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So, you have decided, (or almost decided) to purchase a pup! Congratulations!

The information on this page will help you with all those questions you are now contemplating, and will make the pup's transition from my home to yours a more pleasant experience for everyone involved. (and yes, it saves me a ton of typing on emails, and leaves me with more time to play with my pups! :-) )

Waiting Lists

I save email inquiries about my pups in the order in which I receive them. Shortly after the pups are born, usually at about 2 weeks of age, I start going through my waiting lists, sending out birth announcements. I usually wait 3 or 4 days to give people a chance to respond before continuing on to the next names, so it would be best to reply quickly when your get your birth announcement. I only take deposits on pups after they are born, but do require a deposit to hold your puppy for you. I DO NOT consider a pup as sold until the deposit is received. Pay Pal is the fastest way to get the deposit taken care of.

When sending your deposit or payment by mail, (which I don't recommend, our rural mail deliver is slow and you might miss out on the pup you want.) please include your name, address and phone number. I will need it to make shipping arrangements, and for the health certificate at the vets before shipping. Most important of all, please mention the breed of puppy you are sending the deposit for. I correspond with many people, and real names are often not at all similar to the email addresses I am used to seeing and associating with that person.
If you are picking up here the balance can be paid with check or cash. I have no way to take credit cards here.

Puppy Proofing
Get started early!

Make sure you prepare your home and yard before giving the pup the run of either. Inside, check for exposed electric cords, open cabinets, and closets that you don't want the pup in, doors that do not latch securely, trash cans, plants or anything on the floor that could harm the pup. Shoes are common casualties to new pups, keep them safely put away in closed closets. Children's toys also frequently fall victim to teething pups. (good way to teach them to keep their toys picked up?:-)) Have a few chew toys ready for the pup to start proper training right off the bat.
Don't forget the yard! Check your fence for escape holes, gaps between gates or corners that may of been fine to hold an adult dog, but not your new little puppy. Even if you plan on watching him while he is out in the yard, check anyway, you wouldn't want him to slip threw a hole in the back fence and get away while you had to run back to the front gate and go around, since most of us are not Olympic fence jumpers.

Picking up your pup at the Airport

First, check with your local airline to see exactly where you are to pick your pup up. In some cases, pups come into the main terminal, in other airports they go to the cargo buildings. You will need your airway bill number, (which you will get when shipping arrangements are made) and a photo ID in most cases to claim your pup. Leave home in plenty of time to get there and find the place. Check with the airport to see how much
"recovery time" there will be before you can get your pup. This is the time it takes for the pup to be unloaded from the plane, and transferred to where ever you will be picking him up.

When your pup leaves here, he will be freshly bathed, but quite often, pups get air sick, or can't hold it for the entire trip, so bring along some paper towels, and if you have access to it, a bag of shredded paper, it works much better at keeping messes off your pup then just a towel or newspapers laid flat in the bottom of the crate. There will be feed and water dishes attached to the crate, so you don't have to worry about bringing those. Depending on how far you have to drive home, you may need to bring some feed, to start the feed changing process, and a bottle of water. Here at the kennel, we have a deep water well, with pure, untreated water, so if you have a source of non- chlorinated water, it would be better for the pup.

If you are not far from home, it most likely will be better to not feed the pup at the airport, though a drink of water should be offered. The exception to this rule would be toy breed pups, these need frequent feedings to avoid sugar shock.

I usually put the shot record and registration papers in an envelope and tape it securely on top of the crate. However, on occasion, the airline accidentally rips it off when they take off their paperwork, so make sure they don't do that. It will have your name written on it. Also, the crate your pup is shipped in will be sufficient in size that you can use it for several weeks if you chose to house break your puppy by crate training it. (the best method, in my opinion.)

Please do not try to leash break your pup in the airport parking lot. New collars can be difficult to get adjusted right, and your pup will undoubtedly have a tantrum his first few times on a leash, and a busy airport parking lot is not a good place to have a loose pup!

