Questions to Ask When Purchasing a Companion Puppy

From the Archives of Kathleen Salvucci

This article comes from a 2018 archived version of Kathy’s website, so some information — including pricing — may now be outdated.

Photos are from a 2009 visit to Kathy’s home when we met Blitz and his littermates.

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This page was expanded after I learned that clients/friends of 15+ years had purchased a puppy with no health checks, no papers, and from a questionable situation. I wondered, “How could that be? Surely they knew better.”

So I began looking at ads and breeder websites. I found that some breeders were being a little too cute with how they worded and advertised things.

BUYER BEWARE!

Pay particular attention to the health section below. I’ve gone into much greater detail there.

But if you read no further, remember this: when deciding to purchase a companion puppy, if a litter or puppy is advertised as having health checks completed on the parents, INSIST on receiving hard copies of the test results.

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The angels who work in breed rescue received even more calls than I did.

In almost every case, after reciting all the “bads” that were occurring, the dog owner in trouble would eventually say, “I should have known,” “something just didn’t feel right,” or “things were so bad we thought we were doing ‘good’ getting the puppy out of there.”

There is a tremendous cost to the pet owner in these situations. Not only the veterinary costs associated with puppies that develop genetic issues when the health of the breeding pair isn’t known and carefully considered — and veterinary care today is awfully expensive! — but often even more difficult, the emotional cost that goes along with a dog not working out and a puppy facing an uncertain future because of health and/or temperament issues.

The goal when searching for a companion puppy is to find a healthy, happy baby raised in a clean, caring, hands-on environment with lots of attention paid to early socialization. If something doesn’t “feel right,” pay close attention to that feeling!

Where to Look for a Reputable Breeder

Try your State Federation of Dog Clubs, a regional specialty club, or a local all-breed dog club’s breeder referral service. Go to dog shows, speak to breeders, and ask questions.

If there is nothing available at the time you are looking, expand your search to neighboring states or, if you find a breeder you “click” with, ask if there is a waiting list for a future litter.

Ask your veterinarian for references. They certainly know who has healthy, happy, well-cared-for dogs!

• How did you find the breeder?

• What national and regional clubs and organizations is the breeder a member of and what activities to they enjoy with their dogs?
• Do they have multiple breeds of dogs?
• How are their dogs kept?
• Will the breeder provide you with vet and personal references?
• How long has the breeder been breeding?
• How often do they have a litter? (More is not better!)
• How are the litters raised, how much early one-on-one interaction is provided
• What steps are taken to provide for early socialization?

Many temperament problems that later cause a dog to land in rescue or a shelter — including sound sensitivity, separation anxiety, and lack of bite inhibition — can be traced to careless breeding combinations and poor or nonexistent early socialization.

Problems with potty training can often be traced to unsanitary living conditions. Show me a puppy that is difficult to house train, and I’ll show you a puppy that was allowed to be dirty!

Use common sense when visiting a breeder. Are there too many dogs to reasonably expect that a puppy has received critical individual attention? Is the puppy used to being groomed, having its toenails clipped, its teeth examined, and its ears cleaned — or is everything a struggle? How clean are the surroundings?

Finally, will the breeder be there for you after the purchase to answer your questions?

Ideally, you want someone who will pick up the phone or return a call when it’s past midnight and your puppy has eaten a pack of chewing gum.

The best breeder-owner relationships last the life of the dog. It’s wonderful to send birthday and holiday pictures to the person who loved your dog first, and it’s particularly comforting, when waiting for a biopsy result from a suspicious bump on an old dog, to have someone who will worry and pray right along with you.

What should I expect from the breeder?

At a bare minimum, you should expect a breeder to

• Begin a puppy’s immunization and worming schedule
• Provide copies of those records
• Provide a written contract
• Provide evidence that the litter has been registered
• Provide hard copies of health testing completed on the sire and dam

Many responsible breeders will go a step further and provide written certification from their veterinarian stating that the puppy has been examined and found healthy and free of congenital defects.

Let’s Talk About Contracts

Some contracts restrict breeding rights. AKC registration papers can be issued on a “limited registration” basis, which prohibits any offspring from being registered with the AKC.

Other contracts may require the breeder to remain listed as a co-owner. That arrangement may work between friends discussing a potential show dog, but for companion puppies, simpler is usually better.

