Can I visit your facility and meet your dogs before placing a deposit or picking my new puppy?

For the health and safety of our family (dogs, puppies, and people), we only extend visitation privileges to our PICK OF LITTER candidates. We very much look forward to having you see where your puppy was raised and meeting us on puppy selection and/or going home day when we will have taken the appropriate steps to protect our animals and family. We offer online virtual tours here, which you can schedule.

VISITATION POLICY:

We receive many inquiries from individuals wanting to visit and meet our Stokeshire Breeding Team. Often, they are interested in placing a deposit and are interviewing breeders. Others have allergies and hope to play with our dogs to see if they react. Sometimes they want to know what the temperament and size are of the parents. We truly understand, however, we can’t accommodate the high number of requests for visitation, nor can we safely do so.

Parvo is a fatal disease that can infect a puppy in a very short amount of time. The disease is shed by infected dogs and can live for months or years on hard surfaces and grass. It is not a disease that affects humans and would, therefore, be difficult to detect if a visiting family was a carrier. It is also very easy for visitors to bring in parasites (roundworms, coccidia, giardia) on their shoes which can then affect all our adult dogs and puppies. The first weeks of a puppy's life are critical for the development of its immune systems. Inviting strangers into our home and studio is always a risk for my family and our team.

There is also the liability aspect. Well-meaning but inexperienced adults and children can drop a puppy or allow it to fall off of a couch, despite our instruction and vigilance. Whelping Dams are generally protective of their puppies and we find our males are warier of strangers when any of our girls are pregnant or puppies are in the home. This is not typically the best time to meet them.

Thank you for understanding and we look forward to meeting you when you come to select and/or bring home your puppy!