This week’s question is about Breeder-Puppy Buyer contracts:
Our puppies are 7 weeks old now and will be going to their new families in 3 weeks. I have been following along each day and this experience with the puppies has been incredible.
Thank you for "holding my hand" throughout. We are getting to the part that I just feel I am not prepared or knowledgeable enough....THE CONTRACT. I, too, want to keep it simple.....feed healthy, train in a positive way, and bring back the puppy if something changes.
Would you be able to share an example or a template perhaps? I would appreciate any assistance you can provide.
Episode highlights:
- How to decide what should be in your contract, and what should be in your puppy application
- How to screen out some puppy buyers who would not comply with the terms of your contract
- Why having a written contract is important
Visit our website, madcapradio.com for further reading.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm Jane Messineo Lindquist,
and this is a Puppy Culture
potluck podcast.
You bring the topics,we bring the conversation.
Today's question came in through ourour Newborn to New Home discussion group.
(00:22):
That's the discussion groupfor our breeder course.
And the question is about contracts.
So let me read it to you.
Thank you for holding my hand throughout.
We're getting ready.
We're getting to the partwhere I just feel
I'm not prepared or knowledgeable enough.
(00:46):
The contract I too want to keep
is simple; feedhealthy, trained in a positive way,
and bring the puppy backif something changes.
Would you be able to sharean example or template perhaps?
I would appreciate any assistance
you can provide.
(01:09):
Okay, so
I'm going to give yousome thoughts on contracts.
Let me say I do provide a sample contractin the breeder course,
but I think that
this question comes up again and againand we need to talk about a methodology
and approach for determiningwhat's important
(01:30):
to you to have in a contract.
Now, before we jump into that,
a contract is a binding legal document
between you and a puppy owner.
I am not an attorney.
This is not legal advice.
(01:52):
If you are going to have a contractwith your property buyers,
it is imperative that you havethat contract reviewed by an attorney.
It's a binding legal document
that you should not enter into lightly,and it's worth your time and money
to have an attorneytake a look at your contract.
(02:15):
Okay.
That out of the way.
This question comes up a lot in our groupsand other groups contracts.
It's people always want to know.
And I get it.
It helps to have a template,at least to get started with.
But the thing is that
I think a lot of people conflate
(02:36):
things that really should probably be
in your puppy applicationwith things in the contract.
Let me explain this.
When I am thinking about a contractand a puppy application
and I'm going to sit downand I recommend everyone do this
and make a list
(02:58):
of everything that you wantfrom your puppy owner, everything.
So just list it all down,everything that you want them to do.
Feed raw diet, attend positivepuppy class,
get the canine good citizen for the puppy.
Finish their championship.
Don't have them outside,outside of a unfenced enclosure.
(03:21):
Don't ever use a shock chokeor pinch collar on it.
So you list all this and you,you don't worry about sorting it.
You just list everything.
Then once you've got all those bulletpoints, all those things that you want,
you go down and highlightthe ones that are deal breakers for you,
the ones that if they're not complied
(03:44):
with, you would never place a puppyin that home.
Those are the things that are goingto be going into your contract.
Those deal breaker things.
Then the other things that you’d like,but there's wiggle room.
Those go into your puppy application.
Okay. Those are screening questions.
(04:04):
They're not things that you're going to.
They're not hillsyou're going to die on in your contract.
So let me give you a few examples now.
And let me say before I throw this outhere, that these are not,
how shall I say, advisory.
Like, I'm not advising you
that these should be your thingsthat you value this way.
(04:25):
I think it can be very different,but this is me.
Okay.
So, for instance, how
how the puppy is fedthat's in the would like column,
how the puppy iscontained is in the must have.
Okay.
I will never place a puppyin a shock fence situation.
So will not ever be in a shark fenceenclosure goes right into the contract.
(04:48):
That is something that I want themto sign on the dotted line with.
But how they feed the dog?
I'm going to ask in the puppy application,
we give a dropdown menu in our puppyapplication, where they can say...
we say, “Areyou willing to feed a raw diet?”
And they can say yes, no
or not sure, we would like to learn more.
(05:10):
So it gives usjust a feeling for who they are.
Now, I also do put the
must haves into the puppy application,but I make it
clear in the puppy applicationthat they're going to be deal breakers.
