AKC Breeder Programs & Services Reviews

Showing is all about money, not really about the best dog. You can hire a well known handler and win. Breeders will "make their own majors". You need majors to be a champion. A major is when your dog beats 3 or 5 other dogs. Breeders will bring 4 or 5 of their own dogs to a show they know will not have any competitors in their breed. They will have their friends show the dogs. Sometimes breeders who are friends with each other will do this.

If you want to check a suspect pedigree, you have to pay the AKC 500.00 to investigate and get the permission of the breeder in question to DNA their dog. Now the AKC has rescues listed on their website, they are including mixed breeds. One has to wonder why? Are registrations and show dollars down? What is an AKC registration worth and what are breeders willing to do? Someone I know reputation was destroyed online because of some AKC breeders who lied. Why do they do this? Money. They want you to believe their champion is better.

Personally, I do not think so because of what I have seen and been subjected to. I mean, when you think about it you have to ask yourself what does the AKC, and "rescues" have in common? They both rely on dogs breeding. So I do not believe you are getting a better dog just because of a registration. I think the biggest show breeders will do whatever they need to to win. My opinions... Take them or leave them. I have a lot of emails and other things to show anybody who will investigate.

This woman is incredibly unstable and I am now concerned for the safety of those puppies. The dogs are kept in a small area in the back side of her home. She had two hidden away in a small crate that was placed inside a large crate and draped with a blanket inside the dog's living area. She only pulled them out when they started making noise and we questioned why there were dogs hidden in there. She claimed the parents were onsite, but I never saw or heard an adult dog. She also pulled a random puppy out from her back room. She claimed to be keeping two of the hidden away puppies, but then told us how she could only have 9 breeding at a time.

I counted 5 litters by the time that visit was over.... Basic math skills tell me she is scheming the system and rules that exist. She is nothing more than a puppy mill claiming to be something else. The puppies were terrified of her. When she would walk over to the dogs, they would cower in a corner on top of each other. This woman should not be allowed to raise puppies. She shouldn't be allowed near any living creature. If someone spends the entire time badmouthing past customers, it's a red flag and you should get the hell out of dodge.

Original Review: Aug. 15, 2019

Purchased a golden retriever from Holly ** in Rock Hill, SC in February 2019. The dog was AKC registered as the offspring of two registered dogs. I discovered through DNA testing that my dog has a genetic eye condition that will lead to blindness. This disease only occurs as a result of mating two dogs who are both carriers of the disease. When the breeder Holly ** subsequently tested the registered parents, it turned out that the registered father does not carry this disease. This means he could not possibly be my dog's father.

Because my testing had also shown that my dog was very heavily inbred on the mother's side, we realized that one of the breeder's other puppies which she had kept from a previous litter had sired at least some of the puppies in our dog's litter. We have had to go to the AKC, where the dogs' registrations will all be in question until every dog is individually DNA tested to establish parentage. Ms. ** does not offer guarantees for genetic conditions, but she does represent the dogs as having specific parents. My dog's condition was specifically caused when negligent breeding practices allowed an unintended dog to mate with his mother. Had the intended dog been the father, my dog could not possibly have inherited this disease.

There had been a written promise of a refund (less our original deposit) and that we could keep the dog. But after five months of stringing us along and slow-walking tests, Holly ** reneged on this, repeatedly threatening to take our dog back in the hope of getting us to relinquish our claim. After multiple tests and five months, the breeder still had not notified the buyers of the other dogs from this litter. We notified them ourselves when Ms ** severed contact with us. At least two of the other owners have since offered to help us fight Holly **, including one offer to assist with legal fees.

Fast forward 4 months. She just posted on her page (not contacting the owners of the situation privately) that the mother of her litter is a Malamute, not a Husky. I now have what she is claiming to be a glamour dog Alusky. I have tried to get compensation for the fact I no longer have a purebred Husky, but a mixed breed. She is claiming it was a mistake and turning the situation into her being the victim because I am reading through all of her lies and so-called mistakes.

