Policies

At this time, we only breed one to two litters per year. If you are interested in reserving a puppy from one of our litters, and the litter is not yet born, we will take your name and e-mail address and place you on our waiting list. Once we have confirmed a pregnancy, we will e-mail everyone on the waiting list letting them know we are now taking reservations. To make a reservation, a $100 non-refundable deposit is required. The deposit is only refunded in the highly unlikely event that your puppy is not available as expected due to an event such as illness, a genetic health defect, or death. We take up to four reservations once pregnancy is confirmed. Once the puppies are born, we take reservations on any additional available puppies, and in the event we had less than four puppies, but had four reservations, the last person(s) to make a reservation upon the confirmed pregnancy - will have their deposits refunded.

We do not sell "pick of the litter" and do not work on a first-come first-serve basis. Instead, we work with each of our approved buyers, based upon their needs, desires, lifestyles, dog experience, and training styles to help appropriately match the puppy with the family. For example, we would generally not sell the most dominant puppy of a litter to a family with small children and no previous dog experience. At the point you ask to reserve a puppy with us, you will receive a questionairre about your lifestyle. We will review this quesitonairre and let you know if we will accept your deposit, and also explain the types of puppies we feel would be suitable for your situation. If we are both in agreement at that time, you would then submit your deposit. Oftentimes, there are multiple puppies that have personality to suit several familes. In this event, whoever made the reservation first gets to select from those available puppies.

Ninety-nine percent of our puppies are sold on a limited AKC registration (which means you can bring them to AKC performance events such as agility or obedience, but cannot breed them). Prices generally begin at $600 for the puppy, and shipping (if required) is additional.

Our trained dogs will generally sell for $1000 and up, with $3000 being the "average". Pricing for the dog depends upon the dog itself (I purchase my dog from others for training), how much time and training goes into the dog, and the dog's level of mastery of various exercises.

We train dogs for basic obedience and good family companionship. Dogs are not trained for personal protection or service work. Each dog is an individual, and each program the dog goes through (unless pre-reserved and customized by the purchaser) is unique. In most cases, we will offer for sale young adults with basic house manners and basic obedience.

If you decide to purchase a dog from us, we will discuss with you and place in writing the training the dog has mastered and the level of proofing it has received on each exercise. We will also provide you the basic information you need to successfully bring your new dog into the family. (Reading the training philosophy & training tips links on our web-site is a good start.)

Important: There is no such thing as buying a completely trained dog with which you will never have to do any 'work'. Even service dogs who go through a meticulous selection process and training, require the handler be trained with the dog, and require the handler to work with the dog, to ensure a happy animal/handler relationship.