Don’t be talked into making a “deal” for a lower-priced puppy by promising breeding rights to the breeder — now your new co-owner. You may hear such arrangements described as “guardian homes.”

If it’s uncomfortable now to write a check for the full price of a bitch puppy, it certainly won’t become easier later to pay for health checks, pre-breeding testing, and potentially a $3,000+ emergency c-section.

The same goes for a potential “Mr. Wonderful.” If you contractually promise breeding rights in exchange for a lower purchase price, you will obligate yourself to spend thousands on health testing and pre-breeding evaluations.

And remember: as the stud dog owner, the bitch comes to you, and you become responsible for getting her bred. (That’s how it works in dogs.)

And…it isn’t all soft music and candles. Be sure the children are somewhere else or you may have some serious explaining to do!

Or perhaps, when it’s time for his “date,” your dog goes to live temporarily with the breeder/co-owner. Are you prepared to give your dog up for weeks at a time?

If the bitch comes to you, do you have the facilities and resources to safely keep a strange bitch for several weeks during her season?

(Are you sure? Really sure? Dogs can get out of almost anything when procreation is involved!)

And how on earth will you explain all the noise to the neighbors?

Dogs are…well…vocal, and it’s unlikely your neighbors will enjoy the serenade.

Remember too, if you make such an agreement, contractually you cannot spay or neuter your pet until the agreed provisions are fulfilled.

It’s best not to make a “deal” for a lower-priced puppy by promising breeding rights. In the end, it rarely turns out to be much of a “deal” at all.

And the Breed Standard…

This is a difficult subject for me to address without sounding snobbish, but here goes…

A breeder gets a phone call from a distraught companion dog owner who has lost a much-loved pet. We’ve all been there. Believe it or not, hearing someone struggle to say the word “puppy,” listening to that raw hurt, brings a flood of emotion for the breeder too.

I’ve cried with many dog owners I didn’t know and would never meet.

Usually the owner wants something similar to the companion they lost. But every now and then they are asking for something a responsible breeder simply would not intentionally produce.

There’s no easy way to say, “Gosh, I wouldn’t have that, nor would any responsible breeder I can think of refer you to it,” without sounding uncaring.

Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the breed standard. It is, quite simply, the blueprint for the breed.

Learn what constitutes a disqualification (currently this includes white, blue, or liver-colored dogs). Learn what is desirable so that you aren’t asking for something that isn’t desirable for the breed.

Learn the correct size for a GSD:

• 22–24 inches at the withers for a bitch
• 24–26 inches for a dog

Bigger is NOT better.

That’s not to say puppies or dogs with disqualifying or undesirable traits don’t deserve loving homes — they absolutely do.

However, if a breeding pair consistently produces undesirable traits, it’s not a combination a responsible breeder would repeat.

You may have no intention of showing or breeding your dog, but if your goal is to find a reputable breeder, a huge tip-off is the type of dog they promote.

Be VERY wary of breeders who deliberately market off-colors, unusual coats, or oversized dogs as “rare.”

People who are truly passionate about a breed know the breed standard inside and out and do their level best to produce dogs that closely resemble it.

The Sire and Dam of Your Puppy

When researching a litter, ask what health checks have been performed on the breeding pair.

And now comes the important part:

Verify.

INSIST on hard copies of tests performed on the parents.

Ask for:

• The registered names of the sire and dam
• Correct spelling
• AKC registration numbers

If a breeder is unwilling to provide that information, run — don’t walk — away.

Ask what criteria were used to determine the dogs were worthy of being bred. NOT all dogs deserve to be bred.

For German Shepherd Dogs specifically, responsible buyers should expect hip certifications. Many breeders now also certify elbows, complete cardiac testing, and perform DNA testing for Degenerative Myelopathy (DM).

If a dog has OFA testing completed, you can verify it at:

• www.offa.org

Permanent hip and elbow numbers are issued after two years of age. Preliminary results completed before that age should still be readily available from the breeder.

Let’s take a look at a few of these tests, how to read them and what to expect:
Here is a copy of a OFA preliminary report:

Now, lets take a closer look at how to read the report: We have the age in months, we have the AKC #, and we have the microchip number. (I have prelim’ed dogs before naming with just a microchip # to ID) Later we will see why the chip number is important.

Please note the only results for hips could be Excellent, Good or Fair Borderline, Mild, Moderate or Severe

(This gal, Kate, is also negative for elbow dysplasia and by viewing the report you will see what results are the only possible results for elbows.)

