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Puppy Buying Tips So you want to buy a puppy? You are all excited and you shop your home newspaper classifieds, the internet, and magazine ads. You see wonderful ads touting "100s of Schutzhund titles in the puppy's pedigrees, AKC Champions, Imported bloodlines, etc". They may even have wonderful pictures of great looking dogs with glowing reviews of what wonderful pets they are. Well we have learned through the school of hard knocks (translation, we have spent a lot of money for not so good results) and over the years we learned that most of what you see in the newspaper, on the internet, and in magazine ads is marketing. People are taking out a few key words from a pedigree and using that to market they puppies. Years ago a good friend of mine from Germany told me that there is always a reason they sell the dog, you just need to know the "real" reason. So here are some questions to ask whomever you are inquiring about buying puppies from: 1) Have you ever Schutzhund titled a dog? If yes, when and how many dogs have they titled? When was the last time they did so? 2) Do you know what the WUSV is and if so, do you follow the International Breed Standard or the AKC breed standard? 3) Have you ever shown your dogs in the conformation ring? If so, was it AKC or an International style show? When was the last time you did so? How did your dogs place? 4) Have they ever attended the World Championship in Germany and even better, have they ever entered the World Championship? 5) What was the purpose of this breeding? (make money, thought the kids should see the miracle of life, dogs got loose together, or "I have specific goals in improving the breed and these bloodlines have some very good possiblities in achieving that goal". 6) Are their breeding dogs hips and elbows internationally certified? 7) Do your dogs live at your house and are they part of the family, or do you have a big kennel and the dogs are in the kennels? 8) Do you actively train with your dogs? 9) What is your contract? 10) If the dogs are imported, what are the total costs including shipping in dollars. Often shipping costs can be as much as the purchase price of the puppy. Some additional tips: 1) Get references. 2) Do not believe what a seller posts on the Internet. My favorite example of dishonest marketing was from a local breeder that I knew. She posted Schutzhund titles in parenthesis next to her dogs description on her website yet I knew that her dogs had none of these titles. When I confronted her about it I was told "that's the titles they are working towards" yet no where on her website did it say that. 3) Don't use a middle man. There are several individuals selling dogs that have very impressive websites with wonderful German imports on them. They don't actually own these dogs, they are marketing them for others and taking a fee for being in the middle. I know of one person who spent several thousand dollars on a puppy and the seller never even saw the puppy, they were the middleman. 4) At best, a puppy is a roll of the dice. I once had someone tell me that a breeder was selling them a VA puppy. Well only a handful of dogs are awarded the rating of VA each year because only adult dogs that have a Schuthzund title and that are shown in their countries championship can earn that rating. It stands for "Excellent Select". There is no way for a breeder to claim that a puppy is VA or will be a VA adult. 5) Someone who is involved in showing or working their dogs has spent hundreds if not thousands of hours training their dog(s). They are feeding high quality dog food or the RAW diet. They have spent thousands of dollars on each dog. So they may ask anywhere from $1000 to $3000 for a puppy. I can guarantee you that unless they are breeding their dog several times and getting large litters they will break even at best. A $500 puppy out of the paper is just that. You may get lucky, but the odds are you are not getting a pup whose parents have had their health and temperament certified. In the short run you may save some money but over the lifetime of the dog you may spend far more in health costs. |
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Please Contact Tim and Dawn Burke Home phone: 775-849-3953 Cell phone: 775-750-8461 Email: Twinmountains |
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