Puppies must be a minimum of 8 weeks before leaving us. Not only is this a personal breeder choice, but in the State of Nebraska, it's the law! We reserved the right to hold them as long as needed. Many cases the puppies are not chosen until 8 weeks of age after evaluations and are placed after that accordingly.

We do not guarantee that a puppy will be ready by 8 weeks, but that is our general goal. Our puppies must be fully weaned and socially, physically and mentally ready to leave here before they do. It is not a matter of a time line, but any good breeder will use their descretion before letting a puppy leave.

Puppies need to understand consequence/reward before they can fully grasp the concept of housebreaking, as well as physically being able to control bladder and bowel movements. They also need to have constant routine, which they do here, but when they arrive at your home, it will be another new routine. An 8 week old puppy is just starting to learn the consequences of his or her actions,  from us, their mother/father and their playmates.

If you are placing expectations on your puppy arriving housebroken or to have it done by a certain time, you may be disappointed.

We are here to help you find the best method to fit your lifestyle, but saying that, we cannot expect a puppy to fit conveniently into our lifestyle. Just like a newborn baby, they take time to fit into a routine, learn your expectations, and their new surroundings.

We recommend crate training. You can read more about this method on our Resources page.

If your lifestyle does not accommodate letting a puppy out every 4-5 hours, then we can help you find another method that will be suitable. The crate training method does mean that the puppy must be let out during the night.

We are also the proud parents of 2 wonderful children. They are and will be very active in your puppy's upbringing here. We also socialize your puppy with other adult dogs and if we have another litter of puppies at the same time, we socialize them together. We are also very active with our puppies to give them a well rounded socialization schedule.

We do not, however, begin socialization with cats. Since we live in a rural area, our cats are allowed to travel and we do not want to allow them near our puppies, as a puppy isn't considered completely vaccinated until they receive his or her 12 or even 16 week (to include rabies) vaccinations.

Sure! We love visitors and the chance to show off our dogs and puppies. However, we do have simple guidelines that must be met to insure the safety and health of our puppies and to be able to dedicate our time to helping you choose the right puppy and answer all of your questions.

1. Please make an appointment. Even though we are here most of the time, this is also our home; and a home with 2 very busy children and dogs. We try to be flexible with our scheduling, but do require appointments.
2. We ask that you do not visit other kennels before coming to our home or to visit our dogs, and please extend this courtesy to other breeders as well. Diseases can travel easily and it could be devastating. Before we bring in an outside dog or puppy, they must be quaratined for a minimum of 30 days to ensure that they will not pass anything on to our dogs or puppies. We can't quarantine visitors, but using common sence in this matter is a must.
3. Please don't be offended if we ask you to wash your hands or remove your shoes, just a safety precaution.

Once we set an appointment for your consultation, we hold that time just for you! I try to limit any outside interruptions to offer you any advice, training, etc that you'll need with your new terrier.

You'll be able to meet the parents, the litter or puppies that are still here from that litter, and if we have any previous puppies that we have kept back for our program, you'll be able to meet them too and watch their interaction with the puppies.

Due to safety for our dogs and puppies, liability, and to maintain proper health conditions to reduce our risk to outside illnesses, we handle all appointments in our home or office. We will be happy to answer any questions, provide referrences to help you make the decision that we are the right breeders for you. We have many resources available  to help you make the best decision as well as answer any questions.

Let me first say, that it is extremely important that you fully understand what you are asking. I know there are many websites that say to ask this and that, but unless you fully understand the disease, the condition, how it is tested for and why, then asking a breeder will do you no good.

Saying that, we do screen for genetic conditions and diseases that DNA tests are offered for. We will be happy to provide results upon your request. We do list our dogs with the OFA for their genetic disease testing that we have done here.

Hips, elbows, CMO, or any test that involves xrays to be submitted to the OFA are NOT DNA tests. They are xrays to show the current status of the parent and are evaluated on a scale. They will tell if the parent has a condition. However, there is no guarantee if a parent ranks 'excellent' with this type of test that your puppy will not be affected by a condition or vice versa. It is comparable to say, that if we have a bad knee and our spouse has a bad elbow, that our children will be affected with those conditions. There are also variables to consider, like injuries and repetitive use that may play a factor with the current ranking.

