BREEDERS AND BREED CLUBS

Placement doesn't end at the deposit.

You screened them. You asked the right questions. And you still get the call in week three, from a family who answered everything correctly and is now drowning.

The gap is almost never the dog you placed. It's that nobody in that house was given a job, so it all landed on whoever noticed first — and that person often wasn't the one who wanted a puppy.

This is the two weeks before collection, written down: what the first week actually costs in hours, who owns which task with a name against it, the house before he arrives, and the first forty-eight hours.

Inside

• —the hours the first week really takes
• —who owns what, with names
• —the tradeoffs nobody mentions
• —the house before he arrives
• —the first night
• —the day you have nothing left

I wrote this for my family. Then I shared it with the people I thought might get something from it. Use it, ignore it, or write back and tell me how to make it better. Up to you.