Visitor Information

When you come for a vi­sit, we ask that you ob­ser­ve a few ru­les to en­su­re the well­be­ing of our pup­pies and that of the breeders.

First of all, the most im­portant rule: plea­se make an ap­point­ment in ad­van­ce by pho­ne or e‑mail for every visit.

Dress code

Plea­se wear fresh clo­thes and clean shoes that you have not worn to a dog park or an­o­ther breeder.

Pup­pies can ea­si­ly get sick and even die from bac­te­ria brought in by you. Plea­se re­frain from ’pup­py tours’ and do not spread germs from one bree­der to the next. 

If you are suf­fe­ring from a cold, it is best to post­po­ne your vi­sit. Not only are the pup­pies at risk of in­fec­tion – but also the bree­ders. And bree­ders who have to stay in bed are no fun for the pup­pies, either 🙂

A hel­pful hint in terms of dress code: Plea­se avo­id items like chains, long ear­rings, cro­che­ted tops, shoes with laces, and other ar­tic­les of clot­hing in which dogs can get caught when jum­ping on you, or can get tan­gled in while che­wing. No need to wear your fine je­wel­ry for us!

If you have long hair, it might be best to pull it back. Pup­pies gnaw at ab­so­lut­e­ly everything.

We are not lia­ble for rui­ned or dir­tied clo­thes, nor ear­rings that have been rip­ped out.

Gifts

Even though your in­ten­ti­ons are good, plea­se do not bring any tre­ats for our dogs or pup­pies. Our dogs are well-fed, and, su­re­ly you will not need a bri­be to get at­ten­ti­on. Our dogs con­sti­tu­te a pack, and wi­thin a pack, food can be cau­se for fight­ing. The­se fights for rank wi­thin the pack may be in­ten­si­fied by the ad­di­ti­on of the new­ly-born pup­pies. It will be ea­sier for ever­yo­ne – us, the dogs, and you – if you ac­cept the si­tua­ti­on as it is. 

Adult dogs do not to­le­ra­te ch­an­ges in food well – and pup­pies even less so. Every day a new tre­at from a new vi­si­tor is a re­ci­pe for di­ges­ti­ve pro­blems, guaranteed.

We also ask that you lea­ve all toys at home. Si­mi­lar to food, a toy can also be a source of com­pe­ti­ti­on with si­mi­lar con­se­quen­ces. Fur­ther­mo­re, to the mo­ther, the squea­king sounds made by most toys is very clo­se to the yelps of her pup­py – and this can only re­sult in stress and confusion. 

Alt­hough some re­com­mend brin­ging a blan­ket to a bree­der in or­der to ab­sorb the scent of the pup­py (or you), we do not ascri­be to this phi­lo­so­phy. Your dog at home will smell whe­re and with whom you were any­way. And this here is not the home of just your pup­py … to put an­o­ther way: we are not a lost and found 🙂

Other animals

Plea­se do not bring your other pets along on a vi­sit – re­gard­less of whe­ther you have dogs, cats, rab­bits, gui­nea pigs, or mice. Ani­mals can have fleas, worms, and ticks. The­se are ge­ne­ral­ly harm­less to the af­fec­ted ani­mals, but the­se pa­ra­si­tes can pose a se­rious th­re­at to puppies. 

Un­der no cir­cum­s­tances are other dogs al­lo­wed when we have pup­pies. No ex­cep­ti­ons will be made to this rule. We will not let you into our house if you in­sist on be­ing ac­com­pa­nied by your pets.

If you are con­cer­ned that the new pup­py is not a good match for your al­re­a­dy exis­ting pet, you can­not get assu­ran­ces one way or the other by brin­ging your pet here. Your dog/pet con­siders your home to be its ter­ri­to­ry and will act com­ple­te­ly dif­fer­ent­ly the­re. A mee­ting bet­ween new and exis­ting pets can be or­chestra­ted in many ways, and we will be hap­py to dis­cuss op­ti­ons with you.

Companions

You are wel­co­me to bring your child­ren or your part­ner along on a visit.

