Our puppies are sold with a 5-year health guarantee and contract, BVA-approved information pack, four weeks' free insurance, a puppy pack including food, puppy collar, chew, paperwork, familiar-smelling toy, and come with a free tail and pair of dew claws. Your puppy will be KC registered (buyers placing a deposit on a puppy before the registration application goes in can choose a name according to the litter 'theme'), temperament tested with a personalised socialisation plan based on your puppy's unique personality, vet checked, and microchipped. Puppies are usually sold with endorsed registration and the contract stipulates they must not be bred from. We only occasionally sell dogs to breeders who are known to us on a contract permitting them to be used for breeding.
The health guarantee covers hereditary and congenital problems up until the dog's 5th birthday and is for a refund up to the price paid for the pup to assist with necessary veterinary treatment for the problem, or a replacement pup when one becomes available if the unthinkable happens and your dog should die or have to be euthanised due to an hereditary or congenital issue. Beware of breeders who offer no real guarantee, or who insist you give your ill dog back to them as a condition of their guarantee, or offer a guarantee only in the form of a replacement puppy! We hope every dog we breed has a long and healthy life with an owner or family who loves him or her, but if there should ever be a problem, we believe that the dog and its family deserve support from us. The last thing a dog and its owner learning to cope with a medical condition need is the expense and stress of a new puppy running around, and it is utterly appalling that you should have to give back, like a defective electrical appliance, a loved family member.
Puppies leaving us will have been wormed and have received an initial vaccination for parvo, distemper, and hepatitis. I will also vaccinate for leptospirosis if my vet and I agree that conditions at the time pose a risk. I can, if you have put a deposit on a puppy before it reaches the age for the first vaccination, work from a different vaccination schedule of your choice or withhold vaccination if you prefer. You will need to speak to your vet to agree a vaccination schedule and to discuss worming and flea prevention medication. Research has shown that immunity derived from the core vaccines lasts several years, and dogs are unlikely to need revaccinating for these diseases after they are a year old. Dogs should certainly not be vaccinated every year for parvo/distemper/hepatitis. The protection of leptospirosis vaccinations has been found to be less durable. Leptospirosis occurs mostly in mild, wet weather and is more likely to be found in rural locations where wild animals urinate. If you and your vet decide vaccination for lepto is on balance necessary, it is probably best to vaccinate annually, in the spring when the weather starts to warm up, to give the best coverage.
Pups are socialised to people of all different ages, car rides, and being taken out to various safe places before they leave. We can also do early foundation work with pups intended for certain roles, such as beginning training basic commands and introducing pups to gunshots for working retrievers, or accustoming pups for people who would like to show to standing properly.
I will, for any reason and at any time, accept back any dog I have bred if the owner can no longer care for it, and take responsibility for dealing with any issues it might have and finding it a suitable new home. I do ask that puppies I have bred not be dumped at shelters nor sold on the Internet if the owners' circumstances change. The guarantee and contract are not transferable, but if your circumstances change and a good friend or family member wishes to take on your dog, I am normally happy to write a new contract and guarantee with the new owner provided you discuss this with me beforehand.
All our dogs used for breeding and all puppies we sell are registered on the Kennel Club's Breed Register I mention this here because it has been brought to my attention by a few people contacting me about pups they have acquired from other people sold as being 'KC registered' or 'pedigree' who have turned out to be registered on the activity register or with some bogus registry. The activity register is a separate registry run by the KC that allows dogs of mixed-breed or unknown ancestry to be registered on their database so they can compete in dog sports organised by the KC. This is of course a perfectly good idea, but some people are unfortunately abusing this system to mislead buyers into thinking the dogs they sell are KC registered. There are various reasons why puppies might not be allowed to be registered, such as the parents not belonging to the breeder and having been stolen and used without consent of the owner, one or both parent being incorrectly imported into the country, possibly underage and without important safeguards such as vaccinations to protect against rabies, one or both of the parents being endorsed by their original breeder as not for breeding (and this may be because they carry genetic diseases and must not be bred by people who don't have a full understanding of how these diseases are passed on), or it could be because the parents or dogs behind them are not of the breed being advertised.