I had always wanted an english bulldog, but due to the cost knew I would never own one. My wife as a wonderful gift to me saved money and for my 36th birthday bought me a beautiful bulldog from a company called DOG VALLEY Inc. They had many great looking dogs available on their website and my wife chose one she thought would fit me perfectly.
The dog was delivered and I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. Then things began going down hill from there. As per the agreement with Dog Valley we were required to have the dog checked at our vet within one week of purchase. We did so and to our horror were told that my dream pet had an extremely pronounced heart murmer and that she may only live for a few years. We contacted the head of Dog Valley (SEAN) who told us that all of the dogs they import, (This one came from russia), are checked by at least 3 vets before he gets them.
1 checks the dog before issuing a plane ticket, another checks the dog to be sure it is healthy enough to fly and the third vat checks the dog when it comes off of the plane in the U.S. If you look at their web site it says exactly that. When I spoke to Sean about this he told me that he didn't understand how the heart problem could have made it past all 3 vets. I proceeded to tell him that the murmer was so loud I could hear it without a stethoscope and only had to lay my ear on my dogs chest.
He seemed less than worried about what I had to say. I spent more time going through the papers we recieved with the dog and came to an interesting conclusion which I phoned Sean about. I asked him for copies of the vet's findings (all 3) so I could see how it got past. He said he didn't have that info. I asked if that could be due to the fact that there were no vets who checked the dog? He asked what I meant. I told him that from what I could tell by reading between the lines, the so called vets were not vets and that they in fact were only customs agent who checked loads of animals onto a plane according to a manifest.
He tried to take me off of this subject numerous times but finally agreed that yes in fact these were not vets as he has listed on his website and were ony customs agents., As we argued over the lies and deceiptfulness of his operation he finally offered to take my dog back and replace it with a (better) one. I sternly told him that we were not dealing with a used car here and that I had fallen head over heels in love with my dog and he would have to do better than that. We didn't hear from him for a while and finally consulted our attorney who contacted Sean regarding a pending lawsuit.
At this time he decided that he may be willing to refund half of our purchase price of $1300.00 due to the fact the dog could not be bred. We did not get the dog for breeding purposes so this was not a huge concern for us but it was just another bruise on an already sore situation. We took the dog as requested by our vet to the University of Washington in Pullman Washington for a full evaluation and found that she had a heart valve that had not fully developed and would over time cause the walls of her heart to thicken and could eventually cause a heart attack. This evaluation was to the tune of $500.00 and the impending operation to correct the problem will cost another $1500. To $2000.00 which our tax refund will be gladly dedicated to.
Then we move to the story of the pedigree papers, Sean decided to name my dog before I got her and that name became her listed pedigree name. No matter what we do the AKC registry says we are stuck with the name he gave her. We gave her another name but we can't register her under it due to Seans foul business practices. When we asked him about getting it changed he said he would do it for us if we sent him ANOTHER $50.00 which is the amount we sent him for the original pedigree papers.
Anybody smell a screw job here. Needless to say our dealings with DOG VALLEY USA have been somewhat less than pleasant. Thankfully our dog means more to us than any piece of paper or U.S. Currency but everone beware, There are better, more reputable breeders out there. Dog Valley is not a breeder they are import brokers and do not have your best interests and wishes at the top of their priority list. With them it's money, money, money.
My advice is steer clear of them. If you choose to do business with them be sure to ask questions, like vet names and reports of the dog before you talk purchase read their contract carefully. It is severely onesided, and you are not the side it leans to. We love our pets with all of our hearts and we hope you do too.
Good luck with pet purchases but beware
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