I feel since he was under her care, she should have made some responsibility for him. My vet said to take him to a specialist. 02/26/19 the specialist said he had a hairline fracture in the front right leg elbow. The specialist said he could not do anything with it, because it had already healed. I was told by the vet that this injury had to be close to 4 weeks old to have healed. It did not heal in a week from me getting him. It's all good when you're making money. Initially I was interested in Calvin. Monica said he was spoken for. As of this complaint 03/05/19, Calvin is still available. I'm not interested in another dog. I love my little guy & would not give him up for anything.

Also, it shows he is AKC registered. I asked Monica about the paperwork. Monica said I would not get until he is neutered. She had Kaden listed on 3 sites. Not one site stated there would not be paperwork or that he is sold as a pet only. Only after I sent her an email stating the website was not listed that way, did she ad that the the listing of the other puppies. She lists on **. I didn't realize MO is a puppymill state, even though I was told after I purchased him. Monica always seemed to know exactly what to say or not say & made sure when texting, to say minimal or call so there was no proof. I did save the text messages & clipped the ads, though it probably won't do any good.

Deborah did not want any deposit for the puppy. She sent us photos and videos of the two puppies she had available, which were also amongst the pictures she has (and still has) posted on her website. We talked on the phone numerous times before the meeting date and we emailed each other numerous times before the meeting date. We talked on the phone the night before our meeting date. Everything was fine.

On Saturday, my husband and I drove six hours one way (it really took us almost eight because of an accident) to meet and hopefully purchase a puppy. We talked on the phone a few times during the drive. All was fine. When we arrived at Deborah's house, we also met her husband and sister, who seemed to also be part of the business as they were there the entire time.

We played with the male puppy for over an hour as we were asking questions and getting to know both breeder and dog. There had been an issue about a testicle not dropping that we knew about before, so I had a lot of questions. So Deborah said she had good news... that the testicle had dropped... and it was in the middle of those many questions that I had that Deborah finally dropped her pretense and told us that she couldn't do this any longer and she came clean that the dog we had been playing with for an hour was not the dog that we had come to see. That she had sold him the day before, and that this was a different dog. We were stunned.

There were a number of issues here - Deborah did not want a deposit or we would have gladly given one to hold the dog. She could have told us that she had sold the dog when we talked the day before. And prevented us from driving 12 pointless hours. We could have then decided if we wanted to drive down to see the other female dog that she said she had available. She could have told us the truth upon arrival! But no, she and her husband and sister lied and continued to try to pass off the new dog as the dog that we thought we were seeing... for an hour!!!

What would have happened when I compared the photos and videos I had??? The coloring was completely different but not something one would normally note until close scrutiny. How could three ADULTS lie??? When she finally came clean we were flabbergasted and didn't know what to do. Obviously this breeder was unethical? What else would she be lying about??? It was a very tense next hour, believe me. We had already made plans and arrangements for our new puppy; we desperately wanted a new puppy. So many conflicting feelings here.

We had spent two hours with the puppy; everything seemed fine and healthy with him. And I felt so betrayed and thought of us as rescuing a puppy from such an unethical and who knows what else home even though I was so afraid. What would our vet find if she lied about the puppy to begin with? We did bring the puppy home and everything has worked out so happily for the rescue of all of us. But it still bothers me that a breeder who has kudos from AKC was so unethical. She is posting and drawing in buyers by advertising dogs that she either no longer has or has no plans to sell. And lying to customers by trying to make us believe we have a dog then we really don't.

I wanted to write this review as weeks later, this is still gnawing at me. And I did not want anyone else to be unaware. I still cannot believe that a business and a human and a so called lover of dogs would stoop to these levels. Still so upsetting AND WRONG!!!

