Besides phone calls and all the question you ask, what are other ways of checking out puppy buyers ? Reading below about the AKC and dilutes made me wonder. Are there searches you can do ? Would hate for the wrong person to obtain my hard work.

try google and search the name of the people, maybe include the word labrador or puppies after their name to see what shows up. Ive found alot of breeders names this way.

I ask for references and follow up by calling them. One of the ones that has worked well for me is calling their veterinarian, with questions like, do these people take care of their pet? Have they done any breeding in the past? How have their former pets passed away? Are they who they say they are?

Do a lot of conversing with your buyer, you will get an idea if they are sincere or not.

besides asking for references
I have called vets office, google name and address.
found one this year who was an absolute liar and when I called him on it he got very nasty. not who I would want my pups going to.

Look up their address on Google Earth or on yellowpages.com. It will give you an idea of their property situation. GE is not totally current, brand new houses may not show up yet, but it can give you a general idea of their location!

Look up the Holiday Inn in Frederick, MD to see if there are any cones out yet!

Funny on the cones. They have a PO box. Put in name and puppy like someone else said. Not finding much. Have been trying.

Not for a minute would that fly - I wouldn't ship a puppy to a PO Box, would you?

If it feels like something is not right, trust your instinct. If it feels like something is wrong, ther probably is something wrong.
Better to err on the side of caution than to take a chance.

Have some of you gotten weird calls lately? Just curious as I have and and a few close breeder friends who live on either side of the country from me have also recieved calls from the same person.

I don't post my phone number and that has cut down on the weird calls. But weird e-mails, yes! And no - a PO box is NG. Must have a physical address and I've been known to look up tax records to make sure they own and don't rent. LOVE Google Earth! Calling references, Googling their name, calling their vet... Reverse phone address lookup. Lots of ways to investigate. If you don't have a good feeling, go with your gut and sorry, the pup's not available.

No weird calls recently but I think we all get them at sometime. I keep a 2-nd line in my home just for inquiries to keep my home no. private. I don't answer blocked no.'s. We use Vonage at $24.99 plus tx. for that line. It's well worth the cost. We shut the ring tone before we go to bed and turn it on in the morning. Some puppy inquirers call too late at night or too early in the morn.

I can't say I resort to checking property tax records. If I'm that unsure of a buyer, I just don't offer a puppy.

If they don't have a street address they will provide, I would not allow them to have a puppy. You shouldn't have to play detective.

I agree by the time we are checking tax records, etc you have already made up your mind there is something wrong and you are just checking things to prove it.

Follow your gut feelings it will usually be right on the money.

There are many ways of checking out anything you want to know. You can even pay for background checks, if you feel you must.

However, if you start doing things like that, word gets out. Eventually you'll be known as a crazy stalker and that will make it very hard to sell puppies. You may also invite harassment complaints or whoknowswhat.