when someone contacts me with interest in one of our (potential) puppies. I remember the joy of bringing a new pack member home; how special that day is. For me, that happiness is balanced with a strong sense of responsibility, so I need to know (as much as possible) about the person I’d be sending a puppy home with.

Why do I have so many questions?

First, because I take very seriously that I’m bringing new lives into the world, and only one of them can stay with me. That means I need to make sure that, to the best of my ability, each and every puppy from my litter is going to a home that will love it, care for it, and give it the best possible life. And that’s a big deal to me. It’s actually the part that freaks me out the most about this whole dog breeding thing.

Also, I hope to have a lifelong support relationship with the new owners. My obligation to each puppy doesn’t end when the puppy leaves my house. I’ll be on call to answer questions and support the owner whenever the need arises. This includes (though I hope it never happens) me taking the puppy back in case the new owners are no longer willing and able to care for it.

So who gets my puppies is really important for me. And, short of hiring a private investigator (which would be costly, time consuming, and probably involve and unacceptable-to-most-people invasion of privacy), the best way for me to find out who the potential puppy owners are is for me to ask them a lot of questions, and let them ask me a lot of questions.

What are those questions, exactly?

Since this is my first litter, I had to create a Wagmore puppy questionnaire, which I did last weekend. I didn’t start with a completely blank page, as I have had to fill out a few puppy questionnaires myself over the past 20 years, and I have a number of dog friends who were kind enough to share their questions with me. I had a lot of material to leverage.

I won’t list all the questions here (I ended up with 22 questions total, plus an ask for two references), but the main categories of questions are:

Why are you interested in a Cardigan?
What type of Cardigan are you looking for?
What kind of pet owner are you?
What is your household like?
What kind of life will the dog lead if it lives with you?

If you’re a breeder, I’d love to about the questions that have provided you with the most useful bits of info. And if you’re a pet owner, what question would you most like to be asked?