OMG What bad people we must be! Protecting our bloodlines and the health
& welfare of the puppies that we produce, and that they produce. Damn, why would anyone want to work with
people like that ?!?!?!
We have heard many times that people think our contracts are
too strict. That is their choice. I have seen contracts much stricter, or that
did not cover the puppy buyer if a show dog didn’t turn out, so we have tried
to be very fair, and will work with people.
Recently, we heard that a breeder in Florida has been
telling people that if they get a dog from us they had better hide them away so
that we don’t come and take them. My
first reaction was “WTF?!?!?!” Then I
thought for a minute, and the person that has been spreading these ‘stories’
has co-bred with the dreaded “Platter” (see blogs dated August 31 and September
14, 2012) and evidently we are just another victim of his untruths.
Let me clarify things:
When Dave and I first teamed up started breeding dogs, the contract was
all of one, count ‘em, one page long. It
is now six, yes six, pages long. Still
not the longest or most intense puppy contract I have seen, but still six pages,
including Dr. Jean Dodds, DVM vaccination protocol.
This person in Florida has a very nice male from one of our
first litters, and has been acquainted with Platter for many years. Platter knew that Dave had been showing the
#1 Havanese in Canada (as well as top dogs in other breeds) and knew that we
were going to be breeding those bloodlines. I believe that this Florida person got our
name from Platter, and contacted us about a puppy. We didn’t co-own our dogs at that time, and
she was supposed to do all health testing, with a few other requirements. Not a real tough contract We have done nothing except praise her for
how great the dog looked in the ring. We
have since found out that there were breedings to un-championed, un-health
certified bitches, but could not do anything about it except add more
paragraphs to our contract. But back to
Platter and the people in California who were ‘Long Time Dog Show People.’ They had a pet Bichon, and a pet Havanese who
Platter & his partner were showing.
Yes, the Havanese did some winning because of the handlers, but it still
took him forever to finish. The dog was
almost 13” tall (I stayed at their house and together with the owners, measured
him). They wanted a good Havanese bitch,
but the only one we had was a small girl that we thought we might keep. The woman flew out and picked her up, falling
in love immediately. She informed us
that her intention was to breed her to her male that Platter had shown. We told her, in no uncertain terms, “No.” If she wanted to breed this girl to her male
after fulfilling the contract, that would be her choice, but since we got
puppies back, we did not want her bred to that dog as part of the contract
breedings. She understood, although she
was ‘hurt’ because we didn’t like her boy.
We didn’t want his type in our bloodline. Had he been a nice dog, and had what we were
looking for, it would have been fine, but he wasn’t.
So the year goes by.
The lady hires Platter to show the little bitch. She topped out at about 9 ¼” which, by
California entries at that time, was miniscule.
They put one or two points on her, and proceed to tell everyone how ‘bad’
she was. The lady brought her to us, we
got her to 14 points within a few weekends, and the lady wanted her home. I had so much faith in this little girl that
I flew to California, at my own expense, to show her. The judges should have been good for me, and
I could not have asked her to show any better if we had been in the BIS ring at
the Garden. It was perfect, I was
finishing this girl...not. She was so different
than her competition that the judges didn’t know what to do with a mover, with
a really soft, really silky coat. They
chose big and clunky. Oh, well, you pays
your money, you takes your chances. It
cost me almost $500 in airfare to lose.
I was bummed. A month or so
later, we met a show and she finished.
Platter was pissed!!! I finished
a dog that they could only put a single or two on. Later, we heard from judges that he was going
around telling them how bad our dogs were and how “that bitch didn’t deserve to
be finished.” AND That started while he
was showing her! When I confronted him,
he of course, denied it. After all, he
had called me to tell me how bad she was, and I told him that I would reserve
my decision for a time when I could go over her. Why would judges approach us with that
information if it weren’t true?
So the months go by and all is quiet on the Western Front. In the spring, the little bitch is about 15
months old, and we get a call from her owners.
They want to breed her on her next heat cycle (in a month or so), and
they want to breed her to their big dog.
What part of “NO! - read the contract” don’t these people get. Before being bred she must have all of her
health testing, and will be bred to a stud dog that we approve in writing. The health certification cannot even be
completed until after she turns 2 years of age.
We will not approve this male as he is 4 times the size of this bitch,
as are most of the dogs in his pedigree.
Don’t want it, won’t have it. Do
it later if you must but not while she is under contract.
Another couple of months pass, and we lost one of our
beloved BRTs in a sudden and unexpected way.
We received condolences from around the world, and one of those was a
sympathy card from the owner of the little bitch, with a note: “Hopefully this will cheer you up, Ally is
pregnant with ‘big dog’ puppies, and is due in a couple of weeks.” “WTF ?!?!?!?”
What part of NO didn’t they get?
She was just barely 18 months old, no health testing, and was bred to a
dog that we specifically refused.
Guess what? Platter told them the
contract didn’t matter and there wasn’t anything that we could do., so breed
her if they wanted to.
We contacted them and offered them a compromise to the
contract, allowing her to keep the bitch, and continue on with the contract. Platter gave her his advice which was to ignore
any offers, because they had the bitch and the puppies, and possession was 9/10
of the law. What could they do? Besides, their son worked at some big time
law firm in San Francisco and would handle it.
They insisted that they would give us puppies back from that litter and
the contract would be over...NOT.
Because
of their blatant disregard for the contract, and basically flipping us off when
we made a very generous offer, we did file a suit against them. It is the only time that we have ever filed
suit against the owner of a bitch puppy for violation of the puppy
contract. What would you have done?
The contract said that for ‘unauthorized breeding’ the bitch
and litter came back to us. The attorney
asked, “What part of this didn’t they understand?”
When registering a litter, online with the AKC, the owner
had to check a box saying that she had permission from all owners of the bitch
to register the litter. With Platter’s
guidance, she checked that box, “because after the litter is registered, what
can they do?” Again the attorney asked
the same question, “What part of that didn’t she understand?”
They played stupid and said that they didn’t understand
these dog contracts. Well, for one thing
if you didn’t understand, why did you sign it?
And for another, you both deal with contract negotiations for major
medical organizations, and you didn’t understand a one-page contract with no
legal-eeze? Maybe that was it, we should
have made it more complicated. So we
did.
Even after being screwed over, we didn’t want these people
to feel so duped by Platter that they were totally turned off by the dog show
world, so actually allowed them to keep 2 puppies, hoping that they would ‘see
the error of their ways.’
Their big time attorney son did come in to play, when he
delivered the bitch and the puppies to us.
This little bitch still lives with us.
Oh, and that ‘Long Time Dog Show” thing that Platter told
me, NOT. The male he was showing for
these people was the first show dog they ever had, and I think the last. Platter makes another negative impact on the
dog show world with just another of his lies.
So
if this makes you think that we go and steal puppies back, so be it, but now
you have the facts.
I would much rather NOT sell a puppy than sell them to
someone who intends to break the contract.
We have clauses in there and, being a living document, amend it when
something else happens to us, or one of our friends.
If you want a story about stealing a dog, I have one of
those too. Only the person showed up at
a show with fake paperwork and a sob story, and took one of our dogs from a
handler threatening her with Grand Theft. I’ll tell you about that one and how much it
cost just to get our own dog back some other time.
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