GoodDog alternative platform?
Hey y'all. A little back story. My wife and I raise miniature dachshunds. We spent years researching the breed, setting boundaries for ourselves on what we believed makes an ethical breeder (so that we have guidelines for ourselves to stick to), getting our own dachshunds and raising them up, having them genetic tested, and my wife even did a year of schooling in dog obedience and behavior. Our first mama had her second litter in April (we only breed our mamas once a year). And our second girl just hit two years old (our vet recommendations for first litter), so we plan to breed her during her next cycle here in a few months. In our experience we found the platform GoodDog to offer the most vetting opportunities and exposure. Long term we want to create our own website, but tackling creating it and getting exposure feels so intimidating, so for now we use GoodDog. And we hate it.
We had 4 our first litter and placed all through GoodDog. It was pretty quick, pretty successful, and of course GoodDog gouges you in fees. Felt worth it though because we really like the application process, securities they offer both parties, and how deeply we can vet buyers. We had 6 this litter, have placed 4, but we're getting no bites anymore. All of our benchmarks are at 100% except placement, which is at a whopping 7%. Every time someone asks how much (even though it's clearly listed) and then doesn't respond again, or starts an application and doesn't finish it, or teenagers put in apps without talking to parents and the ghost after their parents shut it down, we get knocked down in placement rate. If we turn a buyer down because they're not a good fit (will leave dog kenneled 10 hours a day, backyard breeder looking for more mamas, want a lazy dog but applied for the most active pup because she's prettier, etc) that benchmark also drops.
We reached out to GoodDog and they said we need to get that benchmark up to get visibility back. That feels like being punished for vetting and making sure our babies go somewhere safe. When we mentioned that, we got this insane response about making sure we only take payments through GoodDog (which is all we've ever done). More and more it's just becoming clear that they reward breeders who pump out dogs and take the money from whoever is willing to pay, not good placement matches. What else is out there for those of us trying to do this responsibly? I've been researching for a week and just am not finding squat that feels valid and safe. We uncovered a puppy mill listed on AKC marketplace and had to work with a local human society and law enforcement in their city to get it shut down, ACK refused to help in any capacity. They also have double dapples listed (literally dogs were blind and deaf at birth), and dogs that were not genetic tested at all. Puppyfinder offers basically no vetting options or protections, not gonna use Craigslist or shady classifieds to list. Any advice or info would be deeply appreciated!