“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
– Benjamin Franklin
One of the top questions we get when it comes to our Valor Protection Dogs is, how much? I’m the daughter of a carpenter, and one of the things my dad always tells his customers is,“Good isn’t cheap, and cheap isn’t good.” We think of the cost of our dogs as an investment, and that investment starts with us.
We invest heavily into purchasing quality puppies, home raising and professionally training them for 1-2 years, health testing them and feeding them only the best.
Investing in the right dogs
First, we only buy superior puppies with super pedigrees. Our dogs come from the best breeders in the world, who combine decades of experience into their programs and practices. They breed for specific jobs like military and police work, search & rescue and personal/family protection dogs. Our puppies are hand-picked by breeders specifically to be personal and family protection dogs for VPD. Once selected, the puppies begin imprint training with the breeders and are then shipped to us for pick up. Most of our dogs come from Europe.
To read more on our stringent requirement for the puppies we accept into our program, click HERE. The quality pedigrees we seek come with matching price tags.
Temperament testing
Next, upon arrival, the puppies are heavily tested to ensure we feel they are a good fit for our program. Then they go to their puppy raisers and trainers. Young puppies always go to a professional trainer from our team at Valor K9 Academy, the dog training business my husband and I own. Older puppies go to either a trainer or a guardian home until a trainer becomes available. In both cases, the puppies receive 100+ hours per month of socialization and exposure, obedience and manners training, along with regular bite work training sessions for protection dog development. The dogs in our program are treated like family members. They live in the home as beloved pets.
To read more about our training standards, click here.
Our raising and training process
Home raising and professionally training our dogs is by far the biggest expense and something most companies do not offer. Their dogs may be professionally trained, but the majority are not home raised, they are not house trained, they’re not used to cats, kids and house guests, and they will not transition smoothly to buyers’ homes like our dogs will.
Health testing
Thirdly, we offer health testing. No one would buy a car without first having it inspected under the hood. Likewise, we feel that protection dogs, to ensure maximized years of working ability, need to be health tested, like their parents and grandparents were before them, to ensure they have good hips and elbows and are free of genetic diseases which could creep up later in life.
We do an Embark DNA test on our puppies, which tests for 200 genetic diseases. And once our dogs reach 12 months of age, we X-ray their hips and elbows and send those results to Germany for an official SV rating. We happily provide proof of health testing to serious buyers. The health testing we pay for and provide to our buyers is an added cost and a benefit many companies forego, because this is where many dogs could wash out of a program. Many companies simply don’t want to know if there’s bad news to be had.
Health and well-being
And finally, we place a special emphasis on our dogs’ overall health and well-being by focusing on fitness and nutrition throughout the dog’s life. We feed NuVet Labs Joint and Multivitamins to our dogs. They are all fed top-notch kibble and balanced fresh raw diets focused on slow growth and longevity. And our certified professional trainers are trained in canine fitness in order to provide age-appropriate strength & conditioning workouts to our dogs using a variety of tools and training techniques. In every possible way, we go above & beyond to take good care of our dogs.
We invest heavily into our dogs from day one, and we pass that investment to our buyers. There are companies out there selling dogs for less than ours, but good isn’t cheap and cheap isn’t good.
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