German Shepherd Puppies For Sale     German Shepherd Dogs For Sale

Please click on the question you wish to view our answer to:

1.) "What is your policy on deposits and under what circumstances will a deposit be refunded?"

            First, let me define what a deposit means to us: We see it as a promise or "good faith" commitment on the new owners part that they are done shopping and have decided to buy from us. By this time in the process, we have usually invested a fair amount of time and energy into answering questions regarding the many faceted aspects of owning one of these magnificent animals. Once that commitment is made, we stop offering that open spot on the list to other interested parties and in fact, turn prospective buyers away because of this agreement and partial down payment made by the new owner.
            Occasionally, things change in the life of the new owner and we understand this fully and will try our best to make this change fit both of our needs. If necessary. it is our policy to transfer the deposit to the next litter or even deactivate the deposit and apply it much later when the situation for the new family is ideal for a new dog. nbsp; We try to be as flexible as possible with everyone's situation. nbsp; It is vitally important to us that our puppies only go into homes that are ready to give them the attention they deserve
             The only circumstance that a deposit is refundable is if there are not enough puppies born in a breeding that you might have selected from and you do not want to wait for the next litter to be transferred to.   Bascially if we can hold up our end of the deal, we will transfer your deposit until a time when you can hold up yours and if we can not, then we will refund on the spot if you choose not to wait until we can.

            a.) The Art of Raising a puppy - by the Monks of New Skete
            b.) Beyond Basic Dog Training - by Diane Bauman
            c.) Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook - by Carlson and Giffin.

            We have dedicated our breeding program over the past 40 years now to producing German Shepherds who are well suited for a family home, a good German Shepherd has a natural desire to protect those in their "pack" family, they are highly intelligent and very high bonding in nature. We breed specifically for temperament that will thrive around young children as well as other house pets. That being said, it is very important that children be taught how to properly interact with a young puppy or dog, so that this bond can flourish. I can, without hesitation, tell you that the German Shepherds that we produce will never harm a child intentionally. Watching young children play you know that two young children playing together sometimes harm each other because of their immaturity. All of our puppies are much like having young children and must be monitored when around very young children, only because they love to play and would view the toddler as a playmate (litter mate)and might accidentally knock them down or take a toy that the toddler wanted. They would never do anything that would be considered aggressive. The puppy needs to be monitored just as a toddler does. If a group of strange 5 and 6 year olds charge directly up to a 3 year old, it will cause the 3 year old a lot of stress and it will probably cry. A German Shepherd will take that as an attack by aliens and will bark and show these intruders that they are suspicious of their actions and to stay away and approach slowly. Some supervised interaction with toddlers and young children is always recommended, but never force lots of stress on your puppy. Little kids are unpredictable and sometimes erratic and unknowingly cruel. If the puppy is not having fun then put it in a crate or another room until you can make the situation fun for them. The puppy will be like an infant in mental development, but will mature rapidly compared to human development.   Please take a look at our "Letters of Reference" page.
            I hope this helps your understanding. Most important for you to know is that this puppy that you will be getting will be of sound mind and temperament, which comes from decades of good breeding.

            It is our policy to just accept credit cards for the initial deposits to get you an instant and assured position on the list. The most secure and absolute safest method for the remaining balance is Direct - Wire transfer from your bank to ours which takes less than a couple hours and the fee's are less than next-day postal rates, usually. Contact us for the Bank Route Account numbers.  If you wish to put the final balance on a credit card, rather than direct deposit, due to the high % charge we incure set up as a small business, we can do this for an additional 3.5% charge on the amount.

            
We only use the highest quality vaccines, the puppies are vaccinated around 6 weeks and then again at 9 weeks, prior to leaving here at 10 weeks.   Your puppy will have had two, 5 way vaccines by the time s/he leaves our care. These 2 vaccines will offer some protection, but if your puppy was to come into direct contact with another sick dog or puppy or area that sick dog or puppy was in, they could still become very sick, even though vaccinated, so we recommend taking precautions until the fully puppy vaccine series is complete, while traveling to pick up your pup either from us or from the airport, avoid letting your pup on the ground to relieve themselves where anyone else who may have picked up a puppy from a less than reputable source may have also done the same. Take precaution at the vets office (where does everyone take a sick puppy or dog?), public parks, dog classes with unknown vaccine status etc, should be avoided until the puppy is fully vaccinated.

