WAITING TIME

how long until you get a puppy?

Hello my name is Merlin the Magician. Let me wave my magic wand and produce the perfect puppy of your dreams, the exact
gender, colour, with perfect markings, ready to go the exact day and time you want it. While I'm at it let me make sure it is
fully toilet trained, asking at the door, sleeping in a crate, coming when it's called, not chewing anything you don't want it
to chew. While I'm on a roll I'm going to teach it Spanish and to bring you your slippers and maybe even a cold glass of wine :)

Of course, I'm not really Merlin, and I'm not a magician, and your puppy isn't going to be trained in any of those things when
it leaves me. It's also not going to be ready to go on your kids birthday or your anniversary, if you want a Stoverly Puppy your
going to have to wait for it!  

I am a simple and humble dog breeder. When a female comes into season and we plan a breeding we put her with the
male and hope she gets pregnant. She only comes into season 1-2 times a year on her own schedule and nothing I can
do rushes the process. She is pregnant for 9 weeks and puppies stay with me for 8 weeks. So timing is estimated but
not guaranteed. I am at the mercy of her heat cycle.

You contact me and you want a puppy. Great. You want to know when I may have one. WELL......
That honestly depends on ALL of the following.

• What do you want, which breed, colour, size, gender, energy level, tail or no tail etc

• When each girl comes into season

• What she gives me in her litter to work with

• Who is above you on the waiting list and whether they want the same as you do.

When you look at all of the litters you can put an x or a check next to each one based on what you want.
You only want a Mini, then anything producing standards gets removed from the possible litters.
You only want red, well anything that is not going to produce red you can cross of the possible litters.
You want low energy for a pet, then any litters I mark HIGH energy you can cross of and vise versa, you want a sports dog,
don't look at my more mellow pet litters. Now you have a basic idea of which potential litters could have a puppy for you,
then you need to look at the waiting list and see what everyone else is also hoping for and see where your needs fit it.

You have to have a blue merle, well they are the most popular colour so that waiting time is probably 4 times that of a
black tri. I may have a tri ready to go as you call me, something left over in favor of the merles. You only want a merle,
you will have to wait for it. I might get 4 in a litter I might only get 1, I can't make them give me what you want. So what
colour you want will impact your waiting period. We have people who send payment in a full year or more  in advance
to be on the waiting list for a merle when they are ready. So even if you look at a new litter and it has merles, they have
almost always been pre-reserved ahead of you and you will have to wait a few litters down the road until we get to you
on the waiting list.   

You really want a lot of white, well join the crowd, so does everyone else. So the more flashy you want the puppy the
longer the wait. The problem is everyone wants the white markings but they are dangerous to breed. If we have so
much white that it goes over the eyes and ears the puppy is 95% more likely to have vision and hearing impairments
from lack of pigment. So when I choose my breeding dogs, I do not choose for a lot of white, I'd rather have a litter of
plain and healthy puppies instead of a litter of a lot of flashy white and a few that are blind of deaf as a result.
The more white on the parents, the more they pass on to the puppies, so you'll notice my breeding dogs do not always
have a lot of white, which means at least half of my puppies are born very plain. So you want white markings, it may be
a while before I have that on top of the colour you want.

You Really need a specific size.
I have all sizes, toys right up to standards. In one litter we often get a lot of size variety. Some smaller than others,
some larger. I can't guarantee what sizes we will get until puppies are here and growing up and I can compare to
past litters from similar blood lines. So you want small and I have the gender, colour and markings and it's the biggest
puppy in the litter, I guess your still waiting.

You need certain personality traits, such as less aussie reserve, more herding instinct, more toy drive etc.
Yes I can get you what you want, our dogs do it all and they do it very well. BUT not every single puppy born can do each job,
some are more suitable than others. The best puppy for your needs in this litter may be the complete opposite of what you
have asked for. So your still waiting.

Then there is the crazy fact that I always keep a puppy myself before I choose what to sell. If the best puppy for my breeding
program just happens to be what you want, you don't get it. I'll be keeping it. I also place puppies in active homes first, so if
your perfect puppy is a show dog it would go to a show home if one is available, if it is a crazy active sports prospect, then
I may very well give it to an active proven sports home who will meet the puppies needs better than you can.  So you are
still waiting.

You see, it's more than just skin deep when I place my puppies. I look at the whole package and not just the colour or the
puppy. I'm not out for your money. I don't care if you buy one of my puppies or not. My puppies are placed in homes where
they will be happy and if I don't feel that the puppy you are drawn to is going to be happy in your environment I won't place
it with you just to make money. I need to place puppies on a bigger picture.

We breed an average of 8 litters a year, some years we have more, some years we have less. We try and have a wide
variety of puppies in various colours, sizes etc so hopefully we can meet most reasonable requests fairly quickly. Of
course as I stated above the more complex your needs are the longer the wait may be.

If you are hoping to leave an application and be guaranteed a female, blue merle, with full blaze and collar, 4 high white
socks, full white chest, and exactly 15 inches from our next litter your going to be disappointed. Your wait may be 2-3
years for a request that specific, don't expect it to be from my very next litter because chances of that happening are
pretty slim, I'm not Merlin after all.  

If you are picking your puppy based on nothing but "looks" then I suggest that you find a different breeder who doesn't care
if your happy with the puppy long term or not, there are a lot of breeders who will let you come in and pick your puppy without
a care about anything other than your money.
I'm not that breeder.

If you want a breeder who is going to match you with the puppy that best meets your needs as a total package, then I may
be the breeder for you.
BUT that means that your wait may be longer because I want to make sure your getting the total package and not just a
pretty puppy with great markings who bites your kids and barks like a maniac getting you death threats from your neighbours.

While I will always take my puppies back, I don't WANT them back, I want you to love them for their entire lives. I don't want
them to come back at a year old because they are too hyper to handle. I want you to be so happy with your puppy and how
well it fits into your lifestyle that you recommend me to others, and I can't get those results if I just toss the first "cute" puppy
your way.  

So how long is the wait, there is no black and white answer to that. It really depends how picky you are and how open minded
you are. Open minded I can match up much faster, picky takes a lot longer.

We do hold an active waiting list with Paid Application Fee's. The list varies in length as people get matched and more
people get on the list. So part of your waiting time is going to depend how many people are ahead of you looking for
something similar.

I recommend not being in a rush, a puppy is a 15 year commitment and you should be willing to wait to get matched up perfectly!