Planned 2023 Great Pyrenees Litters:
*Tentatively due in Late April* Thunder x Onward Acre's Flower
These two produce absolutely outstanding, sound puppies.
Thunder
Flower
Thunder x Glace
We are soooo excited about this breeding. These two have great integrity in structure and genetics...hitting all the fine points of the Great Pyrenees structure & temperament. :-)
Thunder
Glace
Past Onward Acres' Great Pyrenees Litters
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POLICIES: (PLEASE ACTUALLY READ IT)
Onward Acres Farm is our family's private property. For the bio-security, safety, health and privacy of our family, home & livestock we respectfully refrain from hosting farm visits. We provide plenty of pictures & videos of our clean setting, a wealth of honest information AND VETERINARIAN-ISSUED HEALTH CERTIFICATES with all of our puppies, therefore there is no reason for reproach. Just because somebody raises dogs, that does NOT make their own private property a public entity!
If you are picking up your Great Pyrenees puppy from us in Michigan (instead of shipping out of state), the transfer of the sold puppy to the buyer takes place at an agreed upon location. We provide plenty of honest photos & even videos of our beautiful setting here on our website & Youtube channel so that anyone who buys a puppy from us can feel assured that their puppy comes from a clean setting.
OUR GREAT PYRENEES PUPPIES DO NOT COME WITH A 'SMOKE & MIRRORS' CONTRACT FULL OF OBNOXIOUS REQUIREMENTS, NOR BOGUS GUARANTEES FROM US. OUR GREAT PYRENEES GUARDIANS ARE MANAGED WITH OLD FASHIONED LOGICAL PURPOSE. THEY ARE HARDY AND HIGH QUALITY.
Our puppies are healthy as re-affirmed by having our vet check each and every one of them so that each of our buyers receive a health certificate for their puppy.
HOWEVER....We can't sell our puppies with 1 or 5 year "health guarantees". BECAUSE... dogs can't stay healthy over time just because USELESS PAPERWORK said that they will, PERIOD. (DOGS AREN'T APPLIANCES AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY LUDICRIS TO EXPECT ANY LIVE ANIMAL TO COME WITH A GUARANTEE or WARRANTY).
The only way a dog STAYS healthy is if the owner purposefully takes good care of them. We're not under the illusion that we can control the sold dog's life.....So once a puppy has left our care, it becomes the new owner's duty to maintain the good health.
We have a lot of great health maintenance recommendations for folks who purchase one of our gorgeous puppies.
DEPOSITS POLICY:
IF YOU BACK OUT AFTER PLACING A PUPPY DEPOSIT, THE DEPOSIT IS NON-REFUNDABLE/ YOU FORFEIT THE RESERVATION OF PUPPY. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO BACK OUT OF ANY SALE AT ANY TIME FOR REASONS OF OUR OWN DISCRETION (IN WHICH CASE YOUR DEPOSIT WILL BE REFUNDED).**
WHAT ABOUT JOINT TESTING?
We don't do that. Why? In our opinion it's just one more manifestation of the ever increasing "tyranny of the professional class" which is quickly making it's way through almost every aspect of our society.
There are skillful, knowledgeable dog breeders, and there are unknowledgeable, crappy dog breeders, but this is still a free country where pretty much anyone can breed dogs if they want to, and we happen to think it should stay that way.
We believe that people who value joint testing should be free to test, and we believe people who don't value it should be free not to test. We also believe that people seeking to purchase a puppy should be free to do their own research and then decide what matters to them.
We believe that those who claim that dogs should be treated like factory built appliances with lifetime guarantees are simply blowing smoke because no person can possibly ensure the lifelong health of ANY LIVING CREATURE!