            We are currently feeding Victor Hi Pro plus to start our young puppies on. We love the quality of the Victor dog foods as a dry kibble.   Our dogs enjoy a partial RAW diet program with home raised meat and goats milk. Our mature dogs are fed about 50% RAW and 50% Victor Professional kibble.
The dog food market today has many good balanced foods.  We look for foods which are low on fillers, like corn, soy, wheat, peas, potatoes and meat Bi Products, which can be anything from feathers to floor scrapings.   Dogs in general, thrive if they are able to access raw foods as part of their diet, particularly meat and bones.

             A well bred German Shepherd that is raised correctly with plenty of room to "get away" from their poo and live in a clean area from birth on, will naturally want to go outside and away from where they live to do their business. These are very intelligent and clean dogs. We raise all of our puppies with access to go outside as puppies, we do not use clothing or cloth as part of their bedding areas and we keep our housing and pens very clean and this helps to build on an already good genetic foundation to look for the door when they have to go. Our clients report very few accidents in the first few days the pups are in their new homes. As long as you are watchful of their needs, when they wake up from a nap or after they eat and show them where the door is, they learn quickly and house breaking is a breeze. 8.) "What paperwork will I receive with my new puppy?"

            If your puppy arrives by airline, there will be a packet of paperwork on top of the kennel. Inside this packet is all of the vaccination and deworming information that your vet will need to know what the puppy has received and when. All of our puppies are covered by our extensive health warranty, which includes full AKC registration and full ownership and guaranteed to OFA certify clear on hips, elbows and DM.
We place all of our puppies with the AKC puppy protection package, which includes microchip and AKC registration in your name at time of sale as well as many other great perks with this program.

             The term West German Show line was not a term when we first started breeding.  A lot has changed over the last 40 years in the German SV breeding program as well as across Europe, we consider the dogs we have to be more of a older German foundation line bred dog, with influence of sound well bred, W. German import genetics when we are needing new bloodlines to work into our program.   We do not breed for the show ring fads, or the hot new winning lines, but instead prefer to focus on the type of German Shepherd we have found to be a consistent, sound mind, healthy, beautiful member of our family for 4 decades now.  We know our lines and our type and this helps us match our breeding pairs so that our litters hit the ground with consistency in our type, every single time.

            We crate train all of our puppys and older dogs prior to shipping.   We never use any drugs, just good genetics and proper handling by us sets them up right.  We have never had a problem.   Our puppies are so sound in temperament it does not phase them.  Its amazing to most people how much they take it all in stride. Usually, it's rougher on the expectant new parents than it is on the puppy, by far!

            Our lines tend to be pretty balanced between the sexes.   If the plan is to spay or neuter, that only makes the differences even less noticeable. A female tends to be a little more inclusive of the whole family, can be more nurturing and in tune with emotions and changes in the family dynamic.   A male may take up more with one individual, have more of a macho personality, desire to protect the boundaries of his territory. These differences tend to be subtile with most of our dogs as our focus has been on social, confident and loving family member, regardless of their sex.   If they are kept intact, there will be more hormone involvement in their personality, females especially around the time of their cycle and males if there are cycling females near by may change in their personality, becoming more assertive or less inclined to be obedient, when normally that is not an issue.

            Having raised and observed many litters over the past 40 years, we find that the pups do best leaving here closer to 10 weeks of age.   We like this age for a number of reasons.   Puppies do a lot of emotional maturity between the ages of 6 to 10 weeks, this is an awakening period for them, they lean on each other as well as their mother and their "known" environment to gain confidence.   Letting them go closer to 10 weeks ensures less anxiety, less stress on the puppy, secondly, we are able to make sure they have another parvo/puppy vaccination at this point giving them better protection against coming in contact with a potentially deadly virus during transit.   3rd, we have spent a great deal of time working with the pups on a daily basis, getting them use to being alone for periods of time, sleeping in a crate, learning the word "no bite" and at 10 weeks they are on the back side of the "puppy needle teeth" biting stage, they are more equip to go longer periods of time between potty breaks, which allows you to sleep a good nights sleep and less accidents sets them up for easy house breaking.   The common misconception has been if you don't get a puppy young they will not bond with you as well.   This is false.   These dogs have very high bonding instincts and will without question, develop a strong and lasting bond even if that bond is started at 10+ weeks of age and the emotional development of the puppy will be much better for it.

