Refund??

[DycksDogs]

We purchased our Cooper from a breeder in August.
He was almost 12 weeks when we first got him home.
Everything was going fine until about 3 weeks later when Cooper collapsed.
He has been diagnosed with a mega esophagus which means for the rest of his life, he will need to be fed in a vertical position. He will always be at risk of getting aspirated pneumonia.

When I first called the breeder to let her know, she offered to take Cooper back and give us one of her other puppies.
I said no because we had already fallen in love with Cooper. Plus, I'm pretty sure she would have put Cooper down.
So, it's been 7 weeks since his diagnosis and over $2000.00 in vet bills later.

I feel that the breeder should refund some or all of the $1300.00 we paid for Cooper. Am I being unrealistic?

 

[CoraBoxer]

Have you asked her? Seems reasonable to me, cost of the new pup. Why do you get the impression she'd put Cooper down?

Sorry to hear that :( and props for goin through all that and loving Cooper this much. How are you guys dealing? Bailey's Chair?

 

[darwinsmom]

I don't think it is unreasonable at all. But I'm not sure it is realistic. Do you have a contract with her? Most of the stories I have heard breeders will only refund money if the dog is returned. Since that isn't an option for you, it seems you are stuck with the both the purchase price and the large medical bills. You can always ask, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[DycksDogs]

Have you asked her? Seems reasonable to me, cost of the new pup. Why do you get the impression she'd put Cooper down?

Sorry to hear that :( and props for goin through all that and loving Cooper this much. How are you guys dealing? Bailey's Chair?

It's been 5 weeks since he was diagnosed. The first 2 weeks were extremely hard. My husband thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. But we now have a routine in place and although Cooper is still getting over pneumonia, he is a very active and playful little puppy.

Yes, we have made the Bailey Chair for Cooper to eat out of. He is used to being fed in it and his 30 minutes of quiet time in the chair after eating. Because he is so young, he will probably not remember eating any other way.

The hardest part is not being able to use treats to help with training. Toys do not interest him that much so it is hard to distract him when he is being 'naughty'. But we're working through this also.

The breeder emailed me over a week ago to ask how Cooper was. I replied to the email and at that time I asked if she would consider refunding the money we paid for him. I have not received a response to the email. I don't believe that she is obligated to refund us. I just think it would be nice if she offered at least a partial refund.

The reason why I think she would have put him down is because of a conversation my sister had with her regarding Cooper. It was not actually stated, it was just a feeling my sister got from the conversation. It doesn't matter anyways, we would never have given him back.

 

[TwoDogs]

The hardest part is not being able to use treats to help with training. Toys do not interest him that much so it is hard to distract him when he is being 'naughty'.

He could lick a bit of soft food without worry of aspiration, correct? If so, then what about a food tube? Or a lickable treat? Fill a food tube or sqeeze bottle with pureed meat or pate-style canned dog food and offer him a little squeeze as a reward instead of using traditional treats.

There is also a product called Lickety-Stix that is like a gravy in what looks like a roll-on anti-perspirant bottle. You just give the dog a lick to reward him. Kong sells peanut butter in a tube to use to stuff Kong toys, but I've used it right from the tube as a quick, lickable reward.

 

[Sansal]

Just wanted to say I think it's great you guys kept him and are putting in the extra time/work and money lovicon I hope the breeder comes around and returns some of the money to you.

 

[whiskers]

Do you have a health contract? This IS a congenital condition and I know both of my dogs (even the one from a bad BYB) came with guarantees against congenital defects.

Lucy, my BYB dog came with a 1 year health guarantee, and pretty much 1 month before that 1 year was up, she was diagnosed with luxating patellas and legg-perthes disease (bad knees and bad hips). We contacted the breeder. She said she would take Lucy back and refund our money. She flat out told us she would have Lucy put to sleep. First of all NO we are not giving her back. Second of all why would we hand her over to a stranger to have her put to sleep? IF that were even an option in our minds (which it wasn't), obviously we would want to be the ones to be there with her! We made this all clear to the breeder and she did give us a full refund. Which made me feel good because I always felt awful about giving her my money. And obviously we still have our dog. 5 years later.

Soo if you have a health contract definitely go over it and see what exactly it spells out. Let her know what exactly you want which it sounds like you did. I think the RIGHT thing to do would be to refund the money, I mean this is not a mature adult dog that suddenly got this condition, this is a young puppy still! But if it's not in the contract, then technically she doesn't HAVE to refund you, so you may have to cut your losses...

 

[brodieboxer]

Read the fine print in your contract. Most will state that the breeder will replace a defective puppy with another, in case of a genetic defect, rather than giving a refund. All you can do is ask for a refund and see what the breeder says. Since you're keeping the puppy, you may not get anything, but hopefully I'm wrong!

 

[Gatorblu]

Our first boxer came to us with parvo and coccidia and in the first week we spent twice as much in vet bills then we paind for the dog. My husband called the vet mainly to let him know that he gave us sick dog and to let the other new puppy owners be aware there maybe a problem. Instead of being concerned for the pups and his own dogs' health, he got defensive. (That is when I found out how naive I was.) My husband in turn got upset with this attitude and he got the breeder to refund half of our money. At that point it was the principle that the breeder should be responsible for something. Yes he was a backyard breeder and with each dog we have become more and more educated.

 

[DycksDogs]

Read the fine print in your contract. Most will state that the breeder will replace a defective puppy with another, in case of a genetic defect, rather than giving a refund. All you can do is ask for a refund and see what the breeder says. Since you're keeping the puppy, you may not get anything, but hopefully I'm wrong!

The contract states that:

"....seller will not be held responsible for the development of any non-genetically derived disqualifying faults, diseases or disorders."

It also states that the seller will replace the dog in the event of death before the age of 5 due to SAS, ARVC, hip dysplasia, or thyroid dysfuntion.

But having said all of the above, we have yet to get the signed agreement back from her.
She had sent us the documents and asked us to return them to her which we did. She said she would send us the signed copy once she had the registration number from the CKC. As of today, we still have not received these documents. I did ask her for them once and she advised she was waiting for the CKC documents.
My sister purchased a puppy from her a year ago and a second puppy a few weeks before we purchased Cooper (they are from two different litters). My sister has had no issues.

I'm thinking that the chances of getting our money back are slim to none. Which is funny because in my conversation with her on the phone shortly before Cooper got sick she said that she was not concerned about the money but ensuring they found good homes.