Here is a copy of an OFA certificate when a dog/bitch is over 2 years of age, for this example, a certificate for the same bitch:

That’s as good as I can scan with a blue background, here’s what to notice:
the OFA # is GS-80989G26F-VPI

Here’s how to read the OFA number:
“GS” = German Shepherd, “80989” is the # in sequence, “G” means Good,
26 is her age in months, “F” means female,
“VPI” means that permanent identification was verified

When you see NOPI following any OFA test/result it means
“No permanent Identification”.
Permanent ID, a microchip or tattoo, was not verified. (Why?????)

Now try this: Go to the OFA’s web site, www.offa.org type in either the exact name of
the bitch above or her AKC registration # DN20414201 and what do you see?

So… when you read an ad or look at a breeder’s website and see “All breeding stock x-rayed”, “OFA Certified”, “has been OFA’d”, “parents have clear hips and elbows”, what does that mean to you? You should be thinking “fine, show me the results, give me the AKC #, and there’s no such result as clear”.

There are other organizations that certify hips. You may see the OVC referenced (Ontario Veterinary College, Canada), you may notice an “a” stamp in a German pedigree or you may see PennHIP scores. While the OFA offers three grades of acceptable or passing hip ratings, the OVC rating is either pass/fail. If a dog receives a number from the OVC, there is no evidence of dysplasia. The (German) “a” stamp is quite different; stamps are issued to dogs with mild dysplasia as young as one year of age, so when comparing “a” stamps with other organizations’ findings, it’s not enough to know that a dog has an “a” stamp, you must know the actual designation to make a fair comparison. PennHIP uses a different system entirely and rates the dog compared to other dogs in the same breed whose x-rays have been submitted to date

If there is no OFA, OVC, “a” stamp or PennHIP information on the breeding pair, you’d again have to wonder why. The cost of submitting x-rays for evaluation to these organizations is nominal in the overall scheme of things, for example, OFA charges $35 for evaluation of hip x-rays.

There are only three possible explanations for lack of certification;
(1) x-rays were never taken/submitted,
(2) x-rays were taken and they were submitted, but the dog failed to certify or
(3) x-rays were taken and they looked so bad they weren’t even sent in.

Let’s look at Cardiac certification.
Here’s a certificate:

Here’s how to read the OFA #:

German Shepherd, Cardiac # 956, 32 months old, female, P = general practitioner (could also be “C” for board certified cardiologist or “S” for specialist), verified permanent ID (and of course the microchip # listed on the certificate)

Now let’s consider DM testing.

Degenerative Myelopathy affects numerous breeds and is a horrific disease. DM is a disease of the spinal cord that usually strikes dogs around 8 years old but can occur earlier. Symptoms involve loss of coordination in the hind limbs with eventual complete loss of use. Eventually there is also loss of bowel and bladder control.

The test available for DM, Degenerative Myelopathy, is a DNA test that can be taken from either a blood sample or cheek swab.

DM is genetic.

Many other spine/disc diseases/injuries including tumors can mimic DM and the only test to prove or disprove DM is a necropsy. This is important to understand: the only test to verify that a dog had or did not have DM is necropsy.

If one suspects that a dog is suffering from DM, the first step would be to request a cheek swab be sent to a lab to either rule in or rule out DM as the possible problem. It’s an inexpensive test, $45-$60. It is relatively new, most labs can perform the test, although at the current time only one lab’s results are listed on the OFA’s web site.

The test results will show that a dog is n/n Clear, n/DM Carrier or DM/DM At Risk.

How does this apply to breeding? DM is a simple recessive and a puppy will receive one gene from each parent.

But why is this important? If a carrier is bred to a carrier, each puppy has a 25% chance of being at risk. If a carrier is bred to an “at risk”, each puppy has a 50% chance of being at risk. If an “at risk” is bred to an “at risk”, 100% of the puppies will be at risk.

If one parent is “n/n clear”, there should be no “at risk” puppies in a litter since each puppy can only receive a “n” gene from the n/n Clear parent. (I say “should” because this is a relatively new test, and genes can and do occasionally mutate.)