If you are picking up your pup here at the kennel, it would most likely be best to transport him home in a crate. Pups often do get carsick. You will need the same supplies as for the airport pickup, paper towels and shredded paper, and feed and water dishes for longer trips home. I will send home some feed for him, and if you have a long trip, I can happily furnish a jug of our good well water.

Feeding

A bag of feed will be attached to your pup's crate if shipped, or given to you when you pick up your pup here. This is the feed that they are accustom to eating. You will need to decide before hand what type of puppy food you wish to feed, then over the pups first few days at home, mix the 2 feeds together, gradually increasing the amount of the new feed. This will help prevent sudden changes to the digestive system of the pup. And while nearly everyone thinks of feed changes, most people don't realize that the change in water can be just as stressing as a food change. We have a deep water well, there is absolutely no chlorine or chemicals added to our water. The switch to chlorinated water can kill off digestive bacteria in the gut, causing among other things, a temporary bloody stool.

I am frequently asked to recommend a type of feed for pups. I absolutely stay out of dog food discussions. Nothing starts a fight faster among humans than discussing various dog foods. My only advice is to read the ingredient list, and understand what it means. Chicken by product meal, doesn't sound all that appetizing does it? Well, in reality, it's chicken backs and possibly feet. You know, the backs your grandma used to fix for you when you were down and in the need of a good healthy bowl of chicken soup.
And importantly, price is not an indication of quality. Taking advice from celebrities is great if you are buying anti wrinkle cream, but not dog food. And stay away from "fad" diets. Salmon and sweet potatoes?????? Get real! What dog ever ate that in the wild? And don't even think about "vegan" dog food promoted by the human society. The most recent fad is the grain free thing. The jury is still out as far as I am concerned on that one. I have been trying to do some research on this subject and have not come up with much real science on the subject. In my own mind it doesn't make a lot of sense. Grain is a concentrated food source. Things like pumpkin and sweet potatoes are filler at best. So far all I have found is a report about an increase of dilated cardio myopathy (forgive my spelling, even spell checker can't fix that one) found in dogs on a grain free diet, due to lack of tauren, which is found mostly in grain. If anyone has seen any studies on this subject, I'd appreciate any input, just drop me an email. Just because I've been doing this forever, I know I can and should continue to learn.

Home Coming

As soon as you get home, take your pup out to the spot in your yard you want him to use for his toilet. Give him some time to explore, sniff, and in general take in his new surroundings. Give him a chance to settle in before offering food, if the flight time and trip home have not been overly long.

Pups will react in one of two ways to new surroundings. They will either be a bit nervous and shy, or in the case of most terriers, they will be ready to explode into action after being crated for so long during shipping. Let them get some exercise, but remember, especially if you have children, pups are just like babies, they do sleep a lot. Make sure you give the pup some rest time between romping with the human kids. Do not be alarmed if the pup is a bit shy at first. Remember, they have just left the only home they have ever known, and are in a totally strange, new place. Even the climate may be different. Dogs sense of smell is far more sensitive than ours, even the air will smell different. And with that comment, I have a funny dog story to share.

I spend a lot of time socializing my pups to make them great family companions, so it worries me if pups act unfriendly or frightened when visitors come to the kennel to see them. On several occasions, I have seen pups that were the most lovable, friendly little guys you ever saw, that would freeze in total terror when held by some woman. I just couldn't understand it. At that time, all my kennel helpers were female, so they were accustomed to women, had they had a reaction like that to a man holding them, it would of made more sense. Took me forever to figure out what was causing it. It bothered me for a long time. But one day a lady came to look at a pup, and it came to me in a flash.....well, actually, it came to me on the breeze, I smelled her when she opened the car door, even though I was a good 20 feet away, she must of stumbled when putting on her perfume and dumped a 1/2 a bottle on herself! Sure enough, when I handed her a sweet, friendly little pup, the poor pup froze in absolute terror!
I have to add, I'm one of those people that can't even walk down the detergent isle in the grocery store without choking. I hate perfume, it chokes me to death, so I never wear any. So, if there are any shortcomings in my socialization program, that would be it. If you want to wear perfume, you'll just have to get the pup used to it yourself, sorry! :-)

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