TeMar German Shepherds
Mary Dygert "Reputable" Breeder? I Think Not!

I had heard many stories about what a wonderful breeder Mary Dygert was (although, as it turned out, most of the recommendations came from people that had never met her, or her dogs, and were basing their views on her nice website). I visited her website, communicated through e-mail and by phone. I researched and decided to put a deposit down on a puppy. The litter was due in 4 weeks.

I waited and waited. When the due date had come and gone by almost a week, and I still hadn't heard from Mary, I e-mailed her and asked if we had puppies yet. She responded a day or two later and said that unfortunately it had been a false pregnancy and that she wasn't sure if she would breed that female again. The deposit was non-refundable. She offered to put me in contact with the owner of a litter in Canada that had been whelped that week (from young, unproven producers) or I could buy a puppy from a bitch that had been imported in whelp a few weeks previously. Oh, and a pup from that litter would be an extra $1,000 above the agreed price on the pup from the litter that never was.

Take it or leave it, the deposit was not going to be returned. This was despite the fact that the pup I had contracted for never existed and she was not willing to honor the purchase price or quality of the pup I had contracted for.

I kept an eye on her website and about 11 months after the deposit was made I saw that a single male pup was being offered for sale, out of the imported female from the year before (the one whose pups were out of my price range). I contacted Mary about this pup and she said he was one she had kept back fro her own program, but had decided not to keep after all. He was 11 weeks old and she assured me he would fit all my requirements. He was $250 more expensive than the $1,500 pup that never was. I figured at that point that I was in danger of losing all of my $750 deposit anyway, so I sent her a cashier's check and she put him on the plane the next day.

The first thing I noticed when I picked him up at the airport was that his paperwork was missing from the envelope taped to the top of the crate. Mary had told me that she would send his AKC paperwork with his health certificate. The AKC stuff was missing, as was his health records. The only thing in the envelope was the certificate from the vet the day before he was shipped, saying that he was a young, male German Shepherd Dog. I called her when I got home and she didn't answer. I e-mailed her. No answer.

Puppy acted terrified of my two adult dogs. Cowered from them and snapped at them. He also had horrible diarrhea. Took him to the vet, had him wormed. This started a pattern that would go on for years. He would vomit, have diarrhea and little appetite. Take him to the vet, treat the symptoms.

I continued to try contacting Mary for his AKC paperwork. She finially e-mailed me and said that per our contract, she had him on limited registration in her name until he was neutered. At which point I was to notify her and she would lift the limited registration and send me the paperwork with him in my name. Contract did specify that he was sold on a neuter contract, which could only happen between 12 and 24 months of age.

He never grew out of his fear of other dogs. He did not grow out of his health issues, either. He had an un-descended testicle, no big deal since I was planning on getting him neutered anyway. But it did add several hundred dollars to his neuter surgery. I had purchased him to train for hobby competition in herding and agility and tracking. He couldn't be trusted around other dogs, and would launch himself on them if they got too close. He would also get anxious and have horrible diarrhea during training. He would redirect aggression onto his handler if restrained from attacking another dog and bit me severely.

I contacted Mary off and on for many months, asking about his health issues and wanting behavioral information. She never returned calls or e-mails. Ever. I had him neutered at 15 months of age and contacted her with that information. I got a brief e-mail telling me she would "drop his papers in the mail" that week. I never got them and when I contacted her she didn't respond.

When my dog was about 8 months old, a member of a dog forum I was also a member of purchased a half-brother of my dog (out of the same bitch). She contacted me when my dog was about 20-21 months old, and asked if I had ever gotten the AKC paperwork for my dog. I told her no and we shared information. She hadn't gotten any paperwork, either, for her pup. She contacted Mary and got a run around and she then contacted the AKC. Turns out the dam of our dogs had never been registered with the AKC. Mary had never turned in the paperwork to get this imported dog registered here. So when she e-mailed me and told me that my dog's paperwork would be in the mail, she knew that there was no paperwork to mail. She knew there was no paperwork when she told me the long story about the limited registration, etc., and she knew there was no paperwork when she told me that it would be part of his travel papers.

The other owner forced Mary's hand and within a couple of weeks we both had AKC registration for our dogs.

My dog was eventually diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Disease, which explained his stomach problems. He has to be kept separated from my other dogs, so I will have to crate and rotate him for the rest of his life. He is not quite six years old now.

You might ask why I would write this complaint now, years after getting screwed like this. I did it because people need to know that Mary Dygert has a history of being dishonest. These aren't little isolated incidents where problems crop up and she fixes the problem. She continues to blame her puppy buyers, and is crawling higher and higher up the ranks of the schutzhund organization here in the U.S. My hope is that someone who is thinking of buying one of her pups will do a google search and find this complaint. She might have highly competitive schutzhund dogs, but take a look at how many puppies she breeds and ask yourself how many of those dogs got thrown under the bus, with owners like me? There are great breeders out there! Mary Dygert is not one of them.

Company: TeMar German Shepherds
Country: USA
Site: temar.com

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