Dear Jan,

 

We are the proud owners of a two year old Bouvier that we have owned since he was seven months old.  He is a large, fawn colored, beautiful dog.  But he did not start out that way.  

We spent several months researching what kind of dog was right for us.  And when we decided on a Bouvier, we spent another couple of months reading books and visiting web sites about the breed.  We read the " Why not to get a Bouvier" story and anything else we could find.  In the end we confidently decided that this was the right breed for us.  And in the end we were right.  However, we had some problems with finding the correct breeder.  Unfortunately there is not a breeder within four states that we could find (we live in South Carolina).  So we took to the internet and pet magazines.  

We found a breeder in Fulton, New York that had a fawn male, and was AKC registered.  We interviewed her and did everything we could, or knew how to do, to satisfy ourselves that she was a reputable breeder and her dogs were healthy.  So, we purchased a dog, sight unseen, and had him flown to us.  The price for the dog was well over 1000.00, plus airfare.  Then the trouble begins.  

Our poor dog was the most frightened, anxious, unsocialized dog we had ever seen.  He wouldn't eat, drink, go to the bathroom, or move, for the first few weeks.  The vet suggested we just put him to sleep.  But we really did not want to give up on him, which was a difficult decision because when he did start going to the bathroom it was when he was in his cage, and he would lay in it.  Eventually we found a woman who trains dogs that was willing to try and work with him.  She said that in her 20 years of experience the only dogs she has seen in his condition had been kept in small, unclean cages with no contact, like "puppy-mills".  

When we contacted the breeder her response was that after she cashed our check her job was done.  In the end, it has taken a year and a half to socialize and build his confidence to the level that he can be a happy and interactive part of our family.  We do believe that we made the right decision in getting a Bouvier, they are not the dog for everyone, but they are the dog for us.  The point of this letter is to put the word out about bad breeders.  The name of ours is Kathy Ling in Fulton, New York, so please beware.

Bob and Melanie Morgan, and Jake Trout

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Jake is registered as Ling's Jake Trout DL711661/04. Sire is Chantal's Shane Ling DL570574/03 and Dam is Chantal's Nyla Ling DL533171/08.