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First, let us say THANK YOU
for your INTEREST in our kennel and dogs and also for viewing the most
important area of this website!!
We try very
hard each and everyday to update our website so that you can follow our
progress with our shepherds! We enjoy sharing this information, because
we feel that it helps you better understand US and our DOGS!! They are
not just dogs, they are FAMILY MEMBERS and each and everyone of them has
a unique personality and things that we love to share..................
I receive
emails that ask about pricing and selection of puppies, about our boys,
girls and things that we are known for......... This section of the
website should explain most of those things and if it doesn't, PLEASE do
not hesitate to email us with any concerns or questions!!
MiSheps@embarqmail.com
Puppies are
whelped both in our home and outside in our kennel. Although the kennel
is almost 7 years old, we continue to make lots of improvements and
changes, so we do have two pages about
OUR KENNEL &
KENNEL UPDATES that you can visit also.
Those two pages will show you pictures and give you information about
the kennel.
THE BEGINNING
Puppies start their new life with an
abundant amount of love and affection from US and from the parents of
the litter. It's very important to us to know that not only do the
mothers have constant contact with their puppies, but the fathers do as
well.......... they have a lot of things to adjust to including noises
that we create and noises of the other dogs in the kennel. We have
a radio going all the time for background noise, we work with our ATV's
and there is an occasional tractor working around and all this is done
near the puppies so they do hear many noises before leaving here for
their new home.
Along with interacting with their Parents, the puppies will get to play
with other adults in the kennel. We feel this is good for the puppies
and our adults. Interacting gives them both good opportunities to enjoy
THEIR PACK in which they live.
Once the puppies start to move around and
start investigating their new surroundings, we start feeding them a
puppy mush along with Mommy's milk and soon they prefer the food to
Mom! They have access to a covered deck, play area and can go from
inside to outside with ease. This helps with the Potty Training. They
learn to potty outside and sleep, eat and play on the inside. (Summer being
easier of course then Winter months) We also watch the Mom very closely
and will pull her away from the pups if she is nursing too much. Pups
have sharp teeth and can harm her eventually if not watched over.
All our puppies have their nails trimmed when needed and all required shots given at the
appropriate ages. Puppies are de-wormed at 2, 4 & 6 weeks of age. We are
also handling the puppies a lot during their first couple of weeks to
ensure they will like the touching and caring that will be needed as
they grow. Handling continues as they mature.
RESERVATIONS ON UPCOMING LITTERS
Many folks contact me and ask how to "RESERVE" a puppy from a
specific Upcoming Litter. Everyone is handled on a First Come, First
Served Basis....We have found this to be the most fair. You then will be
added to the LITTER after we receive your Deposit. Deposits are
non-refundable but can be transferred if need be....On occasion we may
have a litter born that does not have the "correct" number of males and
females for the "reserved".......we then will go through the list and
see who is willing to wait on another litter or I can offer another
puppy, be it male or female in place of yours....meaning if you
"reserved" a MALE and we only had FEMALES, then we would offer you a
female.....and vice versa.....I do have several deposits most of the
time, so if you are certain about a specific litter, please contact me
as soon as possible and I shall let you know how many are on the list
ahead of you.
PUPPY PACK
I send home a Puppy Pack with each puppy
that includes information about them, their parents, necessities to
start out and a lot more..........
Please read about what is in the
Puppy Pack
here
Probably the most important part of what
we do is how and what we feed our Moms, Dads and youngsters! It's so
important that I try to have all the information available to you before
taking the puppy home, so that you have time to prepare! I believe in
an ALL NATURAL Diet. It's easy to feed and in most cases, easy to find
in your area. We also carry the food so that you have access to it all
the time. We have chosen Petcurean GO! Natural for our kennel.
We also provide this to our puppies when old enough and they love it as
well. It is a wonderful food and you can read about it on their
website at
Petcurean GO! Natural We love it! You can also read more
about GO! Natural and other foods
here. The other FACTOR in providing
our puppies, parents and retired dogs a good nutritional foundation is
by feeding the best vitamin on the market and that is DOG BLOOM.
It too is explained and gone over in your Puppy Pack and if you ever
have any questions regarding DOG BLOOM, please let me know.
VISITING THE KENNEL
& DEPOSIT INFORMATION
Due to RECENT changes out of our control
we, we are updating this section.
We do require that you come to the kennel
and visit, bringing along your questions and deciding if WE ARE THE ONE
to purchase a puppy from. We try very hard to accommodate you and
your family with dates and times, but if we cannot due to either your
schedule or ours, then we ask that you come during our STORE HOURS which
are Fridays and Saturdays from Noon to 5:00 pm. Because we do not have
employees, it can be challenging in making sure that everyone is taken
care of, both customers and doggies :) In the past we used to be able
to show almost all the dogs to you, but now we cannot. This is due
mostly to the number of KIDS we now have and also due to the
fact that we have added a number of Snowcloud Shepherds to our kennel.