But plea­se bear in mind that our home has only li­mi­t­ed space, and that the pup­pies are still very young and can take only so much sti­mu­lus. That me­ans that we have to li­mit the num­ber of vi­si­tors to a ma­xi­mum of 3 to 4 per­sons per visit.

Space li­mi­ta­ti­ons and the age of the pup­pies are the main re­asons for this rule. But an­o­ther im­portant aspect is that the­se vi­sits are the only op­por­tu­ni­ty for us to ob­ser­ve whe­ther you and the pup­py are a good match. We can make this judgment only if we have a chan­ce to watch you in­ter­act with the pup­py. The more peo­p­le the­re are, the less one-on-one time the­re is for each per­son with the puppy.

Conduct

It is im­portant that you are calm and quiet when vi­si­ting with the pup­pies. The litt­le ones are still very young and ea­si­ly stres­sed or over-sti­mu­la­ted. They need to be slow­ly and gent­ly ac­cus­to­med to our hec­tic li­ves. We make every ef­fort to so­cia­li­ze the pup­pies as much as pos­si­ble – but in a ti­me­frame of only a few weeks it is un­rea­li­stic to ex­po­se them to every circumstance.

We ask that you ex­plain to your child­ren that pup­pies are ex­tre­me­ly vul­nerable, and that they can be hand­led only with the ut­most care and con­side­ra­ti­on. Drop­ping a pup­py may be fa­tal to the puppy!

Sin­ce we are the ones who know our pack best, we ask that you lis­ten and ad­he­re to our instructions.

The ope­ning of dog cra­tes, yard doors, or pup­py runs wi­t­hout ex­pres­sed con­sent is not allowed.

Visiting Hours

Vi­si­ting hours at our home are ge­ne­ral­ly in blocks of ap­pro­xi­m­ate­ly 90 mi­nu­tes per vi­sit. You are wel­co­me to vi­sit 2 to 3 times pri­or to the re­lease of the pup­pies, de­pen­ding upon how of­ten other in­te­res­ted par­ties would like to visit. 

Du­ring your vi­sit, the­re is more than en­ough time to cudd­le with the pup­pies and get to know them. We will also have a chan­ce to ex­ch­an­ge ide­as, and build our re­la­ti­onship with you.

Here is a more de­tail­ed ex­pl­ana­ti­on as to why we have to li­mit the time of the vi­sits: Not only are the pup­pies able to ab­sorb only so much ac­ti­vi­ty, but vi­si­ting ”your” pup­py is ex­tre­me­ly stressful for the mo­ther. Think about it: a per­fect stran­ger is pet­ting, lo­ving on, and car­ry­ing around your off­spring – do­ing all the things that only you would nor­mal­ly do. No mo­ther is go­ing to igno­re this kind of behavior. 

Visits during Week 8

Du­ring the last week pri­or to re­lease, the pup­pies must un­der­go se­ve­ral stressful exams and tests. Ad­di­tio­nal­ly, they are de­wor­med one more time.

We want to make sure that all pre­pa­ra­ti­ons for their move have been com­ple­ted – and want to have the chan­ce to say good-bye to the litt­le cuddlies with whom we have spent so much time.

The­r­e­fo­re, vi­sits du­ring week 8 are not possible.

Other visitors during weaning

The in­te­res­ted par­ties would like to vi­sit with their pup­pies as much as pos­si­ble, and they have prio­ri­ty du­ring wea­ning. Other vi­si­tors are ge­ne­ral­ly not al­lo­wed du­ring this time. 

Be­cau­se this hap­pens from time to time: Vi­sits to ”pet a pup­py” may be well-in­ten­tio­ned, but we and our pup­pies are not a pet­ting zoo 🙂

Con­tents of this ar­tic­le are pro­tec­ted un­der co­py­right law. Any re­pro­duc­tion of con­tent in this ar­tic­le, in part or its en­ti­re­ty, is strict­ly pro­hi­bi­ted. Lin­king is allowed.