Business or not, it is about your puppy buyers. Of course we are busy. We have to work and we have to spend just as much time with our dogs. But, if we ignore the people who own are dogs, then we are failing our puppies, and the MOST valuable input on our breeding program.
That we, who are experienced, can get a dog from here to there smoothly and successfully is nice, but what speaks volumes is how are dogs do with other people. Not us. So when our people are contacting us, if we take WEEKS to get back to them, how quickly are they going to try and contact us the next time. This time it might be just to say, "Yay! my dog made it through basic and the instructor said she was awesome!" But next time it might be, "the ER vet thinks my girl has pyometra and wants to spay immediately." They might remember that you took weeks to notice their last post and not bother talking to you about it.
Information about our dogs is so important. Temperament, training, health, structure, successes.
Making the people who own our puppies feel like they are bothering us, irritating us, frustrating us -- that is shooting ourselves in the foot every time. As for e-mails, how long does it take to say you have nothing available now, please check back in September?
You do not have to explain your entire breeding program with each e-mail. But you have to be available. You have to answer their concerns.
We talk about red-flags a lot. A huge red flag is immediate responsiveness to potential puppy buyers, and hesitant or non-existent response to existing puppy owners.