Everything you wanted to ask before bringing a Shepherd home.

Yes — all our breeding dogs undergo routine comprehensive health screenings. Our adult dogs are DM-clear with certified healthy hips and elbows.

Absolutely. Pups are handled daily from birth and raised around household noise, children, and other animals, so they arrive settled and confident rather than needing to be brought out of their shell.

Stable and loyal. Bred for flawless disposition with steady nerve, courage, and reliable obedience — gentle with small children, focused on task, and highly determined in protection.

The Orthopedic Foundation for Animals is a nonprofit founded in 1966 that evaluates x-rays of a dog’s hips and elbows and certifies the results. Hip and elbow dysplasia are among the most common inherited problems in German Shepherds, so screening the parents is the best way to reduce the risk in the puppies. OFA’s database is public and searchable — you can verify any breeder’s dogs, including ours.

Degenerative myelopathy is a progressive disease of the spinal cord that appears later in a dog’s life — it is often compared to ALS in people. It is linked to a mutation in the SOD1 gene, and a DNA test reports a dog as Clear, Carrier, or At-Risk. Our breeding dogs test Clear, so they carry no copy of the mutation to pass on and their puppies cannot inherit one from them.

Yes — titled dogs appear throughout our bloodlines. Schutzhund is German for “protection dog” and is the sport the German Shepherd was developed around: a dog is tested in tracking, obedience, and protection together. It’s the same sport you’ll see called IPO (renamed in 2012) or IGP (renamed in 2019), earned in three ascending levels — so an IPO3 or IGP3 is the highest level. Titles are awarded by judges at sanctioned trials, not by the breeder, so they can be independently verified.

Working line. We breed the well-bred “flat-back” German, Czech and Low Country bloodlines popularized after WWII — not the show-line variety with the sharp downward angle of the back and squat rear. Our dogs are accidentally beautiful.

Our pups are priced in line with quality European working lines, and it varies by litter. Give us a call or send a message and we’ll tell you straight away. A deposit reserves your pup and comes off the purchase price.

Yes — we encourage prospective buyers to visit our facility, meet the puppies, and interact with the parents to ensure a good fit. Call to schedule an appointment.

Once your pup reaches 8 weeks, he or she is ready to join their forever family.

We offer a range of options: physical visits, virtual visits, and delivery. Whatever your preferred method, we’re here to make this experience a happy one.

Canisteo, NY — near Bath and due south of Rochester. Visits are by appointment only. Available daily 10 AM – 8 PM.

Yes — a deposit reserves one specific pup and comes off the balance, which is due when you take your pup home at eight weeks. Call (315) 406-3783 before you send anything — a deposit doesn’t reserve a pup on its own, so we’ll confirm which pup is yours, that it’s still available, and the deposit details.