even een verhaal van ne collega van mij hier neer zetten. Als er mensen zijn die een (sussex) spaniel willen kopen: gelieve dit maar even door te nemen. (Naam van de kweker staat er met opzet niet in vermeld)
As some of you may know I've bought an adorable/stubborn little Sussex Spaniel puppy in June 2010 named Jolene. She's now 6 months old and finally accepting that she has to listen to me. But she's never been really healthy and had digestion trouble since she was about 10 weeks old (2 weeks after I got her) which gradually become worse.
I got her at a recognized breeder, recommended by a Belgian spaniel club, and paid the not insignificant sum of €1000 for her. Over the past 6 months I've spent in excess of €400 extra on vet visits, diet feed, labtests, medication, ... and yesterday after the latest test I got the news that she may be suffering from pancreas insufficiency which requires a lifelong treatment which'll probably cost about €30 a month in medication and potentially a specialized (and expensive) diet food.
It's hard to put a price on the love a dog gives you, but having been around dogs my whole life (my parents bred labradors for 20 years) I also have to be realistic. I'm coming close to the turning point where I need to decide whether all the expenses and frustrations are worth it or bring my little Jolene back to the breeder for warranty (I hate that word when applied to pets).
But for now nothing is certain until we do a bloodtest so I contact the breeder to discuss what to do and we agree that I would bring Jolene back to her this Wednesday with a full report of all treatments the puppy had received. She would then take her to her vet with this report as a guide on thursday or friday. So Wednesday I call to confirm and she already changes the date for a vet visit to Monday or Tuesday. Still a few days delay is possibly, so I drive over there to drop her off and discuss how we'll proceed from here on. She reads my report but instead of opening a discussion she starts heaping abuse on me about how I haven't listened to her, that I shouldn't have changed kibble 9 times (most changes were to special diet food for dogs with digestion problems advised by a vet with 30 years of experience in treating dogs). By this time the one week had become 2-3 weeks because she wanted to put Jolene on her own preferred kibble and make sure she was stable on it (good or bad) before going to the vet if at all.
I retort that if she just wants to ensure that my dog has the same diet for 2-3 weeks, that I can just as well do that at home and she gives me an ultimatum, her way or the highway and if I take her back with me I need to sign a waver that she is relieved of all responsibility and by extension the 2 year warranty on hidden defects required by law. To prevent the situation from escalating further I decide to leave Jolene there for now and gather my thoughts.
Important to note about the above visit is:
- That she repeatedly told me that Sussex Spaniels can develop intestinal distress from simply changing kibble once
- That she has blamed me for messing up the dog by changing kibble and now she wants to change it again
- That she has repeated several times that stress can cause intestinal distress in Sussex Spaniels
So in essence she wants to change kibble and take the puppy out of her familiar environment to ensure that she's fine or not, that seems very counterproductive considering the above. Especially when I've stressed to her that I have Jolene stable on the kibble I'm feeding her.
Thursday afternoon my mother calls the breeder to try and talk to her but gets the same abuse and more. My mother contacts other people who have had dealings with this particular breeder and is told that if we don't retrieve the dog now, we'll probably never see her again. In the meantime I had also contacted her vet to check if she had already made an appointment, which she hadn't, and we had contacted a lawyer who also advised us to get the dog back as soon as possible.
So in the evening we drive over to the breeder, after ringing at her door twice, I call her on the phone which she picks up and so confirms that she's home. I confirm verbally that she's home and tell her I want my dog back (legally my property). She tells me, ok but come tomorrow because I have an appointment this evening. I tell her that I'm already at her door and that I would like to have my dog back now. She responds by telling me that I can't have my dog back. I tell her that that is not for her to decide. She then tells me if I want my dog back I have to sign a waver, I refuse and tell her that I won't be signing anything and that I would like my dog back. This same process repeats a few times with me giving the exact same answer and she hangs up on me. So I call the cops to report a theft and if they would please come assist me in retrieving my property. Since she told me on the phone she had an appointment I parked my care in front of the driveway while we wait. 45 minutes of waiting later she drives up, opens the trunk to fetch Jolene and the cops arrive just as she hands me back Jolene. (The cavalry always arrive too late, don't they?).
This whole mess could have gone a lot better if she had treated me with the respect I'm due as a customer to begin with, failing that she could have apologized to my mother on the phone for her rash behaviour during my visit and still opened the discussion and the third time she could have told me on the phone please wait 5 minutes so I can feed my dogs and I'll bring her out to you when I'm finished. Instead she treated me with a total lack of respect and her behaviour was unworthy of a recognized breeder and show judge.
My next steps will be to take Jolene to the vet myself for a bloodtest, depending on the results we will see what other steps will be needed to be taken via lawyer. But I hope for Jolene that the story ends here and that she simply has a food allergy instead of a serious birth defect. For now she's been off her pancreas medication for almost a week and still doing well on the kibble I'm feeding her.