So again, with the invisiblefencing or shock fencing,
(05:31):
we state what kind of fencing do you have?
Enclose or attach images of your fencing.
And then I say, notewe will not place a puppy
in an invisible fenceor shock fence enclosure.
So even in your puppy application,you're sort of priming
(05:52):
and screening for the contract
so that when you get to the pointwhere you're
signing a contract or it's puppypick up day, there's no ugly surprises.
And you'remuch more likely to have buy in.
Because if people you know,
at the first point of contact,
if you're if you're putting it out thereexactly where you stand
(06:15):
on all these things,people are very likely to walk
if they're not on the same page as you,which is what you want.
I mean, you're looking for your puppybuyers, right?
You're not looking for somebody else'spuppy buyers.
There's going to be
somebody else who agreeswith whatever things you don't agree with.
If you get it all out in the front,you're doing some screening for yourself.
(06:37):
A lot of people are going to self screenand not even fill out your application.
But if you don't get that stuffinto your application, right,
and then the day of pickup, they comeand they have to sign a contract
that they're not going to usea shock fence on their puppy.
You know, the chances of them just saying,well, to heck with this, I'll just lie.
I hate to say it, it goes way up.
(07:00):
So the application is sort of the precontract screening.
Right.
So so it's very important that youyou mesh these two documents together
and it begins with you making this list of
would likes and must haves.
So throwing
out a few ideas for thingsthat are must haves.
(07:22):
For us,
the training style
is a musthave that we will not place a puppy
in a home that does not use positivereinforcement training.
We will not place a puppy in a home
that uses choke shock or pinch collars.
It is very important to usthat that puppy be returned to us.
(07:45):
If there's any problem,if for any reason that puppy cannot be
kept by the family,that their puppy comes back to us.
We specify vaccine protocols.
The other thingthat is extremely important
and again,this is something you have to consult
an attorneywith to make sure that it sticks and it's
(08:07):
binding and it's wordedcorrectly, is liquidated damages.
We want to limit our exposurein this transaction
to the cost of thepurchase price of the puppy.
Right now, in most states,
I do believe dogs are considered property,so chances are
you are limited to that amount,whatever the people paid for the puppy.
(08:31):
But you know, things could change.
And I think a strong liquidated
damages clausethat has been reviewed by attorney
and will stick is very important to youas a breeder for your protection.
We do specify
what happens under what
circumstancesif something goes wrong with the puppy.
(08:54):
So if it is a known genetic disorderand we specify what those known
genetic disorders are and something goeswrong with one of those things,
we offer to take the puppy backand refund the purchase price
or allow them to keep the puppyand we will refund the purchase price.
Now, in our would likes,we've already given the example of
(09:19):
how they feed the dog
and some other things are,
what activitiesdo they plan on doing with the dog?
We would always, of course,prefer to place in a home where the dog
is going to be active in dog sportsand doing all kinds of activities.
But you know, sometimes
there can be good homes that are justliterally pet homes, like the dogs
(09:42):
just going to be at home on a couchwith with owners and for the right dog.
Sometimes that can be the right thing.
But again, this is not somethingI'm not going to require them to put
titles on the dog.
Not for a bull terrier.
Okay.
If you have a border collie,it could be a different story.
So this is where the must havesand the would likes start,
you know, they become very personal.
(10:04):
That's what I'm trying to get,get you to wrap
your head around, is start,get it, get your juices flowing about.
Well,what's really a deal breaker for you?
What's really important andwhat are things that you would just like?
Another thing is fencing.
You know, my bull terriers,bull terriers in general.
They need a true physical fence.
(10:26):
Ethics aside, okay, shockfencing is too dangerous with them.
They could. They could break through.
They have strong drive and a high paintolerance.
It's it's just not on the table for me.
So our
contract specifiesthat they will never be off leash
outside a fully fenced,physically fenced enclosure.
(10:47):
Obviously, exceptionsfor things like agility trials
or if you're doing obedience.
But even then there is a fence.
It's not just like the dogjust running at large.
I've made exceptions to this,of course, for dogs
that live in the citythat people don't have a fence.
I mean, they're not off leash.They're always on leash.
But if you have like a Leonbergeror really obedient dog,
(11:09):
I mean, maybe that's not as big a dealas it is for a bull terrier.
So, again, very personal.
And you really have to knowwhat your mind is.
What you’re looking for in a puppy home.
