NO SHIPPING: I do not ship puppies. I do not deliver to parking lot meetings. You will need to come to my home in Hood River, OR to pick up a puppy or dog. You should plan for about an hour at pickup.
I prefer that puppies meet their new owners in an environment where they feel safe before heading out on their journey. There is a lot of information I will go over with you in person and there will be paperwork to do. I also want the new owner(s) of the puppy to have opportunity to see their puppy in person before taking ownership.
If you will fly in to pick up your puppy, we can make arrangements to meet at PDX airport (or a nearby hotel). You should still plan for about an hour while we go over everything, sign paperwork, and you meet your new puppy. Or if you prefer, it's a beautiful 1 hour drive through the Columbia River Gorge to my home.
ADULT DOGS: I will only adopt out adults & retired dogs to people who are local to the NW so that if anything goes wrong or the placement doesn't work out, I am within driving distance.
I do not breed a lot of litters and have a LONG WAIT LIST. It can possibly be YEARS before I have something available for you. Males are not in as high of demand so if you are open to a male, your wait could be much shorter.
THE WAITING LIST: First off – I do not breed a lot of litters so my waiting list is VERY LONG. If you are looking for an immediate puppy, I am not the breeder for you. I breed for myself first. I am looking for my next possible show prospect and what would fit well in my breeding program.
Spunkypaws Chihuahua Family alumni have the next priority in being offered a puppy. These are proven homes that I have placed puppies in and they kept them their entire lives.
After that, I will look at everyone else who has submitted an application to secure a place in line on the waiting list. Some people are waiting for a specific gender/coat/color/size, and many will have already found a puppy by the time I have something available. Because of these variables, as well as not being able to predict how many puppies I will have, it is not possible for me to tell you exactly where you are at on the list. You can just expect that it will be at some point in the future.
I am very busy and overcommitted and the whole waiting list thing is super tedious so I will tell you right now that I am not good at sending out emails or updates of any kind of regular basis. If you haven’t heard anything in a while, it’s a good idea to send me a message (I am much better at replying to messages than emails) to let me know you are still interested.
At times I may send out a mass email to everyone at one time through Mailchimp when I have puppies and will ask that you reply if you are interested in anything from that litter. Email providers don’t like mass emails and have a tendency to deliver them to your spam/junk folder or in the case of gmail, put them in some other hidden folder you will never see on your phone. Please make sure you add my spunkypaws@outlook.com email address in your safe senders/white list. I will then look at where everyone who replied is on the waiting list and contact you individually to let you know if the puppy you are interested in is available.
TEACUP: There is no such thing as a TEACUP chihuahua. And I do not guarantee size. Most of my dogs are in the 4-6lb range. Some are a little bigger, some are a little smaller. I will give you my best guesstimate of the range I think the puppy will fall. The older the puppy, the more accurate this guesstimate will be. Some puppies grow slowly at first and then have an unexpected growth spurt. Some puppies initially grow fast (little piggies!) but then slow way down. This variance can often happen at 3-4 months old, after they have left my home.
HEALTH TESTING: My breeding dogs are health tested. This does not mean they have gone to the vet and deemed “healthy”. It means the health tests recommended by the OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) for the Chihuahua breed, which are Eyes (CERF certified exam with an ophthalmologist), Hearts (testing for Congenital Cardiac Disease by a cardiologist), and Patellas (Patellar Luxation) and receive their CHIC certification.
AKC REGISTERED: All of my dogs are AKC registered. All puppies will be AKC registered. You may choose whether or not to send the registrations paperwork in or not, but there is not an option to get a puppy without papers to pay less. The registration paper itself is not what makes a puppy cost more. It’s having quality dogs to begin with that are bred to the standard, health tested, and continually proving themselves in the conformation ring. It’s having good temperaments, raising puppies with enrichment, and beginning their socialization and potty training before they leave for new homes. It’s setting them up to be the best version of themselves they can be so they are wonderful pets. Yes, I do breed for the hopes of my next show prospect (and I always get first pick!) but ultimately these dogs will spend most of their lives being a pet, whether it’s mine or someone else’s, and I want them to be successful companions.