After over 18 years of breeding these wonderful babies, I am now fully retired. I have NO affiliation with any other breeder, anyone claiming they have one of my dogs, or my lines is lying to you.
I have had so many families contact me and post here and ask me about referrals to other breeders that I may recommend. This is tough for me. When I first started breeding and for quite a while after that, I had relationships with other breeders that raised their puppies, such as I in their home with lots of love, and raise their puppies, in a very responsible manner in the same way, In their home for the entire time that the puppies were with them. They tested the parents, they had a client friendly warranty and a rehome policy. Over the years with the popularity of these wonderful dogs I’m sure you have noticed, as have I, hundreds upon hundreds of pop-up backyard breeders. I stopped paying attention to them years ago. So rather than give you recommendations which I cannot, because I don’t have any that I would trust personally , here are some things to look for that I feel personally are important. Everyone of course will have to make their own decisions on what is important to them
1. Do they test their parents for diseases that are prevalent in the breed? These can be found on many sites.
2. How do they raise their dogs? Are they living as family members in someone’s home with the love that they deserve or are they in a really nice kennel, outbuilding barn, whatever. My dogs are my family. I would never allow any of my dogs, nor any of the puppies that I sell to live in any other manner than a spoiled loving member of the family in the home 100% of the time. Dogs are not cattle.
3. How are the puppies raised? Are they raised in someone’s home from birth until eight weeks? That is a very daunting task and many outright lie about it. You have to have responsible space and enough room for them to play, explore, both inside and outside but they should be raised in someone’s home with as much of a normal life as possible so when they go to your home, they are not shellshocked from coming from a kennel, barn, or someone’s really nice outbuilding.
4. How many females does the breeder have and how many litters does she have at one time resulting in how many puppies? I raise petites, my litters tend on the smaller side I can easily raise more than one litter if I chose to that are within an eight week age span without an issue I have the space and the time. If I had larger dogs that were giving me 8 to 10 puppies a litter, and having 2 to 3 litters at a time, that is just not possible. I see so many breeders that have litter after litter after litter all close together so they end up with 20 to 30 puppies that are all close in age. I’m sorry, but there is no way you can properly raise those dogs and give them the attention they deserve. Huge red flag!
5. Do they have leftover puppies that are still available after eight weeks? During Covid everyone that wanted a puppy got a puppy after Covid granted, it was much more difficult to place puppies because families were traveling. I had puppies available last summer as well. I cut back on my breeding, so that did not happen again because I love it it’s my business and my income but I’m not looking to make $1 million from this job. I raise my puppies responsibly and having puppies that are more than eight weeks old is 14 times more work than babies to raise them responsibly. someone that has puppies left over at this point of time is breeding too many dogs.
6. Do they have a contract with a warranty? Read these over they should be available to you either on someone’s website or by email before you decide to use them as your breeder. Is it friendly to just the breeder? Are there silly restrictions that would make a claim difficult ? How long does it last? What does it cover and how much? Are they going to make a return the puppy? These are very important things. Hopefully you never have to use a warranty. I had two warranty claims in 18 years of course I made good on both of them many breeders do not. And make sure they require you to spay or neuter your pet!
These are some of the important things to look at and think about. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is breeding these dogs now so I will admit, finding a good breeder is a daunting task. Decide what is important to you and do your homework.