Okay.
So now you've gone through this exerciseand you have all your must haves.
And at this point, yes, you can start
(11:32):
looking at other people's contractsand sort of
roughing out a draft of whatwhat you need in there.
And then at that point,that's when you take it to an attorney
and have them look at it and advise you.
Okay.
So that's your methodologyfor how you figure out what should be
(11:53):
in your contract.
Let's talk about whyyou should have a contract at all,
because every time
this topic comes up, somebody chimes in.
Well, you know, they're not enforceable.
No, no.
Small claimscourt is going to enforce that clause
or they're not going to and blah,blah, blah.
(12:14):
And, you know, all I can say
is that contracts,
if you've done your screening correctly,
as we talked about, reallyit represents a meeting of the minds.
Okay.
And that should beyour primary purpose of your contract.
(12:34):
I think at the point where
the puppy owneris not complying with the contract,
I think enforceability, it'ssort of like the cows left the barn.
I mean, you passed that pointreally with it because it truly,
are you going to take back your puppybecause you put it
in the contract that they can only be fedraw food and they're being fed kibble?
(12:56):
I mean, are you really going to do that?
Are you going to go repossess a puppybecause they took the puppy
to a trainerthat used a choke collar on it?
I mean, probably not.
You probably failed at the front enddoing your due
diligence and good screening, but,you know,
enforceability is beside the pointonce you reach that space.
(13:19):
So you may say, well,then what is the point
if you're not really worriedabout enforceability?
And I have two answers.
One is certain things.
I am worried about enforceability,and we'll talk about that.
But I would sayeven more importantly, again,
if you don't have this in writing,
(13:39):
you don't
even really stand a chanceof reaching an agreement.
If you have reachedan agreement in writing,
there is going to be the person that justdoesn't, isn't honoring the agreement.
There's going to be the personthat's going to dupe you.
It's happened to me.
It's happened to every dog breederI know, that people will sign a contract
(14:01):
and then ghostyou and do whatever they're going to do.
It happens to the best of us.
So you breed dogslong enough, it's going to happen to you.
But the glass is half full here.
Okay.
With the contract, maybe one in 100people might do that to you
if you didn't have the contract,you'd probably have 50%
(14:23):
of your puppy ownersjust not complying with what you want.
Because no matter how you think,you've made it clear in conversations
with the puppy owner, chancesare you have not.
There's a lot of reasons for this.
Number one, literally
(14:43):
sometimes
you think you said somethingand you really didn't.
I'm a person that is recorded
and videoed for a living
and I edit my own material
and I'm often just shocked at howI thought
I was saying somethingand I was saying exactly the opposite.
(15:06):
Couldn't what I meant to say could,shouldn't what I meant to say should
or I say things out of orderso that they don't make sense.
Trust me,
however clear it is in your headwhen your speaking, it's
liable to come outnot the way that you intended it to.
That does not happenwhen you put it down on paper.
(15:30):
Number two,people will often hear something different
than what you're saying.
Perfect example of this.
I did a seminarfor a veterinary association
and I was talking about socializationand how socialization is not just
(15:51):
a party, it's not
socializationas we think of it in the human sense.
It's a term of art.
It's a scientific term, not a party.
And on social media,I think I was even tagged in it.
Somebody called out a quote from meat the seminar and said,
How much you loved it, that I said,Socialization is art, not science.
(16:15):
So what? Why did she say that?I don't know.
Maybe she didn't know what term of artmeans.
Maybe I didn't say what I thoughtI said, oh, but who knows?
It just It's a perfect example, though,of how
even if the words are very close,they can have very different meanings.
And again, that that can't happenwhen you put it down in writing.
(16:37):
Sort of adjacent tothat is what they called the 7% rule.
And what that means is that 7%
of what you understand people to be saying
is based on their actual words.
The other 93% is based on
nonverbal cues, context,
(17:01):
the appearance and gender of the person,the way they're dressed.
Now, let me say the original study
has since been, I would say
not debunked, but extremely qualified.
Okay.
That study involved a person
saying one word to test subjects
(17:23):
and the test subjects extrapolatingmeaning out of that one word.
So obviously,in a real conversational setting,
maybe all these nonverbal cuesand contextual information is less
important in determining actual meaning,
but it has it has a seed of truth to it.
(17:45):
Okay.
