We are a small scale breeder, only a few litters a year. We are located in St. Louis, MO. I am so proud to say that each and every puppy is born here in my house, in a room connected to my own bedroom. This is very important to me as a breeder. They are handled from the minute they are born, and raised around our other dogs and family members. Friends and neighbors are encouraged to visit as SOON as the babies are old enough! This protocol is what produces the wonderful temperaments and builds confidence in our puppies. Local families getting a puppy are "required" to visit a minimum of once a week. This not only introduces the puppy to his/her new family, it also helps to socialize every puppy in the litter. Because let's face it, it is impossible to just love on your own puppy when there are many :)
Tails are docked and dewclaws are removed between 3 and 5 days old. Deworming is started at 2 weeks and continues until the puppies go home. Shots are given, and puppies are taken to our vet for their 8 week check up. Our litters are all registered with AKC. Puppies will come with all AKC registration paperwork.
We do offer a health guarantee. Our health guarantee reflects the health testing that goes into preparations for a litter. All our girls are completely health tested before we breed them.
Our puppies are only sold with limited registration to prevent another breeder from producing a litter of puppies without health testing their own dogs first. Unfortunately this did happen, and that was the last full registration I offered. Sadly, integrity is not always a 2 way street.
When looking for your puppy, it can be overwhelming! The number of breeders out there is daunting. My goal is for every puppy to find his/her forever perfect home. If I can help you in your search I will! While some large scale breeders can produce healthy puppies, it is unlikely they will be well socialized. It is a tremendous amount of work, 24/7 really, to produce healthy AND emotionally stable puppies.
When we have a litter we put pictures and/or videos daily on our facebook page, and weekly individual pictures on the website as well. We have nothing to hide, we like to keep it real :) So there will undoubtedly be a mess....but it is SO worth the work!
Puppy Mill defined..... A puppy mill, sometimes known as a puppy farm, is a type of commercial dog breeding facility...The ASPCA uses a similar definition: "a large-scale commercial breeding operation where profit is given priority over the well-being of the dogs"
I would be more than happy to help answer questions you might have while searching other breeders. For instance, there might be a breeder posting parents of a litter that could not possibly be the parents, the genetics don't add up. Or they post pictures in a nice setting when the reality is they spend their days and nights in a kennel.
SO...it doesn't have to be a cage with a dirt floor, dirty water and feces everywhere. Puppies need to be socialized when they are very young to easily become confident, well adjusted adults. There are high volume kennels producing fearful, emotionally unhealthy puppies!