Issues with the Yorkie I put a deposit on..

[Giselle]

Yep. That's actually the responsible thing to do To the public, "papers" make a dog sound pretty and fancy and $$$. They're often used as a marketing gimmick, and a lot of byb's use papers to sell more puppies. This breeder is withholding the papers to force you to fix your animal, thereby taking your potential marketing gimmick away. It's a common technique. That and limited registration are both measures to prevent pet-quality animals from being bred.

She can talk the talk, but does she actually walk the walk? Ask to see proof that her breeding dogs have been tested. Again, they will be most likely be OFA and CERF tested, so look for the acronyms if you can't quite make the papers out.

Here are samples of the OFA reports: http://www.offa.org/samplecerts.html

Edit: Ask her about the health guarantee. Health guarantees are tricky because a lot of diseases are influenced by both genetics and the environment. A GREAT health guarantee would be a lifetime guarantee. A decent health guarantee would be at least 3 years. A skimpy guarantee is 1 year or a couple months. Congenital defects often don't show up until the dog has hit maturity.

[kt_luvs_kitties]

Good to know. I was worried it might be a bad thing! It sure sounds like a bad thing. I am going to write down those names, and bring them with me. I would also like to ask to speak to her vet before putting down any money. Would it be "acceptable" to do that?

I forgot to add(after looking at the sample that she did say she did specific testing for knees and hips. Is that what the OFA report is?

[Giselle]

The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) gathers information about knees, hips, elbows, thyroid, and other orthopedic ailments. So, yes, OFA reports would be what she means by "testing their hips and knees". FYI, she's probably testing "luxating patellas" when she means testing knees. Just so you don't get confused by the medical jargon.

Honestly, I probably wouldn't contact her vet unless she was really sketchy. If she health tests her dogs and participates with them in sports regularly (i.e. showing them), I don't see a huge benefit in contacting her vet. A vast majority of vets cannot or will not speak negatively about their clients to another person. It's a whole liability and confidentiality thing, so I don't think you'd gain much valuable insight if you did contact her vet. However, you can't really lose anything, so if she happily agrees to let you speak to her vet, go ahead!

Edit: Can I also say I'm absolutely elated that you're being so dedicated to doing it the ethical way? Over the years, I'm sure we all run into folks who don't know how to really check out breeders; we try to give them advice and they usually don't respond. But seeing you respond so heartily really made my day! Kudos!

[kt_luvs_kitties]

I felt/feel kinda stupid asking all of these questions, that I am sure many people know about. But truly I dont. I know very little, I have never bought any animal (besides adoption fees and hamsters when I was little) , So I truly am igonorant to the dos and donts.

I know not to buy from pet shops, or a dog that has no papers because their parents arent registered. I just never had to learn it. The more I know the better, I want a healthy happy dog that will not get sick, or not have parents who suffer in mills and overbreeding

Thank you so much for your help

PS- I will be picking up my deposit tomorrow from the first breeder I just feel bad for the pup, and who ends up with her.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I hope that everything works out for you and that you're able to adopt the female Yorkie from this breeder. I'm also glad to hear that you'll be able to get your deposit back from the other breeder. Good luck.

[Catlady711]

Sorry to hear that the puppy didn't work out for you. I hope you find another one that will be healthy and very happy with you.

On a side note; as a vet assistant I can't count how many times we've had clients come in that were promised vaccination papers etc and the original owner/breeder never did provide them. We just usually assume that there never were any papers to begin with. If someone wants to hold back papers I'd be very leary, or at least demand to see the papers with your own eyes first. JMHO

[Spiritwind]

On a side note; as a vet assistant I can't count how many times we've had clients come in that were promised vaccination papers etc and the original owner/breeder never did provide them. We just usually assume that there never were any papers to begin with. If someone wants to hold back papers I'd be very leary, or at least demand to see the papers with your own eyes first. JMHO

I think when she asked if it was normal for the breeder to with hold "papers" until the dog was spayed, she ment AKC registration papers.. not vaccination papers.

Obviously you should get all medical/health/vaccinations records when you get the puppy.. its not uncommon for responsible breeders to keep AKC registration papers until they get proof that the dog was spayed/neutered to prevent them from taking a registerable dog and breeding it..