We will, if possible show you the parents of the upcoming litters you
are interested in OR the puppies that may be available at the time.
We
accept deposits at the time of your visit and that will place you in order on any
particular litter.... We also get deposits through the mail from time to
time. If I have
more then one litter, you are welcome to let me know which litter you
want to leave a
deposit on and at some point, if you change your mind to another litter, you will
need to notify me as soon as possible. A $100 deposit is required
to be placed on the waiting list. I no longer offer deposit
refunds........ There are some exceptions. Please understand that EMAIL
is a wonderful asset to all of our lives, but they are also lost, or
sent to incorrect addresses and also not sent at all sometimes because
of errors, so PLEASE do not rely only on emails that we will send back
and forth. I cannot guarantee a particular puppy to you without a
deposit. That is why I like folks to come to the kennel and personally
meet with us and place a deposit.
We usually ask that when you know you are
coming to our kennel to visit, that you DO NOT VISIT any other
kennels, vet offices, doggy parks or pet stores BEFORE coming to our
kennel. This will insure NO disease will be brought
into our kennel harming either the young puppies or other dogs.
MEET THE PARENT'S DAY & MEET THE
BABY DAY
This section is also being updated as we are dealing with recent
scheduling challenges.
We did start something NEW in 2007.........I had set aside
dates for Meeting the Parent's of the upcoming litters and usually
announced this far in advance so that you could schedule an appointment
to come and meet the parents and sometimes Meet the babies!! We
had the whole day set aside to visit with people and
introduce them to the parents of upcoming litters or current litters and
meet with some of the retired dogs!! But as we tried desperately
to make this work, it did not :) People would tend to come early,
come late, or not come at all and then maybe show up the NEXT day and
ask to see the dogs. The reason for setting up a day to show them
was that it's very difficult to show all the dogs everyday to people.
Unfortunately, we are not the local petting zoo :) We do have alot
of responsibility to our dogs and puppies and just could not accommodate
everyone. And so.....we now no longer offer Meet The Parent's Day.
This was truly meant to be a benefit for you and your family but because
I do not have employees and it's just my husband and I, we had become
overwhelmed with people stopping at all times of the day just to "pet
the dogs and puppies" and because I am very responsible in how the
puppies are raised, I felt I could not open the kennel up at all hours
of the day. I hope this is something that folks can understand as
it's been very difficult for me to make the changes. We so enjoyed
meeting everyone and showing the dogs to them.
VOLHARD PUPPY
APTITUDE TEST
This is the Puppy Temperament Test that we
perform and give you the original test sheet. We keep a copy here on
each puppy. This test really helps us in placing the RIGHT PUPPY with
the RIGHT FAMILY. There are different reasons for folks wanting a puppy
and what they are looking for in adulthood of the dog, so we really like
to test each puppy and hopefully match the puppy of your choice with YOU
and YOUR family!! It truly helps me in selecting the RIGHT puppy for
you.
MATCHING UP
THE RIGHT PUPPY
This has been a wonderful task for us. We
use the Puppy Test above to help us and also we ask that you be honest
with us is telling us what you are looking for. We will help you all we
can once the time comes to choose a puppy. We keep the website and
litter page updated the best we can and from this, you may have already
choose a puppy from it's "look" or "color" but we still try to match
personality as well : ) During the "choosing" process we are in contact
with you all the time through email. If you come out to meet the babies
and they are young, we explain to you about colors and sizes and
anything else that is concerning......but we cannot PICK a puppy for you
on that particular day if they are too young. We do spend alot of time
with them and we try to pick the best personality for your family! I
know it can be hard 'waiting' to know which puppy is yours, but I do
take this seriously so my time is usually limited during the last few
weeks of their life here, before leaving on their BIG
adventure.....Email is usually best during this time..... thank you for
understanding!
PRICES OF
PUPPIES
Prices range from $850-$2000. The prices
of my puppies depends on the Parents who are bred. Also,
we do have to have increases from time to time to help offset some of
our increasing expenses that we incur. Over the last few years I have
tried hard to keep our prices the same or as reasonable as we can. We
feel we are very fair with our prices. With that you will receive our
FULL HEALTH GUARANTEE and also lots of LIFETIME HELP and
SHARING : )
MOST of our puppies are sold with AKC Limited Registration papers............ All
contracts for pet/companion pups fully state that they are sold with NO
breeding rights and spay/neuter is suggested. Puppies with Limited
Registration are priced from $850-$1200.
We occasionally have puppies that will be more
or less in price............You can read about Limited Registration
below
http://www.akc.org/reg/limitedreg.cfm
We also provide AKC Full
Registration papers which are given under the correct
circumstances, with a Breeding Contract. Puppies who are sold with FULL
Registration are price from $1500-$2000.
