Nothing moves before 8 weeks
Whichever way the puppy travels, it travels after it turns 8 weeks old and not before. Two weeks earlier is a different dog: one that has missed the part of weaning where the mother teaches bite inhibition, and one that is much more likely to have trouble being left alone later on. It is the single most common corner cut in this trade and I will not cut it.
Collecting in person
This is what I would do. You come here, you see where the puppy grew up, you meet the mother, and the dog’s first car journey is with the people it is going to spend its life with. It costs you a day and whatever the fuel comes to.
It also lets you walk away. That matters more than anything else on this page. A buyer who has seen the place and met the mother is a buyer who can change their mind, and any breeder who makes that difficult is telling you something.
Meeting at an airport
If you are too far to drive, I bring the puppy to the airport nearest you and hand it over in person. The puppy travels in the cabin with a human it already knows, which is a very different experience from cargo, and you still meet me face to face.
The cost is the travel itself. I do not add a fee on top of it and I will show you what it comes to before you agree to anything.
Delivery to your door
Possible and the most expensive of the three, and the one where you see the least before you commit. If you want this, I will ask for a video call first, with the puppy and the mother in the same frame, and I will not be remotely offended if you decide afterwards that you would rather come and get the dog yourself.
What travels with the puppy
Enough of the food it is already eating to last a fortnight, so you can change food gradually rather than on day one. A blanket that smells of the litter. The vaccination record, the worming record and the microchip paperwork, on paper. The signed agreement.
The first three days
Book your own vet before the puppy arrives, for within seventy two hours of collection. Keep the house quiet. Expect the first two nights to be bad and the third to be better. Do not invite everybody round to meet the new dog in the first week, however much they ask.