That there is going to be some blurrinessabout meaning when you're
having a conversation with somebodyas opposed to having it in writing.
Cultural differences also play a big part
in spoken agreements.
As Americans,we are the plain dealers of language.
(18:09):
We come by this honestly because we werethe original melting pot country.
We had no room for any ambiguityin our language
because you had the Scottish railroadowner
with the Irish managerrunning an Italian crew
with Chinese laborers, and they all had tocommunicate seamlessly.
(18:31):
There's no room for innuendo here, okay?
We had to come up with a versionof English, which was clear, concise
and got the point across with noambiguity, no reading between the lines,
because there were just too many culturesthat were being put into the mix at once.
Now you go to a culturallyhomogenous society.
(18:52):
What you're going to find,the more culturally homogenous the society
is, the less direct the languages
the listener is expected to read
between the lines and faultedif they don't.
So in many societies, it's
considered somewhat crassto be straightforward and speak your mind.
(19:14):
And people from those societiesare not expecting
you to be meaning what you say.
They're expecting to readbetween the lines of what you're saying.
So again,
having it in writing in a contract,there is no nuance.
You eliminate all of that.
And I will add too,
(19:36):
I'm not talking about foreign born peoplenecessarily.
I mean, you could just can befrom a culturally different background.
Maybe their parentswere from a different country.
You don't know.
All I'm saying is why bother?
Why even go therewhen you can have it in writing?
So to sum it all up,
(19:57):
we want our contractsto be limited to those things
that we really truly feel are dealbreakers for us with our puppy owners.
We want it to be in writing.
We want to have an attorney review itand make sure that they're enforceable.
But at the end of the day,if it really comes down to that,
(20:20):
the chances of you practically speaking,actually enforcing
any of this, you'rejust you're probably not going to do it.
So even though, again,
I do encourage you to make sure
that your contract is legally bindingand a good legal document,
(20:41):
the real purpose, the
real heart of the contractbetween the puppy owner and the puppy
breeder is a meeting of the mindsgetting on the same page.
You're not going to stop bad people
from lyingand not doing what you ask them to do.
(21:03):
But you are going to make it possible
for the good peopleto understand what you want
and to comply with your wishes.
If you liked this podcast,you'll love our breeder course.
(21:26):
From Newborn to New Homeat madcapuniversity.com.
Puppy Owners, we have a course for you tooat madcapuniversity.com
With Open Arms and a Level Head:
How to welcome a puppy into your life.
(21:47):
Well, that's it for this time.
Thanks for listening.
Bye bye.
I'm Jane Messineo Lindquist,
and this is a Puppy Culture
potluck podcast.
You bring the topics,we bring the conversation.
Today's question came in through ourour Newborn to New Home discussion group.
(00:22):
That's the discussion groupfor our breeder course.
And the question is about contracts.
So let me read it to you.
Thank you for holding my hand throughout.
We're getting ready.
We're getting to the partwhere I just feel
I'm not prepared or knowledgeable enough.
(00:46):
The contract I too want to keep
is simple; feedhealthy, trained in a positive way,
and bring the puppy backif something changes.
Would you be able to sharean example or template perhaps?
I would appreciate any assistance
you can provide.
(01:09):
Okay, so
I'm going to give yousome thoughts on contracts.
Let me say I do provide a sample contractin the breeder course,
but I think that
this question comes up again and againand we need to talk about a methodology
and approach for determiningwhat's important
(01:30):
to you to have in a contract.
Now, before we jump into that,
a contract is a binding legal document
between you and a puppy owner.
I am not an attorney.
This is not legal advice.
(01:52):
If you are going to have a contractwith your property buyers,
it is imperative that you havethat contract reviewed by an attorney.
It's a binding legal document
that you should not enter into lightly,and it's worth your time and money
to have an attorneytake a look at your contract.
(02:15):
Okay.
That out of the way.
This question comes up a lot in our groupsand other groups contracts.
It's people always want to know.
And I get it.
It helps to have a template,at least to get started with.
But the thing is that
I think a lot of people conflate
(02:36):
things that really should probably be
in your puppy applicationwith things in the contract.
Let me explain this.
When I am thinking about a contractand a puppy application
and I'm going to sit downand I recommend everyone do this
and make a list
(02:58):
of everything that you wantfrom your puppy owner, everything.