SNOWCLOUD KENNEL-WHITE GERMAN
SHEPHERDS
We have acquired the last few and remaining
SNOWCLOUD
SHEPHERDS from
Snowcloud Kennel in Illinois. This took place in August, 2009 with
much help from Richard Horton. We will have updates and
pictures as time allows and will make every effort to answer any of your
questions or concerns....if you have one of the Snowcloud shepherds, you
understand how special they are.....please contact me if you would like
to share your stories.....if you are thinking about a white shepherd,
you can not go wrong with a puppy from these bloodlines! Please
let us know how we can help you, if you have any questions or concerns,
or if you just want to share your puppy photos and stories with
us.....Thank you....
SHIPPING
We do not SHIP nor FLY our puppies at this
time. I truly think being a little old-fashioned and asking that you
come to the kennel and meet us and shake our hand is more important. This does not mean that I will not
eventually ship puppies but right now we have chosen not to. If this is
your only option, I will try my best to help you. Please
ask about this policy first, since acquiring some of the Snowcloud
Shepherds, we have had to make some changes....and will fly your puppy
out to you if it's your only option.
PAYMENT
We require that your puppy be paid for in full before taking him or her
home. Forms of payment can be CASH, Personal or Business checks, Master
Card
or Visa, Money orders and Certified Bank checks. If
paying with personal check we shall have to hold the check for 2 weeks
before releasing paperwork, til the check has cleared.
REFERENCES
References, including my veterinarian can
be given upon request. I used to have a Guestbook and really enjoyed
all the comments until I was getting unjustified comments and cruel
remarks, along with SPAM that did not pertain to our kennel nor dogs.
Lots of Spam!! So I decided that I would not have the Guestbook. I do
love the emails and updates though and really look forward to hearing
from everyone whether you decided on one of our puppies or not. I
really like to know how we are doing and ask for your help in providing
the best services that we can!! We have since removing the Guestbook
decided on a Testimonial Page for folks to write in! Send them to me!!
We may even ASK YOU for references from time to time such as your
current veterinarian....
OUR LOCATION
We are located in northeast Ohio.
We are about 1/2 hour North of Youngstown, Ohio, less then 2 hours from
Cleveland, Ohio and Pittsburgh, PA right on Route 7. Our address is
5181 State Route 7, Burghill, Ohio 44404. MapQuest, Yahoo and Google
all have great maps for your convenience in finding us.
GUARANTEE
We DO offer a Guarantee on all our puppies! We will explain
what we DO for you and also what we EXPECT you to do for your new puppy.
This will be a written guarantee too.
OUR PLEDGE TO
YOU
Our pledge to you is to provide you and
your family with a healthy and happy puppy. We try very hard to make
sure that you are happy with the puppy choice and also that you and your
family are ready for a puppy! We provide LIFETIME support and ask for
your emails and comments on how things are going. We also know that
having a new puppy can be interesting and sometimes even scary and
frustrating but we truly want to help if we can. They are born here and
are our KIDS first so we feel honored when you write us or call and tell
us of your puppy's accomplishments!! It is truly an honor to be in this
position and we take this opportunity to tell you that it's a wonderful
gift that we have been given and want to share it with you. We do ask
that you send pictures from time to time and we love watching the
development of your puppy! The SHARING is the best part of it all!!!!
THANK YOU and GOD BLESS!
Kellie & Paren Mintern and
all the dogs!!
Bubba
Bubba : ) again.....
Mintern's German Shepherds
Breeding the
Total German Shepherd Dog (GSD)
with honesty and integrity at our NE Ohio kennel for over thirteen years.
Mixing the new with the old to turn out stocky, large framed, old style
GSD puppies from parents who are DNA Tested and Certified with American
Kennel Club, taking part in the
AKC DNA Certification Program
and our breeding males and females are
OFA hip certified and/or x-rayed by a licensed veterinarian. We
also feel strongly about permanent identification and use the
AVID Micro Chip.
This is all an important part of our puppy's future!
The puppies are nurtured by both mother and father.
They also have contact with other adults in our kennel, each of whom
offer unique learning experiences.
The philosophy of home placement is very important. We use the Volhard
Puppy Aptitude Test to learn about the puppy's personality and
facilitate the process of matching the puppy with his or her forever
home.
Although color should not be the main factor in selecting a puppy, we
are happy to have the breeding stock to offer solids, both black and
white, the standard black and tan and also the black and red with sables
occasionally.
If you want to learn more about The Mintern Kennel, please read on and
enjoy your stay at our web site. Should you have any questions, please
do not hesitate to contact us. We are dedicated to our dogs, and to our
dog people.
MiSheps@embarqmail.com
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