How to shop for a kuvasz from a breeder in North America
Hello Everyone,
I just came across this thread and message board because I have a Google search stored for “kuvaszâ€.
I’m Gail Dash of
Casablanca Kuvasz in Southern California and I’m very pleased to see an in depth discussion on shopping for breeders after you have decided on the breed.
We bought our first companion kuvasz in 1986 and I got a CD on Ilsa (not yet knowing that the kuvasz is NOT an obedience breed!) our second puppy in 1991 was a breeder rehome that we had permission to show and breed assuming he got all his health clearances. And our third was born in 1996 and with good luck she also became a Champion and got all her health clearances. By that time we had studied the breed and other breeders enough to know there was something about each of the breeders in the US we didn’t like (either the dogs they produced or their business practices) that we would just have to do it ourselves if we wanted it done to our satisfaction. So in 1998 our first litter was born and we have produced a litter about every year since.
At heart I still feel like a first time puppy buyer who is going to make a bad choice and be stuck with a sick dog I’ll fall in love with or a bad business deal I was stupid to agree to, so Neil and I have done everything we can to take those fears out of the puppy buying experience at Casablanca.
I hope to share a little “inside information†to help you ask better questions when shopping for your kuvasz puppy.
The advice is probably good for every breed, but my only experience is kuvasz.
Your shopping/research goal is twofold
1. Find a breeder you are comfortable with.
2. Find a breeder who produces the puppy to your standards of type and quality.
The very first rule is take your time to do all the research you want to do. If you feel rushed, this is not the breeder for you.
The internet is a great place to start your research. For descriptions of the breed, stick to the clubs for that breed rather than general information sites (like Wikipedia). Foreign club sites are great for looking at photos even if you can’t understand any of the text.
The Hungarian Kuvasz Club doesn’t have the greatest site, but the kuvasz clubs in Sweden, Finland, and The Netherlands are very good. Those dogs are just about as close to what we call “correct type†as you can get.
The first tangent I have to go off on is “correct typeâ€. This normally refers to the standard of the breed’s native country. However the AKC Kuvasz Standard was written to match the dogs being bred in this country by the people who wrote the standard in the 1970's. So a dog of “correct type†per the AKC Standard could very well be disqualified from the show ring in Hungary as not being a kuvasz (smaller size, straight coat, round forehead [pronounced stop], prancing movement due to angulation).
It would be better when shopping for a kuvasz in Canada or the US to ask if it is “Hungarian type†or “American type†since “correct†depends on your politics!
Kennel websites on the internet should be viewed as advertisements for those kennels. Professional photos, even show photos are probably photoshoped. Look for candid photos to get a better idea of what dogs from that kennel really look like. Look for photos where you can compare the size of dogs. All information on kennel sites should be seen as brags, hype, or even outright lies.
If websites make claims like “top producingâ€, hold the breeder to that claim by asking for examples to see that they also have more dogs in the
OFA database than any other kennel. Phrases like “finished in one weekend†probably means the competition was all from the same breeder, what is called a “kennel championâ€. If a show is close enough, a breeder will drag enough of their dogs to the show so the best one can get all the points to finish their championship. Ask what dogs made up the competition if they brag a dog finished very quickly.
Another frequently used phrase is something like “top 10 ranking with limited showingâ€. Ask why exactly the dog wasn’t shown that often. More than likely it’s a puppy the breeder got back from a buyer who couldn’t deal with it for whatever reason. Prior to finding it a new home, the breeder showed it a few times.
The past 4 years has been a real anomaly with Tanner winning so much. It doesn’t take many wins at all to be highly ranked AFTER Tanner’s #1 These are called
The Delaney System Stats. This table shows every kuvasz that won a Best of Breed in 2011. Notice how few BOBs it took to be in the top 10!
Get your hands on some dogs as soon as you can. Find out what shows near you will have “an entryâ€. An email to the Secretary of the AKC Parent Club will help get you pointed in the right direction. Joining all the open Facebook pages as well as Google and yahoo groups will also help you learn where you can meet dogs and what owners of companion kuvasz find is important.
