i am going to be getting a dog when i get a house in february, so i am starting to look for a responsible breeder. i am getting a standard or giant schnazuer as i have wanted one since i was a kid and finally will have the time/money/room needed to properly train one. i am located in denver but willing to travel anywhere in the lower 48 for the right dog. any help is greatly appreciated as i have only been able to find mini schnauzer breeders and they are too small for me.

If you truly love the breed, have you considered giving a home to one in need of a home?

The Standard Schnauzer Club of America has an affiliated rescue in their organization I doubt you would find a more reputable breeder than one there.

Check out their rescue here: http://www.standardschnauzer.org/rescue.html

Please consider adopting from a rescue as there are tons of purebreds in rescue and shelters in need of homes.

One real advantage of adopting one from a rescue (aside from not having to go through potty training, unless you adopt a pup), is you get to pick a dog whose personality and habits matches what you want in a dog. Even from dogs in the same litter, personalities can be very different. One can be a holy terror, chew-monster, needing tons of exercise and four walks a day just to keep them from spinning like a top 10 hours a day, and another can be a cuddly couch potato, who just likes to keep you company. With rescue dogs, who are usually a bit older, you normally get a pretty good "resume" from the foster/rescue group on the dog - including how much exercise it needs, any health issues, how it is around other dogs, around cats, around children, around strangers. All valuable info to have up front.

Try a search here - it pulled up several in your area:

http://adopt-a-schnauzer.adoptapet.com/

Schnauzers are wonderful dogs. Good that you are starting your hunt for a good breeder now. