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"The man who rears a dog must complete what the breeder began. The breeder can indeed lay the foundation of a good and serviceable dog, but the trainer must see to it that he brings the dog to their highest possible development of the physical and mental foundation already laid, and thus his is the more grateful task. "

- Max von Stephanitz - Breed Founder

HOW WE RAISE OUR PUPPIES
  • From 3 to 16 days every day we follow the Early Neurological Stimulation program. (ENS) is a process we started doing that introduces mild stresses to very young puppies in a controlled way. These stresses help stimulate the neurological system which improves the growth and development of the pup's immune system, cardiovascular system, and stress tolerance.
     

  • During and after this neonatal period we will continue to handle the puppies, spend time sitting in the whelping box with them, petting and loving on them. Each puppy will be assigned a collar color so that we can keep track of each puppy as they grow. We take weekly pictures and will often post videos to our facebook.
     

  • Once the puppies are old enough they will be moved into a higher traffic area of our home (as it happens to be our living room} so they are always involved and apart of everything that is going on in the house, they get to see who comes and goes. They introduced to our older puppy friendly dogs regularly and we will have close family and friends come over to play and socialize them with new and different people.
     

  • We begin introducing them to loud noises (vacuum, can curtains, bottles with rocks, TV) while they are eating their meals so that they associate these sounds with something positive.
     

  • We set up our puppies pen to have an artificial grass potty area so that they always have a place to go when we are not around, in the beginning this instills clean habits encouraging them to go potty in this one place, in addition to this after every meal we form a routine and take a trip outside to potty so they are well prepared for their housebreaking by the time they go to their new homes, during these potty breaks one of us will be cleaning out the pen so the cycle starts over again.
     

  • We also like to set our puppies up for success when it comes to grooming, we give regular baths and toenail trims with lots of treats!
     

  • We introduce them to the flirt pole and evaluate their prey drives.
     

  • "Loading the Clicker"  We take a clicker and when we have the puppies attention we 'click' and reward with a treat this way the new owner already have a tool to begin their training should they want to use a clicker. This is so that whenever a puppy is doing something (sit/down etc) you use the clicker and the puppy knows a reward is coming for the correct behavior.
     

  • Our puppies are given their first vaccine at 6 weeks of age and are given the wormer pyrantel pamoate at 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks old. They are also given a coccidia preventative during their time here. If they are with us longer than 8 weeks then we will continue their vaccine schedule.
     

  • At 8 weeks old our puppies are allowed to join their new families! It is important for them to learn as much as they can from both their mothers and litter mates during this time.

SOCIALIZING YOUR PUPPY

  • Socializing begins at home! Teaching your new dog manners and how you expect it to live in your home sets the stage for you relationship. Prepare your puppy for all the things they may experience in life. Teach them how to accept being groomed or handled (ears, nose, eyes, mouth, paws, tail) so that when they go to the vet these experiences go a lot smoother.
     

  • A good rule of thumb is if you do not want a full grown 60-90lb dog doing it, don't let them do it when they are young. For example workingline puppies tend to be more mouthy and bite on things, this is a part of their temperament and is encouraged among sport/working people. For most pet people this is a nuisance, especially when they are determined to dangle off your pants, hands, hair, etc. :) Do not punish your puppy but rather redirect their drive onto  a toy or something more appropriate.
     

  • Crate train! Not only is it a great way to potty train but eventually a kennel will become their safe space. Teach your puppy that it is ok to be alone when you are not able to always be there. Take short breaks, out of sight, your puppy may protest at first because they are pack animals and want to be with you! But they will eventually settle down and then you can return to show them their world has not ended. It is important not to go back to them while they are making a fuss as this will teach them that if they do this you will come back. Sometimes you can leave them with a treat or toy to distract them if they are especially persistent. This will help prevent separation anxiety.
     

  • Puppy socialization is often very misunderstood. Your puppy does not need to meet and greet every stranger or dog that you see but rather view these things as another distraction in the background. If you do not want your puppy turning into a dog that drags you down the street to meet the next person because they expect a treat then you must make yourself the center of their universe.
     

