Explanation of a Health Guarantee

So what is a health guarantee and what should I expect when purchasing a puppy?

The first guarantee that a breeder should offer, is an initial money back guarantee for any defects. This protects the buyer by allowing time to visit your veterinarian and ensure the health of the puppy that you purchased. For any health defects found, the breeder agrees to offer your money back or a replacement puppy if one is available. These guarantees are usually for a 3-5 day period, proving that upon receiving the puppy it was also free of communicable disease. Due to the gestation period of parvo and other communicable diseases, we require that our Cairn puppies be checked within 3 days of receiving them.

A puppy's health can change from week to week for the first several months of life, and thereafter. Some defects such as lion jaw or luxated patellas may not be apparent until several months of age. Although ethical breeders attempt to breed healthy puppies, they can not guarantee against all possibilities. Therefore, a breeder should offer an extended health guarantee such as a 1-2yr guarantee for genetic and hereditary defects. This does not usually cover bites, hernias, or cosmetic defects for pet puppies (although you should notify your breeder if any of these occur so they can track them). Some breeders require that the puppy be returned upon diagnosis, and will replace the puppy or dog with a healthy puppy. Some breeders may offer partial refunds and allow you to keep your puppy or dog. These health guarantees can be difficult to put into writing and sometimes they are vague and cause problems when interpretted differently. It's easy for a disappointed buyer to penalize a breeder if their puppy develops an overbite or underbite, which usually doesn't effect the dog's daily life. It was a situation with a friend that proved to me that I would not offer partial refunds. The buyer felt that their puppy wasn't worth the value paid because they expected to purchase a perfect puppy, and after several months of age the puppy developed an overbite. He refused to return his pet of course, but demanded a partial refund. It was this situation that guided our policy of no refunds. We do not believe a 'defective' dog or puppy should be uprooted from it's home and be returned to a breeder who will only have to find it another home. We will instead, offer a replacement puppy for documented life threatening hereditary or congenital defects. Because diagnosis can also have such a gray area, we made our contract black and white and not open to interpretation by requiring that the animal die before 2 years of age. Our veterinarian guided us with the statement that most all serious genetic or congenital defects will cause death of the animal by this age. This is not to say that I couldn't be more lenient and compassionate to a family that I've grown to know through the adoption of one of our puppies. If a puppy died at 2 1/2 or 3yrs of age, I'm going to replace the puppy! But I didn't want placed in the situation if a dog that had a heart murmur and still lived to 10yrs of age, that the family expect it to be replaced.