With DNA tests, we can guarantee that a puppy will not have that condition or disease, because we were able to screen the actual DNA of the parent for that condition. Unfortunately, there is only limited testing available for diseases, but many are being developed and will be offered as soon as they appear as an effective method of testing.

DNA based genetic tests are not available for hips, elbows, CMO, and other structural related diseases. However, they are available for a wide variety of other diseases like vWD, GCL, PKD and many more depending on your breed. You can contact the OFA at www.offa.org to read what diseases may affect your breed and what is available for testing.

Simply having a breeder tell you that a dog saw a vet before breeding, only says that the dog was examined for basic health.

Unlike purchasing your puppy at a pet store, we know our breeds and how to help you. If we don't have the answer, we will either find it for you or point you in the right direction.  

You may have to wait for a puppy, but remember that you'll be making a commitment for 15  years with this puppy, wouldn't it be worth it to have someone to ask for advice?

We have several methods that we do, but the one we use most to determine the main personality traits of a puppy is the Campbell Behavioral Tests. It is a 5 step test that helps us determine what personality describes a puppy. Even though we observe the entire litter together all the time, a puppy can be much different when it doesn't have the safety and security of the litter to back up his or her every move.

A puppy begins his or her socialization period approximately at 21 days.

We require a $100 deposit to reserve a puppy once a litter is born or one is chosen. Balance must be paid upon pick up or delivery.  We do accept in-state checks with drivers license and birthdate, cash, or paypal.

Currently, due to the unreliability of the airlines, we are not offering air travel at this time. If we are able to make arrangements with PetAirways, we would consider that an option.

We can also make arrangements to meet you at the airport if you would like to fly in to Sioux Falls, Sioux City, or Omaha.

We also will meet families in Omaha, O'Neill, Sioux City, or Lincoln as well for a small charge.

We do have certain areas that we are not able or will not place puppies into.  

We do not place puppies in foreign countries and states that require governmental quarantines.  Unless the quarantine can be done in your home upon arrival, we will not be able to place a puppy. We do not want to take any additional risks.  Puppy must be at least 6 months of age, this is our personal requirement, and will require additional costs and paperwork-sometimes more than doubling the cost of the puppy. We will rarely place a puppy ouside of the US, except for Canada, and handle this request on a case by case basis.

If the puppy needs to be flown to your location, we highly recommend and prefer Northwest Airlines VIP Service. There are airlines that we will not use based on experience and availability, so keep Northwest Airlines in mind when choosing the airport you'd like to use.

Sure! First we'll offer you our vet referrence, as you can verify you are talking to an actual vet clinic. Secondly, we can offer you our client referrences and fellow breeder/handler referrences.

Just ask us and we'll be happy to give you our list!

In order to keep your guarantee active for the full year, you must complete your vet's requirements for vaccinations. Depending on your vet's opinion and local and state requirements, this will be 12-16 weeks of age.

It is best for your puppy to see the vet shortly after arrival, especially if the puppy is being flown.

Anytime any puppy appears not to be thriving or at it's best, please do not hesitate to call your vet. A breeder can only be responsible for so much with the care of a puppy and once a puppy arrives, it is your responsibility to see that he or she is taken care of. Please call us immediately if it appears that something is wrong, that is why we have our health guarantee.  We do not cover accidents or neglect, so it is important that if your puppy does need to see a vet, that they do so.

We register our puppies with the AKC.

All dogs, unless arranged prior to taking deposit, will be sold on limited registration, to be spayed or neutered. We only place a limited number of puppies with full registration status every year.

No. We have made the personal choice to only place our puppies privately as it fits our lifestyle and goals that we hope to achieve in our terrier program.

Currently, we are not required to be licensed due to our small number of silky terriers.  We have been licensed in the with the State of Nebraska. The AKC also does routine inspections, and we are fully compliant with their rules, regulations and inspections.

Since we place our puppies privately, we are not required to have a USDA license at this time. But the most important inspection, is how we feel about the care of our puppies and that we wouldn't want to disappoint anyone here to visit or purchase their puppy.

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