So just list it all down,everything that you want them to do.
Feed raw diet, attend positivepuppy class,
get the canine good citizen for the puppy.
Finish their championship.
Don't have them outside,outside of a unfenced enclosure.
(03:21):
Don't ever use a shock chokeor pinch collar on it.
So you list all this and you,you don't worry about sorting it.
You just list everything.
Then once you've got all those bulletpoints, all those things that you want,
you go down and highlightthe ones that are deal breakers for you,
the ones that if they're not complied
(03:44):
with, you would never place a puppyin that home.
Those are the things that are goingto be going into your contract.
Those deal breaker things.
Then the other things that you’d like,but there's wiggle room.
Those go into your puppy application.
Okay. Those are screening questions.
(04:04):
They're not things that you're going to.
They're not hillsyou're going to die on in your contract.
So let me give you a few examples now.
And let me say before I throw this outhere, that these are not,
how shall I say, advisory.
Like, I'm not advising you
that these should be your thingsthat you value this way.
(04:25):
I think it can be very different,but this is me.
Okay.
So, for instance, how
how the puppy is fedthat's in the would like column,
how the puppy iscontained is in the must have.
Okay.
I will never place a puppyin a shock fence situation.
So will not ever be in a shark fenceenclosure goes right into the contract.
(04:48):
That is something that I want themto sign on the dotted line with.
But how they feed the dog?
I'm going to ask in the puppy application,
we give a dropdown menu in our puppyapplication, where they can say...
we say, “Areyou willing to feed a raw diet?”
And they can say yes, no
or not sure, we would like to learn more.
(05:10):
So it gives usjust a feeling for who they are.
Now, I also do put the
must haves into the puppy application,but I make it
clear in the puppy applicationthat they're going to be deal breakers.
So again, with the invisiblefencing or shock fencing,
(05:31):
we state what kind of fencing do you have?
Enclose or attach images of your fencing.
And then I say, notewe will not place a puppy
in an invisible fenceor shock fence enclosure.
So even in your puppy application,you're sort of priming
(05:52):
and screening for the contract
so that when you get to the pointwhere you're
signing a contract or it's puppypick up day, there's no ugly surprises.
And you'remuch more likely to have buy in.
Because if people you know,
at the first point of contact,
if you're if you're putting it out thereexactly where you stand
(06:15):
on all these things,people are very likely to walk
if they're not on the same page as you,which is what you want.
I mean, you're looking for your puppybuyers, right?
You're not looking for somebody else'spuppy buyers.
There's going to be
somebody else who agreeswith whatever things you don't agree with.
If you get it all out in the front,you're doing some screening for yourself.
(06:37):
A lot of people are going to self screenand not even fill out your application.
But if you don't get that stuffinto your application, right,
and then the day of pickup, they comeand they have to sign a contract
that they're not going to usea shock fence on their puppy.
You know, the chances of them just saying,well, to heck with this, I'll just lie.
I hate to say it, it goes way up.
(07:00):
So the application is sort of the precontract screening.
Right.
So so it's very important that youyou mesh these two documents together
and it begins with you making this list of
would likes and must haves.
So throwing
out a few ideas for thingsthat are must haves.
(07:22):
For us,
the training style
is a musthave that we will not place a puppy
in a home that does not use positivereinforcement training.
We will not place a puppy in a home
that uses choke shock or pinch collars.
It is very important to usthat that puppy be returned to us.
(07:45):
If there's any problem,if for any reason that puppy cannot be
kept by the family,that their puppy comes back to us.
We specify vaccine protocols.
The other thingthat is extremely important
and again,this is something you have to consult
an attorneywith to make sure that it sticks and it's
(08:07):
binding and it's wordedcorrectly, is liquidated damages.
We want to limit our exposurein this transaction
to the cost of thepurchase price of the puppy.
Right now, in most states,
I do believe dogs are considered property,so chances are
you are limited to that amount,whatever the people paid for the puppy.
(08:31):
But you know, things could change.
And I think a strong liquidated
damages clausethat has been reviewed by attorney
and will stick is very important to youas a breeder for your protection.
We do specify
what happens under what
circumstancesif something goes wrong with the puppy.
(08:54):
So if it is a known genetic disorderand we specify what those known
genetic disorders are and something goeswrong with one of those things,
we offer to take the puppy backand refund the purchase price
or allow them to keep the puppyand we will refund the purchase price.
