Milo's Necropsy Report - Page 3

This is the AKC list of their breeders of merit. You can check to see their name is there. If not, let AKC know.

http://www.akc.org/breederofmerit/breederofmerit_list.cfm 

The breeder is listed.

Mike

The reason this breeder keeps selling pups is because most folks who get burned think it would be mean to post who they are. So no one gets warned away. If you'd seen a thread blasting this breeder on PDB you might have stayed away and never showed up to buy two sick pups. PDB is the place to warn people, not your own website because PDB really gets the word out. Only way the breeder can make it right is to start breeding healthy pups or get out of the dog business so there won't be as many pups like poor Milo dropping dead at six months. That won't happen until people know not to buy from this breeder.

You will not be "sinking" to their level by posting their kennel name on here.  You owe it to others to report crappy breeders so that others are warned.  You don't need to give your opinion or make it a nasty gram, just list the facts and let the complaint speak for itself.  I for one would want to know if a breeder in my region is selling unhealthy dogs.  The only way to shut them down is to remove the market for their pups.  They should refund your money and you should look elsewhere for a replacement.  Do not take another puppy from them.  Cut your losses now and hope your current pup gets well.  Best of luck and so sorry about Milo.  RIP puppy.

If the kennel is the one I suspect it is based upon the description of it by the OP, it's unlikely the thread will survive if the names of kennel or breeder are mentioned; I could be wrong, of course, but I think this row has been hoed in the past, and probably draws 'cease and desist' contact from the kennel's legal counsel unless the accusations are eliminated from the board.

Just a guess on my part, though.

Florida has one of the toughest Lemon Laws on the books,  What it amounts to is,  the State writes the breeder a letter, the breeder does not have to respond, we pay a full staff to write letters and in the end, they tell you to go to small claims court.
Since Milo's breeder is false advertising then the local media loves to expose cases like this and the State Attorney would be interested in the misleading advertisements.  Also, AKC is only interested in "is the paperwork correct" and that is all.
Publish the facts on this board, all emails, name the Kennel, save others from heartache, and file in court, lost wages for getting the dogs to the Vet also, make hard copies of the breeders webpage, run the phone number through yahoo.com and every thing attached to the phone number will come up, works for email too.  Print everything out.  Maybe the kennel is operating illeagally in your county?
I thought you said you saw the breeder listed on GSDCA webpage?

I thought their tag showed Breeder of Merit from the GSDCA, but I was wrong.  They have produced some outstanding dogs including several USA Siegers.  They have a huge operation and if they choose to operate in the fashion they do, they will have to meet their maker some day.  This was quite a life lesson learned for me and I have already talked to a couple of other breeders that were more interested in our family and how we will raise our dogs versus "get your check book out".  We are visiting Allta Tollhaus this weekend.  Julie seems like an unbelievable person and comes highly recommended.

Here are the sire and dam of the two pups we purchased:
Sire: V1 Tony von der Burg Haidstein SchH3, Kkl1a
Dam:V1 Blair vom Mittelwest SchH1, KKL1a

We are taking Rocco in next week to have some heart test run.  Hopefully everything will be fine.


Mike

http://www.gsdca-wda.org/results/Topline05-19-20-07.htm
If you run the Dam exactly how you have it posted at yahoo.com you will find this link and the dog is listed on the GSDA-WDA page I have included.

GSD DEFENDER, what's your point?  Mcap certainly already knows where he obtained his dogs, and it doesn't take Blue's Clues for anyone else to suss it out from the info already mentioned in this post.

Mike, I am terribly sorry for your family, for Milo, and for poor Rocco as well; it's an understatement to say that your experiences with your two lovely GSD puppies, born of well known and respected European import bloodlines, have not unfolded as you expected or desired.  It's just sadness all around, no matter how it's considered.

That said, I can't ignore the fact that it is unlikely the breeder of these boys *knew* that Milo had a heart condition, although the issue of allegies with Rocco should have been noticed while he was still at the kennel, since you note that he had the symptoms when you took him home with you...so the breeder should have acknowledged that from the start. 

I say this not in defense of the breeder--who I don't know personally--but to make clear some basic but hard facts of life when it comes to GSDs:  allergies of various kinds have become overly common in the breed, as have maladies for which there are no pre-screening tests presently available that could indicate whether or not a dog or bitch is carrying the genetics to produce these problems.  In addition to allergies to food items, inhalent allergens such as pollens, contact allergies and drug allergies, GSDs also can suffer from pancreatic insufficiency, inflammatory bowel disorder, various cardiac issues, and a host of autoimmune disorders...yet breeders are presently without a way to test for these conditions prior to mating their dogs.  The best that can be done for these issues is to assess whether or not the dogs which are considered to be candidates for breeding stock suffer from any of these disorders themselves; if the answer is yes to any of the problems, the dog shouldn't be used for breeding.  Steps beyond that, ideally, would be to assess whether said candidates had any *siblings* (full or half) which had these problems, or which had produced any of these problems, and rule out those dogs with affected relatives.  The problem with THAT, however, is one common in any purebred dog: the gene pool is always limited, to one degree or another, and depending on how closely it's customary to line-breed within a particular breed, it can be nearly impossible to eliminate all breeding stock that is related to a dog or dogs that either suffered from a condition, or have produced said conditions in offspring.  Even mixed breed dogs are not exempt from genetic maladies such as hip dysplasia, allergies and so forth--and spontaneous mutations of genes does occur in the real world, for which no-one can prepare.

The point is this:  Your experiences so far aside, you and anyone else contemplating buying a pedigreed dog needs to recognize that there is NO way a breeder can actually 'guarantee' the puppy you purchase from them won't develop ANY form of a genetic disorder at some point in its life; the number of ailments that can be definitively ruled out in any given litter is limited at present, so a buyer has to go into this KNOWING that it's no different than 'a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get' when it comes to the health of the dog over a lifetime.   Alta-Tollhaus has an excellent reputation, and the breeder there does her due diligence to try and avoid producing puppies that will break somebody's heart one day by being diagnosed with a health concern of genetic origin, but if she produces enough litters over the course of her life, she, too, will likely have a small percentage of pups that are dealt a bad genetic hand in the same manner as Milo and Rocco seem to have gotten.  Just don't go into your search for a companion thinking it can't happen again, or you risk being broken-hearted again through no one's fault but nature's.

[FWIW, I'd MUCH rather have a puppy out of a litter where both parents can eat ANY brand of dog food, no matter how cheap, can sneak mouthfulls of chicken feed or oats meant for horses, roll in grass and hayfields and get bitten by fleas, and still   thrive physically and mentally, not develop any skin issues or digestive problems and the like, than get a pup from a litter where the parents are ONLY fed the most select of raw diets, no grains or fillers or preservatives or by-products, no vaccinations after the initial puppy series save for the mandated rabies.  The latter type of dogs are 'hot house flowers'; I'll take the field strain plants instead, thanks much.]