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Puppy Buyer Etiquette - this comes up so often. Please take a moment to read through the information that will answer many of your questions.
Before contacting us, please read this information in its entirety. If you feel you are the right home for a Heeling NRG puppy, please fill out an application or send us an email that includes some of your goals, preferences, and experience with dogs. The application will give you an idea of the information we are looking for; The more information you give, the better start we’re off to.
Australian Shepherd puppies are $3000 and are sold with Limited Registration on a companion/performance contract with a Non-Breeding Agreement. We require an $1000 non-refundable deposit to reserve a spot on our waiting list.
Before breedings take place, the parents of our litters are health tested; OFA Hips, Elbows, CAER Eye Exams with a Canine Ophthalmologist, and a full DNA panel for genetic diseases. Our dogs live in our home, underfoot all the chaos that is normal life. Our puppies are started on Early Neurological Stimulation and raised with Puppy Culture Protocols, promoting the development of outgoing enrichment seeking puppies who are eager to engage with their environment and their people. They have been weaned onto a raw diet and have had first vaccines no earlier than eight weeks of age, providing for the best start towards nutrition and lifelong wellness. They have been microchipped, registered, and come with a comprehensive Puppy Pack including food, toys, articles, etc.
Coming to get a puppy from Heeling NRG is not a made-to-order process. The more information you give with regards to your life and what you want in a puppy, the better we can match you with your perfect dog. We take the time to get to know each family member and the needs of the whole family. We take into consideration your activity level, lifestyle, and experience with this breed. We match each family with the right dog for them in terms of temperament and activity level. We understand that many people have requests based on gender and colour, and while we do take those into consideration, we make final placements based on the puppy's personality and temperament, not coat and/or eye colour. This process is a long one and usually decisions about placements are not made until seven weeks or later, when we are sure we know the puppy inside and out.
We breed to the Breed Standard. For your convenience and information these standards are listed on the breed page. We do not breed for minis, toys, or for colours outside of standard. We place our puppies based on their temperament and appropriate fit for their new owners’ household. We dock tails, and this is done at 24-48 hours old; we will not leave them on a puppy to save a sale as it is impossible to know temperament at that age.
Tremendous care, time, cost, and effort go into the raising of Heeling NRG dogs, and we would be most grateful if requests were not made for “discount” pricing.
Thank you, in advance, for this respect.
The following note came from a friend of a friend, and I feel it sums up things quite nicely:
"Won't you buy me? Not because I will be euthanized, abandoned, abused or given up because I wasn't important enough. Buy me because the wonderful person taking this photo brought me into this world after much thought and careful planning, sat up with me, night after night, to make sure I was warm, fed, and strong.
She played with me, introduced me to countless experiences, people and places. She sang to me, held me, kissed my face and my baby paws. She cried when my baby sister didn't make it in the first days of our lives.
She sat, scowl on her face, interviewing potential buyers, some of which didn't measure up. She will be there for me, for the rest of my life. She has guaranteed my health, and knows the dogs behind me, very well. She knows what those dogs have the potential to produce, both good and bad, and she willingly shares that with anyone who asks. She will cry when I go home with that carefully screened family, and she will think of me often.
Isn't that worth a minimal investment, something to cover her time and the money she spent to bring me into the world, and care for me like none other? A little something to enable her to continue her exceptional care of my parents, and the other adults she keeps as her own? A little token to keep her going, so she can continue to support the breed she loves, with all the care and planning with which she used to bring me into the world? There is no profit for her, though she works for the love of her breed. She is worth your investment...believe me, I know this for sure. Look at how clean I am, how I smile. Look at my bright and healthy eyes, my clean and tidy surroundings. Look at how happy I am, how much I love people, and love to play with my toys...all because of her.
When I leave her, I will hope and pray that my new family has the potential to care for me with the same kind of love and devotion with which she has cared for me over the last 8 weeks. I'm scared, but I trust her. She is a responsible, careful and loving breeder. There are many others like her. She carries a heavy burden, but she carries it because she loves me, and she's devoted to others like me."
The next time you feel like it's a crime to purchase a purebred puppy, think of everything that lead to that life. The care, the planning, the worry, the heart-ache. There are puppies that join this world, and they are worth every penny of the small pittance their breeders ask. It's *NOT* a crime to purchase a puppy...and it's not a crime to sell one. If I charged what I felt my puppies were really worth, no one could afford them. Letting them leave is the hardest thing I do. When we meet, don't bother to ask me to justify what I charge for my puppies. It's the fastest way to find the door, and never again get your hands on my precious, precious babies.”
Author, Leslie Renaud Kuther