For those of you who have followed this blog, even off and on, you know that we had a litter Bichon puppies a few months ago. I sent out emails to some of our friends with links to the puppy pictures on the blog. A friend in Florida sent me a couple of referrences. After contacting them, they were interested but did not want to travel this far to look at puppies, or buy one sight unseen. Understandable, I used to be that way too. No hard feelings. I wished them luck with their search and that was the end of our contact with them. No application, no information exchanged.
The friend who sent us the referrals offered to take a couple of the puppies so that her 'people' could come to her house to see the puppies. She felt that these were good homes and the prospective owners just needed to see the puppies in person. We agreed on a set price for her services. We found a ride for the puppies, with some show friends, one of whom is a professional groomer. Within a day of them being at 'friends' house she was calling to tell us how dirty, and ugly, that these puppies were. And OMG they had started to get some staining on their face. Well, they are 4 months old and teething. Many puppies do that, and she would know that if she didn't get rid of almost all of her puppies at 6 and 7 weeks of age. (I will never forget her delivering a 6 1/2 week old puppy to a new family at the Kansas City show one year. They were walking all over with it, but it was OK, because it had already had 2 shots! At under 7 weeks of age. Aaaccckkkk!!! But that is another story.)
We sent her health certificates, shot records, and contracts. She called again saying that the contract was not acceptable and she was going to re-work it! WHAT?!?!! And who would pay $1,500 for a 4 month old puppy (crate trained, somewhat leash trained , and well socialized). Shouldn't we discount them? She was going to knock the price down!
The next call is that she HAD to give the puppies Comfortis for fleas! Our puppies did not have fleas when they left, the dogs owned by the people who transported them did not have fleas. Maybe she did it to protect our puppies from her flea infestation, after all I hear that they are bad in Florida, but she did it before finding out if our puppes were on any other flea and tick protection. She could have jeopardized their health.
WHO DOES THAT? Dave has had some clients for many years. We still don't medicate their dogs without discussing it and getting their permission in writitng.
With the first phone call, I was ready to drive down and get them. But with every subsequent call, I was just about in tears for my puppies.
This friend who offered to 'help' then said that the puppies were in such bad shape that she charged us $100 each to 'groom' them, then it was going to be $20/day boarding. What would be next? Oh, yeah, she met our people at a spot she decided upon, 5 minutes from her house...add a charge for transport.
We immediately made arrangements for the people who drove the puppies down there, to go get them. When Dave called her to tell her that she would not have to worry about them any more and we would pay her the pre-arranged finders fee anyway, for her time (less than 72 hours), we were told that she had already sold the male puppy. She was not to let any puppy go without us knowing all of the details first, and giving us the opportunity to speak with the buyer and give final approval. Who would do that?
Well, our other friends got to her in time to get the bitch puppy out of there before any other damage could be done, either to the puppy or to our bank account.
She evidently didn't trust us to pay her for her excessive charges, because she had the people who purchased the male puppy write her a check for her $$$$ fees, and then write us a check for the balance. She also allowed the buyers to make changes to the contract without discussing any of it with us, then signed it 'for David Scheiris.' We were not aware of the contract changes until receiving the signed contract in the mail yesterday. So how does the law interpret that? I was sitting right next to Dave when he told her that "the contract is the contract. If they don't like it, they don't have to buy the puppy." The paragraph they changed was concerning health testing, that is for the betterment of the breed, the health of the puppy, and health guarantees.
The contract arrived with a statement for an additional balance due of $100, for care and transport (5 minute) of the bitch puppy.
I sent her a check for the $100, and a nice letter.
Via USPS Priority Mail with delivery confirmation, of course.
All of this from a person who came up to Dave at a National Specialty, while he was grooming the dogs he had been contracted to show, and asked how much to show her boy. Dave mistakenly said $300, a discount from his normal $350 rinside pick-up rate at a National. A ringside pick-up is just that, dog is ready to show, owner gives dog to handler at ringside, or right before, handler goes in, does his thing, comes out - hopefully with ribbons, gives you back your dog. This person has hired enough handlers to know this. A ringside pick-up pays more than the regular contracted clients because they have priority and are paying expenses which we try to adjust accordingly. As a courtesy, Dave also got permission from his other client to show this dog. Friend proceeded to bring the dog to Dave hours before ringtime, ungroomed, pee stained, and moth eaten (or was it flea-bitten...ahhhh). When Dave saw the condition, he tried to reach her to tell her that he didn't want to show the dog. He called and asked me to try to reach her or her husband, as this dog's condition was too bad, and Dave was going to have to spend a lot of grooming time on him to make him presentable. Actually, Dave didn't want to show him. I told him not to, as you need to present your best dogs at a Nationals. We tried to contact her, she didn't leave any hotel information or anything with Dave, so Dave jsut kept grooming. If it had been me, I wouldn't have groomed the dog, and either taken it in as is or not showed it at all. Dave couldn't do that - see he is the nice one! Instead, hours of grooming later, he showed said dog, and surprisingly (or not since it was Dave grooming), finished in the ribbons. This 'friend' came up to Dave afterward, handed him $200 and said "This will have to do," took the dog and left. No acknowledgment for the hours of grooming, or any explanation for paying less than quoted for handling. This is the reason that so many handlers now make people sign a contract even for a ringside pick-up.
But this was a long-time friend, she wouldn't screw us over - right.
Geez, where to we find these people. Or is there some kind of cloud or flag over us, that only crazy people can see, that attracts these people.
And people keep asking me why I don't like going to dog shows anymore. Hmmm...
