Complaint Review: Vom Dreifke Shepherds

I'm going to respond to each of your statements in order.

• Yes, you did tell me her original owner died. However, you have conflicting statements now. You implied that the original breeder and the woman who died were not the same person. I don't need the original owner's name, that's unimportant to the matter at hand. What matters is the original breeder. You said "The original owner passed." and also, when asked about the original breeder, you said "They don't breed anymore." implying two different things. 
• Yes, you did tell me you were in the hospital. I'm not refuting that. 
• The issue of heartworms isn't my main issue, it's just the icing on the cake. The worm issue I have is hookworms - these are easily avoidable parasites that can kill a dog. If your dogs were regularly wormed or on almost any type of heartworm prevention, she wouldn't have hookworms. The reason hookworms are an issue is because they result in extreme fatigue. When I met Willow she was very relaxed. However, once she was treated for hookworms, she became very high energy. The only logical explanation is that the hookworms caused her to be very fatigued - and this is an issue because I did not intend to buy a high energy dog, I wanted a relaxed dog. This discrepancy in temperaments is on you. I was shown a relaxed dog. However that's not what she is.
• Okay, I misunderstood. I thought you told me they were joint supplements, my apologies. The point still stands that she displayed unmistakeable signs of serious joint issues. This wasn't like I'd seen her limp maybe once, it was a pervasive and repetitive issue. 
• I was not there for 2 hours playing with her, I was there for a fraction of that time, about 35 minutes. This was my mistake. I should have been there longer and asked more questions. 
• "very mild obedience" ? Yes, I'd say "very mild" is a good word for it. Online, in the ad you displayed, you said "basic obedience". This could easily be interpreted as basic commands: sit, down, stay. And lets define knowing a command. To me, that means a dog hears you say it, and in a reasonable environment without distractions, will follow the command at least half the time (and that's being incredibly generous, especially for a smart breed like a GSD). When I was there, you practically had to bodily position her into a sit. She didn't listen very well if at all. The only time she sat was when there was a treat directly above her head and you lured her into position. I chalked this up to the environment - there were lots of dogs barking and lots of new people. However, when I arrived home with her - and after two weeks of a very low-stress environment - she showed no recognition whatsoever of the words "sit" "down" "stay" or a multitude of creative variations on these. 
• You did not say "she guards food" as a blanket statement. You implied that she had one incident wherin she guarded her meal from a dog that tried to bolt all of it at once. However, that is not what I saw. Yes, I'd expect her to be guarding her food a bit - after all she was a new dog in a new situation - and I can't expect a dog to watch their food be bolted without retaliating. However even when she's in her crate, if she glimpsed the family dog outside the glass door 15 feet away, she would growl. If I went to the door her growl would turn to a snarl. The one time my family made the mistake of letting the family dog in when she was eating - mind, he was in the other room and only briefly visible - she threw herself against the crate and snarled. At one point she was sitting amidst a pile of toys. The family dog came up, glanced at her, and gently picked up one of the toys that was further away from her. She lunged at him and got into a fight with him. These are not tiny issues that are one-time-things. This is a serious sign of a pervasive anxiety fueled aggression issue that any dog trainer should be able to see as a clear sign that she should never ever under any circumstances be a service dog. 
• Yes - you told me that if she was taken to your vet and x-rays were taken that you would refund me. However, I'd be paying for the x-ray. Let's do the numbers. I pay you $700. You take her to the vet and charge me $350. We find out she has hip dysplasia. You pay me back the $700. I've just ended up paying you $350 (in addition to paying other vet bills) just to have the experience of briefly owning an aggressive dog. Does that make any sense at all to you?
• You didn't say wait two weeks for the money, you said I'd have to wait two weeks because you didn't have the room to take her back. 
• I would like to hear all of their individual statements detailing exactly how she behaved in those stores. Because non-obvious but severe anxiety is still severe anxiety. Just because a dog behaves in stores doesn't mean she can be a service dog. 
• I'm glad our call was recorded - it saves me the time of wracking my brain to make sure I remembered everything right. Please, don't delete the recording. I have nothing to hide and I'm not fabricating anything. I'm telling the story how I experienced it. 

If you look at it from my point of view, here's a risk-reward analysis. 

I intended to purchase a dog, and was advertised/shown a dog

• Free of noticeable signs of hip dysplasia.
• Free of anxiety issues.
• Who knew basic obedience. 

These things result in a fairly high rate of success in service dog training. 

I ended up purchasing a dog

• With obvious signs of hip dysplasia.
• With major anxiety issues.
• With negligible to no obedience training. 

These things result in an extremely low success rate in service dog training, so low I wouldn't expect even a professional trainer with decades of experience to accomplish. 

I didn't pay, overall, near $1100, for a dog who fits the second set of criteria. 

Furthermore, my complaint is that you should have seen signs of hip dysplasia, you should have seen signs of her severe anxiety, and you should have seen that she didn't know basic commands. You assured me you had seen none of these things. That is my issue. 

 First off her original owner died I had told you that and I told you her plan was for a service dog. then I told you I haven't had time to get her to a vet cause when she came here I was very sick in and out of the hospital so I told you she hadn't had a heartworm test and if she came out positive you would have to treat her. as far as joint supplements I didn't have her on those I have all my dogs on nu vet regular immune builder supplements so those have nothing to do with joints. you were here over 2 hrs playing with her and we did some very mild obedience and you were told she needs consistency and routine. I told you she guards food which has you said no problem she can be fed in a crate. she was always with another dog here in her kennel never a problem. You were also told about the hips that when you said that to me I said let me take her to my vet if she has hip dysplasia I will refund your money if she doesn't you will only her a portion back, that's was why I said wait 2 wks for the money so she could have xrays and we could send them off. you portray a whole different story here. the offer still stands for bring her back and I will take her to my vet to get the hips checked to see if she has dysplasia if she does I will do as we talked about. many people and Co workers here have had that dog out and gone to tractor supply and other places with her and we never had an issue with her. But instead of trying to bash my name and our call was recorded so be careful making false statements. if you have a problem feel free to call me and we can discuss it. again the original owner passed away sorry I didn't give you her name as I received the dog from her family not her so don't have her name not running you in circles. alot of what you wrote on here I was not even told sounds like every new complaint you write the dog has a new issue. we can go back and forth on line or you can call and we can talk option is open.