Buyer beware!
Here’s what I have seen on web sites and in puppy ads:

“DM tested”, “Has been DNA-Cleared of degenerative myelopathy”, “DM Normal”

In the first case you should be thinking “and what were the results?”, in the second, technically the dog could be a clear or a carrier and still not be at risk for developing DM, therefore “cleared” and in the third case, “normal” is not a test result.

If avoiding DM is important to you, there’s an easy solution…ask for a copy of the results for a dog/bitch that was tested and find a litter where at least one parent has tested n/n Clear. Having said that, there are breeders who do not test and who aren’t convinced the test is accurate. My policy for Pine Hill is that each litter will have one parent that tests n/n Clear.

Here is a sample of a DM test with the possible result codes listed below:

DM Result Codes:

n/n Clear: Dog is negative for the Degenerative Myelopathy mutation.

DM/DM At Risk: Dog is likely to be affected by Degenerative Myelopathy, and will always pass on a copy of the mutation to any offspring.

n/DM Carrier: Dog carries one copy of the mutation associated with Degenerative Myelopathy, and could pass on the mutation to any offspring.

You can find more information on all of the tests listed above on www.offa.org and you can find a video of an educational program on DM given in 2012 at the GSDCA National presented by Dr. J. Coates located on the parent club website, gsdca.org.

Is your head spinning?
There is no perfect dog.

Even when health testing is completed and results are favorable, things can still go wrong.

BUT — and this is a big one! — through careful testing and responsible selection, breeders can significantly improve the odds of producing healthy puppies.

Pay close attention to how the brood bitch is cared for and how the litter is raised.

Never hesitate to ask:

• What medications mom was exposed to
• What flea/tick/heartworm preventatives were used
• What cleaning chemicals are used indoors
• What lawn/garden chemicals may be present outdoors

A “replacement puppy guarantee” is of very little comfort once you’ve fallen in love with your dog and spent thousands with orthopedic specialists.

Will I see both parents?

Probably not.

When serious breeders search for the best possible mate for a bitch, it is uncommon for the ideal stud dog to live in the same household.

If you find Mom, Dad, Uncle Joe, and Aunt Sue all living together, there’s a good chance you’ve found a backyard breeder or puppy mill.

Responsible breeders spend months — often years — studying pedigrees and researching health, longevity, temperament, and structure before deciding on a breeding.

Generations of healthy, good-tempered dogs do not happen by accident.

Is the litter registered with the AKC?

You would like to think so, but don’t assume.

The AKC is particular:

• particular about record keeping
• particular about living conditions
• particular about pedigree accuracy

Breeders who register litters with the AKC are subject to inspections and DNA verification.

Those who fail inspections — or don’t want oversight at all — sometimes turn to bogus registries with official-sounding names.

A puppy from such a breeding can never receive full AKC registration, and future offspring cannot be registered either.

Buyer beware.

Ask questions.

When Can I See My Puppy?

This is a tough one.

It is often recommended that buyers visit the breeder’s home and meet at least the mother. That makes sense — EXCEPT it can expose unborn or newborn puppies to dangerous disease.

Many illnesses are airborne. Adult dogs can carry disease without symptoms, while unborn puppies and newborn litters are highly vulnerable.

For that reason, at Pine Hill, once a bitch was bred I allowed no visitors until the puppies were over six weeks old, had received veterinary checks, and had started immunizations.

When Can I Take My Puppy Home?

In most states, eight weeks is the earliest a puppy may legally leave.

Even where it is not law, responsible GSD breeders will not release puppies earlier than eight weeks.

That final week with mom and littermates is critical for development.

How Much Does a Companion Puppy Cost?

Factors influencing cost include:

• Quality of the sire and dam
• Quality of the pedigree
• Health testing performed
• Veterinary care
• Food
• Worming
• Immunizations
• Health certifications
• Clean bedding and proper sanitation
• Time and early socialization invested in the litter

Given those realities, expect to start around $2,500–$3,500 for a carefully bred and responsibly raised companion puppy.

You can certainly spend less.

But if you’ve read this far, you now understand that shortcuts were likely taken — and shortcuts often become expensive later, both financially and emotionally.

Conversely, spending more does not guarantee shortcuts weren’t taken.

Ask questions.
Ask questions.
Ask questions.

Get hard copies of health testing.

Then call the veterinarian reference.

And if a quality-bred, responsibly raised puppy is financially out of reach right now, rather than supporting a backyard breeder, puppy mill, or pet shop, please consider a breed rescue organization or your local shelter.