His number belongs to a Kimberly **. He told me his name is Nathan **. I believe he was lying to me. This whole experience was strange. I didn't show up to meet him in Tennessee because it's a very long drive for me and I felt like after speaking to him on the phone, he's a puppy mill breeder. I personally don't want a sick puppy who may end up dying on me days after buying him and taking him home to my family. I also couldn't afford expensive vet bills to try to get him better IF he was sick or he wasn't up-to-date on his shots or IF he was sick, I would have to get the puppy antibiotics.

His number belongs to a Kimberly Arnold. He told me his name is Nathan archer. I believe he was lying to me. This whole experience was strange. I didn't show up to meet him in Tennessee because it's a very long drive for me and I felt like after speaking to him on the phone, he's a puppy mill breeder. I personally don't want a sick puppy who may end up dying on me days after buying him and taking him home to my family. I also couldn't afford expensive vet bills to try to get him better IF he was sick or he wasn't up-to-date on his shots or IF he was sick, I would have to get the puppy **.

I've asked him multiple times if we could meet at his veterinarian's office, he kept telling me no, that him and his wife don't do that. If he had nothing to hide and if his puppies were really healthy like he says they are a check wouldn't have been a problem. Right? Please don't buy any puppy from him. Beware of breeders like him. All they care about is money, not the puppy or the buyer.

Anyway, at 2 1/2 years old he was put down because he stopped eating, and lost so much weight, he has no energy etc. His intestines had been twisted, and there was nothing they could do. The breeder had blocked me after I told them about his problems and bad knees. When I posted on their Facebook page about him having to be put down they didn't even respond. I easily spent $10,000 on trying to save him, that does not include the $2500 I spent to purchase the puppy. They didn't care at all. Didn't even say they were sorry.

This lack of interest in his animal's health before breeding them seemingly appears to have the markings of a puppy mill so should be reported as such. My pup's diagnosis is proof they are dogs being sold that are sickly as I have a cardiologist who will attest this disease was directly given to him through the parents of the pet. As he claims his dogs are healthy on a his kennel's web page when asked for any vet records or lack of them he is unable to provide them.

Our Beloved ACE is sick and will pass away soon because he claimed he could breed dogs with this disease. Many Dobermans were sold from the same parents, so many will die before their time. As he will continue to breed Dobermans and other breeds without with genetic diseases and people will continue to lose their pets to this horrid disease he should not be allowed to continue. As I can not make the owner humane or force him to take more interest in the health of the animals that he breeds just for money but I and others can surely can try and protect those animals from being bred and buyers from getting ripped off because his dogs are not healthy at time of purchase.

I had been reading ACD pedigrees for a long time while studying the breed (I have owned and loved six ACD rescues) so when I started looking for a dog I was already familiar with Lakota Cattle Dogs. They had a breeding dog descended from a line I had been following. They were also an AKC “breeder of merit,” and everything seemed on the up and up with their breeding program. Not a high-volume breeder. Definitely not a puppy mill. The owner seems to really love her dogs. I corresponded with her for a long while before signing the contract for a puppy. Had a good feeling about her. Had stars in my eyes. But I should have seen the red flags and backed off.

First red flag was the “blue” puppy I was buying was declared to be red after I agreed to purchase him (Cattle Dogs are born white). I think he was the last dog available in the litter, and I was already emotionally attached, so I said “no problem,” and let it go. But in retrospect that seems like a dodgy switcheroo, you know? Second red flag was the breeder said (after I had agreed to buy the dog) that the puppy was a loner and none of the other puppies would play with him (this speaks to an inherent lack of sociability, and that has been a huge, life-long problem for my dog). Third was when she shipped the pup to me (I know... I would never ship a dog normally, but as I said I was in a period of grief and making poor decisions) he ended up sitting in his crate during a long layover, and was almost perishing with hunger when I picked him up. Really cruel, and irresponsible. I trusted her to arrange the shipping. I should not have done so.

