Saffioraire Puppy Selection Process

Bringing home a new puppy is a really exciting time!

We completely understand that once you've made all the decisions and now all you can do is wait to hear from your breeder, aside from all the fun of buying toys and beds and looking at photos, it can be a bit of an anxious wait.
I have made this page to explain the process a bit clearer, to remove some ambiguity and hopefully that can relieve a bit of anxiety the comes with these few months of waiting for your new fluffy arrival.

Our Waitlist

I tend to keep my "waitlist" quite short, I don't enjoy the idea of promising away puppies that we don't have yet.

Everyone who contacts us, by whatever means, is asked to fill in our ENQUIRY FORM.

This means that I can store your information in a concise and easy to access manner and I wont forget about your interest down the track. Sometimes, the amount of enquiry forms we receive outnumbers the amount of puppies we get in a litter, which means we then have to go back over our enquiry forms and make decisions on who seems the best fit for our dogs, so the more information you give us the better for everyone!

Information & Timing

Our girls are quite regular in their seasons, so we have a general idea about when they will be ready for a litter, however we are dealing with living creatures so nothing is ever guaranteed. Once a girl is in season and we have made the decision to go ahead with a mating, we will announce a general mating plan of Mum & Dad and general timing of the expectant litter.
We try our best to keep up with updates; confirming the litter via ultrasound, confirming the birth and numbers of the litter and etc. but life here is quite full and sometimes it might take an extra day or so.
It is very rare that I will advertise an exact due date, for several reasons. 1. Despite all the testing, ultrasounds, x-rays, etc, the life cycle works to its own timeframe. The LAST thing I need is to be inundated with emails and messages around the time I have a girl due to whelp, I need to be focused on my girls and have the space to give her all of my attention so when she does start to whelp I am there for her immediately. Also, the last thing you need is to be expecting an update on a specific date only for it not to come and feel as though you are forgotten or ignored.

This time is for my girl and her midwife (me!) to be in tune with each other and my computer/ phone always comes last, I assure you that I have neither forgotten or ignored you.

Again, we understand how hard it is to be patient, unfortunately there is nothing else you can do!

Costs

The price of a Saffioraire puppy is $4500.

Our puppies leave our home; microchipped, wormed, 1st vaccination (C3), ANKC pedigree papers, 6 weeks free pet insurance, a contract of sale & desexing and a Royal Canin Puppy Pack.
They also go home with a Saffioraire Puppy Pack which includes details of the parents,1kg Royal Canin Maxi Puppy dog food, a schedule of vet care, information regarding health, care & training, a worming tablet and a blanket from home.

Transport costs are at the expense of the purchaser.

We are more than happy to assist you in arranging these should you not be able to travel to us to pick up your new puppy and we aim to use road travel services wherever possible.

Pet Insurance is provided free for the first 6 weeks of your puppy coming home, after which you will have the option to renew or vary to your own company & budget.

Visiting Us

As a rule we don't tend to have people visit our home for the sake of meeting our dogs. We work full time jobs, have children, and of course our animals who take up a lot of our time. Time in our home is everything to us and we take what precious little we get to enjoy our family.

I also do not believe this is the best way to meet our dogs. Our dogs are SHEPHERDS, they are bred to protect their home and family - I assure you as a stranger they are not going to be instantly thrilled to see you at the front door!
When we are out and about, travelling to dog shows, we are in a more social environment, the dogs are used to random people at any and all times and are much more relaxed about meeting new friends. It's a much less stressful environment for us, our dogs, and you too! We are always happy to make plans to catch up with people in these times.

Once our puppies are born we allow these first few weeks for our mumma to nurture and raise her litter. This time is crucial for puppies and we firmly believe that a calm and steady mumma dog, raises calm and steady puppies.

Our puppies are born and raised in our family home, not kennels. This means they are exposed to a full house of day to day experiences, from children, TV, music, vacuum cleaners, different floor coverings, lights and lots of things we take for granted in our lives. We believe this way of raising puppies sets them up to be sound, well adjusted adults.

Once our puppies have had their 6 week vaccination we invite our new owners to come and visit the puppies.
This first 6 weeks gives us time to get to know each other and make sure we like each other! As much as I have to make sure you suit a Saffioraire puppy, you have to make sure you like me too!
By the time we get to this point, deposits will have been paid, there is mutual trust and understanding of each other and the process of your puppy going home, and the puppies are vaccinated now so they are ready to meet you and the outside world, safe from dangerous illnesses.