  • DO NOT take your puppy to dog parks. These parks are often unregulated and you do not know the health or temperament of any of these strange dogs. Owners will not have control of their dogs in the split second it takes for something to happen. It only takes one dogfight to teach your puppy to be fearful of other dogs for life and it is an uphill battle from there. It is okay for them to have doggy friends but when introducing make sure it is a neutral, safe dog that you are familiar with.
     

  • We DO recommend taking your puppy to a puppy class. These environments are more controlled and while there are some 'puppy play times' more often than not your puppy is learning the skills to be indifferent to these other dog distractions while learning to be focused on you instead.
     

  • DO take your puppy out with you as often as you can to see new places and environments.
     

  • If you come across a situation that your puppy is unsure or scared do not coddle them, simply keep walking or ignore the behavior and if they recover, praise them and move on.

WHAT FOOD DO WE FEED

  • .Our puppies are weaned onto Purina Pro Plan Sport 30/20. This is an all life stages food and ALL of our dogs are doing fantastic on it. We do not require you keep your puppy on this food however we do recommend you buy a small bag to make transitioning over to a new food easier on their stomach.
     

  • We recommend splitting your puppies food into 2-3 meals and using these feeding times as an opportunity to train! 2-3 short sessions a day will give your puppy some physical and mental stimulation throughout the day as well as provide bonding.

PUPPY PLACEMENT

  • We take the placement of our dogs very seriously as the welfare of the dogs depends upon the proper placement of our offspring. Special consideration will be given to handlers experienced in competitive dog sports, herding, police work, search and rescue and any venue that gives the dog a job. However, it is most important to us that the dog finds a good, loving, understanding home, where they can be cherished as a member of the family. We would not place the highest drive puppy in a pet home or the lowest drive puppy in a working home.
     

  • Because we have so few litters a year we generally do not take deposits even until the puppies are born, this way we are not taking unnecessary deposits before we even know what we have. We do keep a wait list of those who have filled out our puppy application and try to keep everyone as updated as possible as time goes on. Typically we will take reservations for working males and females first and place those puppies accordingly before placing the pet prospects.


 

WHAT IS LIMITED REGISTRATION?

  •  Limited registration means that the dog is registered but NO LITTERS PRODUCED BY THAT DOG ARE ELIGIBLE FOR REGISTRATION, they may also not be shown in AKC conformation but this does not stop them from partaking in other sports and events. If you have no interest in showing, working or breeding then there is no need for full AKC registration. They will still come with papers and a pedigree.

 

  • The reason we sell our puppies on limited registration is to protect our puppies from unscrupulous breeders who may breed our puppies without doing the proper health and temperament testing.  It is important to us that the standards be upheld to ensure the longevity of the breed and our kennel name. We do offer lifting to Full AKC Registration under the condition that at 2 years of age the dogs hips and elbows are passing and have a working or performance title.We do not sell our puppies as breeding prospects to non-working homes.

HIP & ELBOW GUARANTEE

  • We offer a limited 28 month Hip and Elbow joint guarantee. OFA will not do final joint evaluations until a dog is at least 24 months. They will accept preliminary joint x-rays for evaluation sooner than that. The typical age to bring your dog in for prelims is 12 months.
     

  • It should be noted that even dogs that have been health tested for many generations can still produce dogs that develope dyspasia. This could be due to genetics or environmental factors. 'Different studies find that hip dysplasia is 20% to 40% heritable. This means that 20 to 40% of the variability of dysplastic development is due to genetic factors, and the rest of the variability is due to environmental factors. The inheritance of hip dysplasia is polygenic, meaning that the action of several genes must combine to produce the disorder.' So while we do everything we can to eliminate these genes, it is understood that sometimes 'nature happens' to no fault of anyone.
     

  • If the dog develops bilateral hip or elbow dysplasia (confirmed by x-rays from a competent licensed veterinarian of mutual agreement), we will replace the dog as soon as possible with a replacement of equal value at the time of purchase.
     

  • You do NOT have to return the original dog/puppy although we are always willing to take our puppies back under any circumstances we understand that bonds have been formed. We do recomend having the dog spayed/neutered before we will replace the puppy.
     

  • For this guarantee to remain in effect, the puppy must be maintained at a lean, healthy weight and remain unaltered until at least the age of 24 months

Our Contract
&
Health Guarentee

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