Now, in our would likes,we've already given the example of
(09:19):
how they feed the dog
and some other things are,
what activitiesdo they plan on doing with the dog?
We would always, of course,prefer to place in a home where the dog
is going to be active in dog sportsand doing all kinds of activities.
But you know, sometimes
there can be good homes that are justliterally pet homes, like the dogs
(09:42):
just going to be at home on a couchwith with owners and for the right dog.
Sometimes that can be the right thing.
But again, this is not somethingI'm not going to require them to put
titles on the dog.
Not for a bull terrier.
Okay.
If you have a border collie,it could be a different story.
So this is where the must havesand the would likes start,
you know, they become very personal.
(10:04):
That's what I'm trying to get,get you to wrap
your head around, is start,get it, get your juices flowing about.
Well,what's really a deal breaker for you?
What's really important andwhat are things that you would just like?
Another thing is fencing.
You know, my bull terriers,bull terriers in general.
They need a true physical fence.
(10:26):
Ethics aside, okay, shockfencing is too dangerous with them.
They could. They could break through.
They have strong drive and a high paintolerance.
It's it's just not on the table for me.
So our
contract specifiesthat they will never be off leash
outside a fully fenced,physically fenced enclosure.
(10:47):
Obviously, exceptionsfor things like agility trials
or if you're doing obedience.
But even then there is a fence.
It's not just like the dogjust running at large.
I've made exceptions to this,of course, for dogs
that live in the citythat people don't have a fence.
I mean, they're not off leash.They're always on leash.
But if you have like a Leonbergeror really obedient dog,
(11:09):
I mean, maybe that's not as big a dealas it is for a bull terrier.
So, again, very personal.
And you really have to knowwhat your mind is.
What you’re looking for in a puppy home.
Okay.
So now you've gone through this exerciseand you have all your must haves.
And at this point, yes, you can start
(11:32):
looking at other people's contractsand sort of
roughing out a draft of whatwhat you need in there.
And then at that point,that's when you take it to an attorney
and have them look at it and advise you.
Okay.
So that's your methodologyfor how you figure out what should be
(11:53):
in your contract.
Let's talk about whyyou should have a contract at all,
because every time
this topic comes up, somebody chimes in.
Well, you know, they're not enforceable.
No, no.
Small claimscourt is going to enforce that clause
or they're not going to and blah,blah, blah.
(12:14):
And, you know, all I can say
is that contracts,
if you've done your screening correctly,
as we talked about, reallyit represents a meeting of the minds.
Okay.
And that should beyour primary purpose of your contract.
(12:34):
I think at the point where
the puppy owneris not complying with the contract,
I think enforceability, it'ssort of like the cows left the barn.
I mean, you passed that pointreally with it because it truly,
are you going to take back your puppybecause you put it
in the contract that they can only be fedraw food and they're being fed kibble?
(12:56):
I mean, are you really going to do that?
Are you going to go repossess a puppybecause they took the puppy
to a trainerthat used a choke collar on it?
I mean, probably not.
You probably failed at the front enddoing your due
diligence and good screening, but,you know,
enforceability is beside the pointonce you reach that space.
(13:19):
So you may say, well,then what is the point
if you're not really worriedabout enforceability?
And I have two answers.
One is certain things.
I am worried about enforceability,and we'll talk about that.
But I would sayeven more importantly, again,
if you don't have this in writing,
(13:39):
you don't
even really stand a chanceof reaching an agreement.
If you have reachedan agreement in writing,
there is going to be the person that justdoesn't, isn't honoring the agreement.
There's going to be the personthat's going to dupe you.
It's happened to me.
It's happened to every dog breederI know, that people will sign a contract
(14:01):
and then ghostyou and do whatever they're going to do.
It happens to the best of us.
So you breed dogslong enough, it's going to happen to you.
But the glass is half full here.
Okay.
With the contract, maybe one in 100people might do that to you
if you didn't have the contract,you'd probably have 50%
(14:23):
of your puppy ownersjust not complying with what you want.
Because no matter how you think,you've made it clear in conversations
with the puppy owner, chancesare you have not.
There's a lot of reasons for this.
Number one, literally
(14:43):
sometimes
you think you said somethingand you really didn't.
