Hi everyone. I found many recommendations for this breeder from this forums, so I decided to give them a check out and had a few follow-up questions that I was hoping some Alta-Tollhaus people would be willing to answer for me.
1) We are about 3 (possibly more) years away from actually purchasing, so I don't know if it's "okay", so to speak, to actually email the breeder when we're so far away from actually being in a position to bring pup home. Is that ever done? Would it be weird if I were to message the breeder with a few questions about her lines? This will not be our first German Shepherd, but we are trying to avoid a repeat of our last one. Long story short is we went with American showlines from a breeder who was enthusiastically recommended to us by show friends and the dog was a nervous wreck who passed away two years ago from bloat at 7 years old. We are trying to avoid this happening again, so we had specific questions about bloat incidences, temperaments, etc that we want to ask, but from what I gather from here Julie is very, very busy. I don't want to be a bother, so I'm hoping you folks can let me know if it's appropriate for me to email her so far out from when we are looking to actually bring pup home.
2) We want an active family pet that we can do obedience, rally, agility, and possible SV showing and Schutzhund. We also would like to show in the Altered classes at UKC. From what we can gather on her blog and on these forums, we should have no difficulty finding what we want from her, even if it means waiting, judging based on the health testing we have seen and the versatility of her dogs. Can Alta-Tollhaus folk confirm what we have found? We do not intend to be heavily competitive, mind you - we do these activities for fun only, so if the dog has no drive for them then that won't be a disappointment. At the baseline, what we need to is a natural family protector who is a visual deterrent for malicious-minded folks.
3) I have noticed that the majority of info I am finding on folks who own Alta-Tollhaus dogs is that they raw feed. We will not agree to do this for reasons that are neither here nor there, but what I am wondering is if it is required to raw feed. We cannot find anywhere on her site or her blog a copy of the contract, so I'm unsure if it's just a recommendation that the folks we have seen have taken or if it is an actual requirement. This would not be the first time I have seen that (a Newfoundland breeder near me requires his puppy people to raw feed, for instance) but I can't find any confirmation anywhere, so it would be nice to know before we go any further with this breeder if we should stop while we're ahead!
Thank you kindly for responses ahead of time. This forum has been a great resource for us!
1) We are about 3 (possibly more) years away from actually purchasing, so I don't know if it's "okay", so to speak, to actually email the breeder when we're so far away from actually being in a position to bring pup home. Is that ever done? Would it be weird if I were to message the breeder with a few questions about her lines? This will not be our first German Shepherd, but we are trying to avoid a repeat of our last one. Long story short is we went with American showlines from a breeder who was enthusiastically recommended to us by show friends and the dog was a nervous wreck who passed away two years ago from bloat at 7 years old. We are trying to avoid this happening again, so we had specific questions about bloat incidences, temperaments, etc that we want to ask, but from what I gather from here Julie is very, very busy. I don't want to be a bother, so I'm hoping you folks can let me know if it's appropriate for me to email her so far out from when we are looking to actually bring pup home.
2) We want an active family pet that we can do obedience, rally, agility, and possible SV showing and Schutzhund. We also would like to show in the Altered classes at UKC. From what we can gather on her blog and on these forums, we should have no difficulty finding what we want from her, even if it means waiting, judging based on the health testing we have seen and the versatility of her dogs. Can Alta-Tollhaus folk confirm what we have found? We do not intend to be heavily competitive, mind you - we do these activities for fun only, so if the dog has no drive for them then that won't be a disappointment. At the baseline, what we need to is a natural family protector who is a visual deterrent for malicious-minded folks.
3) I have noticed that the majority of info I am finding on folks who own Alta-Tollhaus dogs is that they raw feed. We will not agree to do this for reasons that are neither here nor there, but what I am wondering is if it is required to raw feed. We cannot find anywhere on her site or her blog a copy of the contract, so I'm unsure if it's just a recommendation that the folks we have seen have taken or if it is an actual requirement. This would not be the first time I have seen that (a Newfoundland breeder near me requires his puppy people to raw feed, for instance) but I can't find any confirmation anywhere, so it would be nice to know before we go any further with this breeder if we should stop while we're ahead!
Thank you kindly for responses ahead of time. This forum has been a great resource for us!