Choosing Your Puppy

We assess and allocate individual puppies to each home, we don't let our puppies "choose" their owner.
This is probably one of the most common questions I get asked and the initial answer is understandably often met with disappointment, however the reasoning behind this is very important and we want our puppy owners to understand why.

There are many reasons we choose to allocate our puppies to their new homes, and each one makes up the whole picture of the future of your life with your dog. We will try to explain the intricacy of each one and how they all go together.

Puppies are equatable to toddlers. Eat, sleep, play - learn and grow!
Each puppy learns and grows on their own individual timeline and as with human babies, the people closest to them are the ones who notice and understand their unique little nuances. Our puppies are born and raised in our family homes, we touch them, play with them and observe them almost constantly every day they are here with us. This means that we understand each of their little personalities and can ascertain what lifestyle would suit them the most.
Playing & growing & sleeping varies amongst each tiny individual in a litter. This means, that if you turn up to meet puppies at 10am "Mr White" might be rambunctious and curious and seemingly choose you, however if you turn up at 5pm "Mr White" might be quiet, tired and disinterested in you. This applies to all puppies in the litter. Thus meaning that the puppy you would think is your best friend in the morning, is different to the puppy you would think is your best friend in the afternoon. Basing a decision of who suits a home the most from a small window of time is irresponsible, not a true reflection of the overall personality of a young puppy and often sets both the dog and its owner up to fail.
We breed for the next generation, so we are almost always looking to keep a puppy for ourselves. The decision on conformation, gait and temperament is scientifically shown to be most reliable at 8 weeks of age. We at Saffioraire are usually very confident in our decision from 6 weeks of age, however in some litters it can be more challenging than in others and take more time. No puppy can be allocated to a new home until we have made the decision on who we are going to keep for ourselves.
You have chosen a Saffioraire White Swiss Shepherd Dog because the parents of your puppy have been very carefully selected as babies (as well as going on to pass health testing) to reflect our unique style of White Swiss Shepherd Dog and exceptional quality of conformation and temperament. Just so, we will be assessing these puppies to go on to be our future generations taking the same time and consideration so we may continue to breed exceptional dogs.
Where viable, we choose to use the Volhard Working Dog aptitude temperament test on our puppies. Unfortunately, living remotely without savvy dog trainers/ assessors in our area limits our ability to do so, this is why our own observations and time spent with puppies is so important. We also use Pat Hastings methodology of assessing conformation in our puppies.
These tests are recommended to be conducted at 8 weeks of age. We have found more reliability of Pat Hastings tests at 6 weeks of age in our Saffioraire White Swiss Shepherd Dogs, however not all litters are the same and sometimes we must wait a little longer. This means that we cannot allocate puppies to homes before this time.

Whilst having your breeder allocate a puppy to you is far less romantic than the notion that your puppy chose you to be their lifelong best friend, our method of allocating puppies to homes has not let us down.
We have been breeding White Swiss Shepherd Dogs for over 15 years, and all of our dogs go back to our foundation girl "Kesari", with the exception of Vajra, who was carefully selected from dogs known to us and knowing that they are in keeping with the style of White Swiss Shepherd Dog we strive to produce.
We know our dogs exceptionally well, we know our bloodlines, and we know our babies by the time they are ready to leave our home.

We are grateful to all of our owners for riding out the journey and accepting our way of homing puppies.
If our methodology is not for you we understand this also.

Timeline

Once you have submitted your enquiry, we wait for our litter to arrive!

Once the litter has arrived we usually wait until the puppies are a week or so old and then contact you to let you know that we have a puppy available for you.

After this, we spend the next few weeks getting to know you and your family, and allowing you to ask all the questions you haven't thought of asking yet. We schedule a phone call or a catch up (outside our home).

At 2-4 weeks of age we send out contracts of sale & desexing to each prospective home, so you can read this before committing financially. We then begin to take deposits to secure homes for each puppy.

At 6 weeks of age puppies are vaccinated and we then begin to schedule visits for those who are close enough to come out and meet the puppies as a group. It is worth noting that these visits are not the common practice due to distance and we aim to keep everyone updated via photo and video.

Our puppies are ready to go home at 8 weeks of age.

We take final payment and arrange a time for your puppy to head off home to you!