No health guarantee on white puppy?

StellaBee · #1 10-12-2009, 08:37 PM

Just reviewing a contract from a breeder that says the 12 month health guarantee (replace, refund, etc. if health issues arise) does not apply to white puppies. My husband is set on getting a white puppy. The breeder took the puppy to the vet this morning and he's got a clean bill of health.

Is this sort of provision common? If both parents have been health-tested in accordance with the AKC recommendation, should I be worried? Thank you!

djheitz · #2 10-12-2009, 09:17 PM

The only health issue that has a higher occurance in white boxers is deafness, which should be apparent by the time you would be making arrangements to bring the pup home. Did they say why they don't offer the same guarantee on the white pups as they do on the others?

StellaBee · #3 10-12-2009, 09:20 PM

I've sent the e-mail and asked the question to the breeder - waiting for a response now, but wanted to float it by the experts here at BW! Puppy was screened for deafness today and the vet said he's all clear!

kayboxer · #4 10-12-2009, 09:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StellaBee

I've sent the e-mail and asked the question to the breeder - waiting for a response now, but wanted to float it by the experts here at BW! Puppy was screened for deafness today and the vet said he's all clear!

If it has an all clear on deafness, I see no reason why it should not have the same guarantee as the rest. I'm interested to hear what their reason for this is.

ehayes21 · #5 10-13-2009, 05:30 AM

Big red flag...there shouldn't be a different health guarantee between the colored pups and the white pups. And 12 months??? That's not a great health guarantee to begin with.

What I would be more concerned with is if the parents have been health tested. Have you have been given copies of their holter, echo, thyriod and hip results?

**gmacleod** · #6 10-13-2009, 05:42 AM

I don't think that is common, no. I could see a certain validity in limiting the replacement of a white puppy with another white puppy (on the basis that the breeder should not be charging more than the cost of veterinary care for the white puppy, so it's perhaps not reasonable to expect that - should the worst happen - it would be replaced with a coloured pup for which the breeder could charge substantially more money). But foregoing a health guarantee completely? Not reasonable at all.

As above, a one year guarantee is hardly worth having anyway. There may be a few things that can happen to the pup in his first year of life, but the majority of the serious health issues that the breeder should be screening their breeding stock for, and attempting to eliminate, are far more likely to show up when the dog is several years old. A decent guarantee should run 3-5 years.

Guarantees aren't really worth all that much in practice though. If your dog drops dead from cardiomyopathy at age 4, or (better) is diagnosed before dropping dead but needs expensive treatment, a replacement dog doesn't really do you much good. The more important value of a guarantee is to know whether the breeder is prepared to financially stand behind what they produce, and whether they have sufficient confidence in their breeding practices to do so

It doesn't sound as though it is the case here.

Most important right now is finding out what the results of the screening tests on the parents of this litter were. If there aren't any, I wouldn't worry about the guarantee - just find a better breeder in the first place.

StellaBee · #7 10-13-2009, 06:58 AM

I haven't received a response from the breeder yet, but thank you for all the good info! The puppy's parents are health tested and the breeder is sending that info too because I wanted to be certain they were tested for all of the recommended genetic problems. I suspect the guarantee does have more to do with the replacement issue than any other. The parents are show dogs and the white puppy costs significantly less than his brothers and sisters. And I suppose there's no guarantee they could produce another white one?

All that said, if something did go wrong, I wouldn't want a replacement, I'd pay whatever ridiculous vet bills I had to - and that's the point. Just want to make sure he's healthy before I bring him home and make him part of the family. Will update and let you all know what the breeder says - thanks again!

djheitz · #8 10-13-2009, 09:19 AM

After I shut down the computer last night, I had one other thought. The only difference in contract that would make sense for a white pup would be a spay/neuter or no breeding clause. Other than that...as gmacleod said, possibly a difference due to price of the pup would be logical.

StellaBee · #9 10-13-2009, 08:59 PM

Just got off the phone with the breeder. In fact, the provision does have to do with the color of the dog and not any health concerns she has. The registered "colored" puppies would be replaced within the first year whereas the white puppies would be refunded in full. Also, an agreement to spay/neuter white puppies and absolutely no breeding.

All that said, the breeder stands by the testing performed (same as recommended on AKC site) on the parents and her own experience. She also said that if the puppy ever did develop any genetic disorders, that she would want to know immediately so she could: a) stop breeding those dogs and notify other owners; and b) rectify the situation for us (refund the cost of the dog, help with vet bills, etc.) She said there's no time limit on that guarantee. Of course I'll make sure these represenations make it into the contract before we agree.