The biggest red flag came later — too late to do anything about it. My ACD puppy was shy and reactive. A shy Cattle Dog? Unusual. I thought maybe he was traumatized by the shipping experience. I thought could bring him out of his shell with training and love, but he grew into a dangerously reactive dog, even with methodical exposure to the outside world, puppy classes, private training, and my decades of experience raising and handling rescue dogs (who often come with a background of trauma).

When I contacted the breeder about this — the dog was an aggressive adolescent at this time — she did offer to take him back and rehome him. But she also mentioned in passing that the dog’s mother was extremely shy. She blamed this dog’s temperament on the person who had bred her, and owned her for a few years, without doing proper socialization. But shyness is a heritable trait! It is also a trait that is neither wanted not acceptable in any working dog. The breed standard for ACDs calls for a confident willfulness and attitude.

Even a certain pugnaciousness. So this breeder purchased a pretty breeding ** with good conformation and acceptable physical condition (eyes, hips), and bred her (several times so far, and continuing), even though she had a shy temperament? Totally irresponsible. And she continues to linebreed the offspring? And she never bothered to mention the mother’s temperament problem to me before I bought my puppy? I had grilled her on the background and temperaments of the breeding pair. Irresponsible, and dishonest.

As for my dog’s other genetics, he was diagnosed with a mild heart murmur (heritable) years ago. I told the breeder about this, but she shrugged it off and said something about doing the best she could to assess a puppy's health before selling it. Now that my dog is in mid-life, his hip is going. He is quite lame on one back leg, even though his parents supposedly have clear hips and his hips were given a (preliminary) pass. As for confirmation, he is about 30 percent larger than the AKC standard for Cattle Dogs. He is absolutely massive, with a heavy skeletal frame. He has never been able to jump well, and has always needed a boost to get into the car. This, in a breed meant to jump up onto the backs of steers, into trucks, over fences? He has not been able to jump well since puppyhood, which is indicative of both weak hips and his too-beefy size.

Don’t think that I love my dog any less for his imperfection (although the reactivity issue has been a nightmare). I mention all this because, primarily, the breeder continues to breed this line — and breed too closely. My second motivation is to warn buyers about a worrisome lack of transparency at Lakota Cattle Dogs. I recommend that people look elsewhere for a Cattle Dog. Preferably a shelter or rescue group. Look for a ranch dog, bred to work. Not a show dog. The AKC is ruining Australian Cattle Dogs, as are the bad breeders the AKC rewards.

Now he is carried between door and crate so he has no opportunity to go to the bathroom along the way. Now he just goes in his crate. Bichons are supposed to come smart. Even the dumbest animals don’t crap where they eat and sleep. Reminder, breeder said he was house trained, those words sealed the deal for me. When he is outside with the kids he is great. Kids love playing with him. He is playful and fun to watch. However, all joy is sucked out when you have to clean up crap and/or pee AGAIN. It has been two months now. I emailed the breeder 4 days ago asking for a refund because the dog was obviously not really house trained. I have heard nothing but the sound of crickets in reply. Goes to show you, people will say anything to make a sale. I wanted to leave a review on AKC Marketplace where I found JoJo’s Bichons, but that function isn’t available. Too bad, might weed out the less than scrupulous.

We kept trying to wait and see as Gloria told us- hoping but knowing it would be very rare for him to be ok. Finally, we had to have our dog neutered and this is a more extensive type of surgery, but did not want the cancer risk. This breeder has not backed up the health guarantee. We love our little dog, but want to warn others about this breeder. One would think AKC would be concerned about breeders on their site.

He is the epitome of HAPPY and SMILE all wrapped up in one furball! It just makes our hearts glow looking at him. Loves getting pictures of our pup and can talk with her like we've been friends forever. She is an outstanding Breeder! Had trouble with our AKC papers and she was on top of making that right asap. Would highly HIGHLY recommend her!!! And we'll be getting more babies from her in the future as long as she's in business no matter where we are!