Unfortunately, I found this site after I made a deposit on my EM. I didn't do the research I should have to find a reputable breeder. I chose a local breeder who is a backyard breeder. But I wanted to share my experience so other can learn from my mistake.
We saw and add for EM pups, visited the breeder, met the pup’s mother and father. We took a couple days to think about it and made the decision to purchase a puppy. We made a deposit so ensure we got the only fawn she had available. We were told we could pick the puppy up after 8 weeks old which is expected. We visited him each week so he could get used to us, but we kind of felt we be being a bother to the breeder. We discovered things that we should have inquired about before we made a deposit. Like; she had bred this female 4 times in 30 months; she preferred her dogs to be nervous around strangers; and we found out that there were 12 pups in the litter but two died at birth and the mother laid on 4 of them; so only 6 survived. She took the puppies off of their mother at 4.5 weeks, and she only put the mother in with the puppies at night so no one would steal them. We asked her to start Sarge on the food that we wanted him to be on and she said it would be too much of a hassle and started him on Purina Large Breed Puppy chow with the other pups. Then I received a call from the breeder at 6 weeks telling me I could pick the puppy up. I told her I wanted her to keep him with the litter until 8 weeks. She said she could no longer take care of him due to personal reasons. So I went and got him at 6 weeks and 3 days. She still has 3 pups she hasn’t sold, so she has to take care of them anyway. But, we picked him up and started to slowly introduce his new food into the Purina. But, noticed within the first 12 hours that he had runny stools. He seemed to be under the weather a bit. He whined and was very restless as if he was in pain. I thought it was probably anxiety from being away from his litter mates. But to be sure, I got the first vet I appt I could and took him in (since my original 8 week appt was till two weeks away). He lost about a pound in 2 days and it turned out that he has hook worms. The breeder said she wormed them at 2 and 4 weeks. So who kows. He is on meds now and a bland diet. He still has runny stools but is happy, playful, and acting like a puppy.
Although I was not happy about picking him up at 6 weeks, I am glad we got him out of there. I would bet the 3 remaining pups have hook worms. I let the breeder know and she said the remaining pup's stools are fine.
So, I have learned a lesson. I should have done more research and I would have found this site which has provided tons of good information from current owners. I bought from the first breeder I came across and made my decision too quick. As many of you have said on this forum, dig deep to verify you are buying from a good breeder who has the breeds best interest at heart. Not just the all mighty dollar.
All of my previous dogs have been rescues. I just picked him/her out and took them home and out of a bad situation. This is the first time I spent a lot of money on a dog. Ironically, I feel like I just bought and expensive rescue which, in the end, I am glad I did.