The
OFA site is going to become your frequently used research tool, not only to research dogs and pedigrees, but to verify what a breeder is telling you. If you aren’t familiar with using it, get in there and play. You can use my dogs, I don’t mind. Put this dog in the search box, he’ll give you a variety of ancestors and offspring: CASABLANCA'S CAPT. LOUIS RENAULT. Look at the vertical pedigrees too.
This is where you can verify the claims of “top producerâ€. Statistically the “top producer†should have pages and pages of dogs with health tests in the open database. Let’s not talk clearances now, let’s just talk about that tests were performed and the results available to the public in the open database.
The sire and dam of the puppy you are considering should have tests for hips, elbows, thyroid, patellas, and
prcd-PRA in the open database in OFA. 3 generations back should also be in there. If you don’t find them, the breeder should be able to explain why.
The only honest answer is either the dog wasn’t tested or the dog was tested and the result was abnormal and the breeder chose not to release it to the open database. Any other answers are BS. A typical one is “Oh, I’ve never seen that in my linesâ€. Of course if you don’t test you wouldn’t see it!
You might also come across breeders who say things like “hip dysplasia is nutritional and environmental, x-rays don’t prove anythingâ€. X-rays are the best diagnostic tool we have until a genetic test is invented. A radiologist at OFA may give a questionable hip a better rating than it deserves, but if a hip already shows signs of arthritic changes, that is not going to improve by nutrition or environment.
I’ve covered type and health, now to the business part of the purchase. Some breeders write contracts some don’t. You want an agreement in writing that protects you as much as it protects the breeder. If it reads like you are the only one who has to do stuff and the breeder doesn’t have to do anything other than hand over the puppy, that’s not a contract. Don’t sign it, tell the breeder to rewrite the agreement so it is fair to both sides.
It's fine to say, "I need to have my lawyer go over this before I sign it". For some reason people think I might be good at mediating business issues between them and their breeder. They send me the contracts they signed and THEN ask "Can she do this?" Uh, it's rather late to question the contract you signed! The time to question it is BEFORE you sign anything. There will be other puppies, other breeders.
Even if you can't find anyone you are happy with in North America, you can get a very nice puppy from Europe. Most of the Kennel Clubs will not issue an "export pedigree" unless the sire and dam have been rated "recommended for breeding" by their Club's "breeders committee". I'm sure there are plenty of politics played in the European Clubs too, but at least you'll get puppies from dogs that Club Officials have evaluated. It's much better than our system where anyone has the right to breed any quality dog they want and as long as both parents are AKC the puppies are AKC.
You also need to be realistic. If you can’t keep the dog and the breeder agrees to take it back, you can NOT expect the breeder to buy it back from you OR pay the shipping. Same with a sick puppy. Let’s say the puppy is diagnosed with some condition that can be fixed with surgery. Your contract guarantees you a replacement puppy. But you want to keep the puppy and have the breeder pay for the surgery. Legally it doesn’t work that way. Depending on what state you live in, the breeder won’t be responsible for more than the price of the puppy, even if you wanted to send the sick puppy back, you would still have to pay the transportation.
I hope I’m not boring you to tears. Let me just close by asking you to keep this in mind when you are shopping. Kuvasz breeders (and maybe all breeders?) are really sensitive to criticism about their dogs.
Yes we’re selling a “productâ€, but most of us really feel like we’re adopting out our “children†to deserving families and those families are just helping pay our expenses for getting the puppy to 10 weeks old. When you shop and see dogs you don’t like (and you WILL see some ugly kuvasz!) you would be smart to use your best ugly baby comments such as “Now that’s a puppy!†so you don’t offend the breeder. The breeder will be more helpful and willing to teach you more stuff if your don't insult her dogs.
Questioning te price in an accusatory way is a bad idea as well. It would be OK to say, “What goes into the cost?†rather than “Why is your price two hundred dollars higher than so and so.
I’ll be around if you want to tell me my advice sucks or ask me more questions <g>
Gail