I've studied & looked at dog structure my whole life, and I've learned from other experienced breeders for many years. We have never used a dog with bad joints in our breeding program, but, theoretically, any dog can come up with a joint problem because they are living animals. Sometimes it is due to the dog getting old that it may have a joint issue, and that's ok because we live in an imperfect world. Don't freak out! If a younger dog has an obvious joint issue, it could be because it got an athletic injury and that is ok. DON'T FREAK OUT! Or it may be from bad conditioning from an owner (like exercising a young puppy too much), and sometimes it is because of a litter being raised on hard, slippery concrete from birth.
We use only sound, healthy dogs in our breeding program and we know how to manage our puppies & adults, so that we don't have joint issues. Common sense goes a long way. People need to relax and stop being so OVERLY WORRIED and stop raking breeders over the coals for guarantees that they simply cannot honestly provide.
Do not misunderstand, We are absolutely NOT saying that healthy joints don't matter and that breeding animals with bad joints is a good idea.
The fact is that some people just get a secure feeling from "professionals" certifying things whereas our experience has led us to believe that it just doesn't grant any real certainty.
Years ago, we spent big $$$$ on a beautiful female from joint certified "excellent", AKC champion parents. We thought that is "what you're supposed to do". Well, at 10 months old, that bitch had completely wrecked knees!
Were we mad at the breeder? No. But did we learn a lesson? Yes!
It should also be noted that because of her knees she was NEVER used in our breeding program.
A joints certification is just an x-ray score from ONE point in time. When a dog is around 2 years of age, it can go to the vet, have it's hips or knees (patellas) x-rayed & the x-rays are scored how good, fair or bad the joints are on that dog.... on that one day. It can't predict how the dog's joints will look in another year or even another month due to a variety of factors (Will the dog get over-exercised? Will some rogue genes cause something to go loose? Will the dog injure itself chasing the neighbor's kitty?).
Don't get us wrong....getting a dog 'joint certified' is ok.. Whatever..... If you want to attain "joint certification", then do it. Go get your "joint certification" if that is what you want. The only point we're mentioning is that it doesn't guarantee that the whole bloodline can't have/develop joint imperfections at any point of their lives. :-)
"Oooo... look!" some would say, "This breeder's puppy comes with all the certifications, that makes their bloodline trustworthy!". No, it doesn't. It is just an x-ray of some dog joints that at ONE point in time looked good. It doesn't guarantee that the dog's great aunt or great grandpa or uncle or sibling had perfect joints so that the whole bloodline is going to be guaranteed flawless. There are no flawless bloodlines, period. That x-ray doesn't guarantee what the joints of the dog will look like for it's whole life, especially if the dog exercises a lot while it is still growing.
When did people start thinking that dogs should be like shiny metal appliances with "guarantees", anyway? Do you know that ALL animals (and humans) are imperfect and may at one time or another have some kind of complication that arises from being alive? I mean, seriously people! In order to breed and cultivate REALISTICALLY UNPROBLEMATIC, high quality dogs, we only breed dogs that are functionally and visually sound....dogs who remain athletic well into adulthood & hopefully their whole life.
Look, we have NEVER used a dog in our breeding program that had joint problems. HOWEVER, and this is REALLY IMPORTANT TO KNOW- no bloodline of dogs is 100% free of any issues.
So theoretically, at some point, one of our Shibas or Pyrs in their old age could injure themselves and develop a joint issue, and it wouldn't necessarily freak us out and make us feel obligated to send out a mass e-mail to every buyer we've ever sold to, recalling all of our puppies as if they are a washing machine or cell phone with a faulty part that could cause it to explode and injure someone's grandma.
Why? Because these are living, breathing animals. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE LIVING ANIMALS WHO NEVER HAVE AN IMPERFECTION THEIR WHOLE LIFE. With age, wear & tear, any dog, no matter how scrupulous their bloodline has been managed, might have the capacity to have a joint or other health issue.
ALL THAT BEING SAID- SOME DOGS HAVE BEEN POORLY BRED AND ARE DISTINCTLY RIDDLED WITH JOINT PROBLEMS. AND THOSE LINES WITH A PROBLEMATIC THEME ARE TO BE AVOIDED.
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