I'm a person that is recorded
and videoed for a living
and I edit my own material
and I'm often just shocked at howI thought
I was saying somethingand I was saying exactly the opposite.
(15:06):
Couldn't what I meant to say could,shouldn't what I meant to say should
or I say things out of orderso that they don't make sense.
Trust me,
however clear it is in your headwhen your speaking, it's
liable to come outnot the way that you intended it to.
That does not happenwhen you put it down on paper.
(15:30):
Number two,people will often hear something different
than what you're saying.
Perfect example of this.
I did a seminarfor a veterinary association
and I was talking about socializationand how socialization is not just
(15:51):
a party, it's not
socializationas we think of it in the human sense.
It's a term of art.
It's a scientific term, not a party.
And on social media,I think I was even tagged in it.
Somebody called out a quote from meat the seminar and said,
How much you loved it, that I said,Socialization is art, not science.
(16:15):
So what? Why did she say that?I don't know.
Maybe she didn't know what term of artmeans.
Maybe I didn't say what I thoughtI said, oh, but who knows?
It just It's a perfect example, though,of how
even if the words are very close,they can have very different meanings.
And again, that that can't happenwhen you put it down in writing.
(16:37):
Sort of adjacent tothat is what they called the 7% rule.
And what that means is that 7%
of what you understand people to be saying
is based on their actual words.
The other 93% is based on
nonverbal cues, context,
(17:01):
the appearance and gender of the person,the way they're dressed.
Now, let me say the original study
has since been, I would say
not debunked, but extremely qualified.
Okay.
That study involved a person
saying one word to test subjects
(17:23):
and the test subjects extrapolatingmeaning out of that one word.
So obviously,in a real conversational setting,
maybe all these nonverbal cuesand contextual information is less
important in determining actual meaning,
but it has it has a seed of truth to it.
(17:45):
Okay.
That there is going to be some blurrinessabout meaning when you're
having a conversation with somebodyas opposed to having it in writing.
Cultural differences also play a big part
in spoken agreements.
As Americans,we are the plain dealers of language.
(18:09):
We come by this honestly because we werethe original melting pot country.
We had no room for any ambiguityin our language
because you had the Scottish railroadowner
with the Irish managerrunning an Italian crew
with Chinese laborers, and they all had tocommunicate seamlessly.
(18:31):
There's no room for innuendo here, okay?
We had to come up with a versionof English, which was clear, concise
and got the point across with noambiguity, no reading between the lines,
because there were just too many culturesthat were being put into the mix at once.
Now you go to a culturallyhomogenous society.
(18:52):
What you're going to find,the more culturally homogenous the society
is, the less direct the languages
the listener is expected to read
between the lines and faultedif they don't.
So in many societies, it's
considered somewhat crassto be straightforward and speak your mind.
(19:14):
And people from those societiesare not expecting
you to be meaning what you say.
They're expecting to readbetween the lines of what you're saying.
So again,
having it in writing in a contract,there is no nuance.
You eliminate all of that.
And I will add too,
(19:36):
I'm not talking about foreign born peoplenecessarily.
I mean, you could just can befrom a culturally different background.
Maybe their parentswere from a different country.
You don't know.
All I'm saying is why bother?
Why even go therewhen you can have it in writing?
So to sum it all up,
(19:57):
we want our contractsto be limited to those things
that we really truly feel are dealbreakers for us with our puppy owners.
We want it to be in writing.
We want to have an attorney review itand make sure that they're enforceable.
But at the end of the day,if it really comes down to that,
(20:20):
the chances of you practically speaking,actually enforcing
any of this, you'rejust you're probably not going to do it.
So even though, again,
I do encourage you to make sure
that your contract is legally bindingand a good legal document,
(20:41):
the real purpose, the
real heart of the contractbetween the puppy owner and the puppy
breeder is a meeting of the mindsgetting on the same page.
You're not going to stop bad people
from lyingand not doing what you ask them to do.
(21:03):
But you are going to make it possible
for the good peopleto understand what you want
and to comply with your wishes.
If you liked this podcast,you'll love our breeder course.
(21:26):
From Newborn to New Homeat madcapuniversity.com.
Puppy Owners, we have a course for you tooat madcapuniversity.com
With Open Arms and a Level Head:
How to welcome a puppy into your life.
(21:47):
Well, that's it for this time.
Thanks for listening.
Bye bye.
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