            The short answer to this is no.   I have personally been raised, raising and watching litters of German Shepherd puppies from our foundation lines for the last 40 years.   We spend a great deal of time with our litters from birth on.   A puppy aptitude test is a tool typically used by breeders or even buyers who are basically walking into a litter with no real knowledge of the puppies.   A breeder who may have 5+ litters at one time, most out of bloodlines they have purchased, and is basically filling feed pans and cleaning pens without spending any day to day time interacting with the puppies, may benefit on getting a general "snapshot" idea of each pup's general disposition giving them an aptitude test to get a sense of their individual drive levels, fear levels, etc.   It should not, in our opinion be used as a substitute for knowing your bloodlines and spending time interacting with the litter prior to placing them in their new homes.   We have a 99.9% successful placement rate with our litters.

            We do not title our dogs, when I was younger I trained for and competed in AKC obedience and we have done protection training, we have placed many dogs into homes were they have been taken on into many different levels and types of competition and have excelled at it.   Our location is rather remote, and void of a lot of dog activities. We also observed from our early days breeding these dogs, that a title does not ensure any level of quality.  We have imported and purchased Sch. trained dogs, who had temperament issues that we quickly decided we did not want to bring into our breeding program. We have seen show ring champions who's conformation is not what we consider to be sound for long term health, more issues with bloat (stomach torsion) spine and back issues, weak or dropped pasterns.   Breeding for the total package is an art and one that is lost way too often on the show or sport ring.  We train for ourselves and we select for ease of training and a confident, well rounded disposition suited for a family home and without compromising on health to do so. 15.)"Do you think we should protection train our dog in Schutzhund or through a professional trainer - or do we need to at all? What are your recommendations?"

             As someone who has done protection training and also worked with dogs who were both professionally protection trained as well as "fast tracked" to get a quick title to breed or sell, I would strongly encourage if you decide to teach your dog to do bite work, working with a professional. Once you teach a dog to bite someone, you have basically loaded a weapon and care needs to be taken to make sure the dog is properly trained and that both you and the dog stay current on the training, so that neither you nor the dog become rusty in this training. Anyone who has trained a dog, or even done personal training themselves in any sport or activity knows how you can slip once you haven't done it for a while... If this is in obedience or some non violent activity it's not a big deal if he doesn't sit or maybe even come as soon as he is called, but when it is bite work, it can be the difference between someone being maimed for life or not. It should never be taken lightly. A good well bred German Shepherd has a natural instinct to protect and in most situations where you may need the presence of a dog to deter someone from causing you or your family harm that is all that is needed. If you are in an area that you feel you need more, work with a professional and then keep up with the training would be our advice. 16.) "How do you decide who gets to pick first puppy, second puppy and so on?"

            The system we have used all of these years has worked well for us, we do things on a first come first serve basis, meaning when you place a deposit, you hold your spot in line, over the years we have had a longer and longer waiting list, so to keep things fair, when a deposit is taken we get an idea when you plan to be ready for a puppy, some who come to us are ready immediately and then we have some who are planing out 6 months to a year or even 2 in the future. Based on your time frame, you now hold a spot for that time frame in line ahead of anyone else who places a deposit after you, when we have a litter confirmed and then born, that will be ready for that time frame, you will be contacted and if that timing is still good for you, we will move forward with you picking from that litter based on how many pups of that desired sex are born and if anyone was ahead of you for that litter. We can always transfer a deposit if the timing is not right for you. Any pups that unexpectedly become available are also offered to those with deposits down ahead of new contacts or posting them as available.