What ChatGPT actually says about your kennel (and how to change it)

Welcome back to Found. Issue three.

Two weeks ago I asked you to open ChatGPT and ask "who are reputable [your breed] breeders in [your state]." If you did it, here's what you probably saw.

The three typical results

ChatGPT gave you one of these:

1. Named breeders with source links. Maybe two or three kennels, each cited to their website. If one of them was you, stop reading and go reward yourself. You're winning the game most breeders don't even know is being played.

1. Named breeders without sources. A list of kennels with no citations, sometimes confident, sometimes hedged. These answers are made up more often than you'd like. ChatGPT is pattern-matching on old training data. The kennels it names got there because their sites had enough structured content at some point in the last 18 months to be absorbed.

1. A generic non-answer. Something like "I recommend checking AKC Marketplace, Good Dog, or reaching out to your local breed club." This is ChatGPT admitting it doesn't know any specific kennels in your category. It defaults to platforms because platforms are easy to cite without getting specific.

Most breeders I work with get result 3. Then they panic. Then they usually go post another Facebook reel.

Why ChatGPT doesn't know your kennel

Three reasons, in order of importance:

The first is that your site doesn't have structured data. ChatGPT reads pages faster and more accurately when the page tells a machine what each section is. A page that's just a blob of text about your kennel looks like every other blob of text on the internet. A page marked up with LocalBusiness schema, BreedingKennel organization type, and Product for each available litter looks like a breeder.

The second is that your site doesn't have an llms.txt file. This is a small file at the root of your site (like robots.txt) that gives AI assistants a plain-language summary of who you are, what you do, and where to find the important pages. ChatGPT and Perplexity read it. Most breeder sites don't have one.

The third is that your kennel isn't cited anywhere else on the internet. ChatGPT trusts breeders who show up in breed forums, registry websites, breed-specific directories, and local news. Your own website is one vote for you. Every other site that links back to yours is another vote.

What to do about it

You can't make ChatGPT rewrite its training data this week. But you can make yourself easier to find the next time it updates.

Three moves, in order of impact:

• Add proper schema to your site. At minimum: LocalBusiness, BreedingKennel, and FAQ on your About page. (Full breakdown coming in issue #005.)
• Write an llms.txt file. One paragraph of who you are, one paragraph of what you breed, one paragraph of where to read more.
• Get cited. Submit your kennel to your breed club's directory. Post useful answers in breed forums with your kennel URL in your signature. Ask your registry if they list breeders.

What the platform does for you

The platform I'm building writes the schema and the llms.txt for you by default. You don't touch code. You write your kennel story once, the machines see it the way they need to see it.

What to do this week

Pick one:

1. Open ChatGPT and try: "Give me a list of breeders of [your breed] in [your state]. Cite your sources." Screenshot the answer. That's your baseline.

1. Visit yourkennel.com/llms.txt in your browser. If it 404s, you have one to add.

1. Grab a free visibility audit. It tells you exactly what ChatGPT sees when it looks at your kennel today, and what to fix first.

Talk next week, Lesli Rose Founder, Puppy Sales Success

PS. If a friend sent you this, get your own at puppysalessuccess.com/breeder-marketing.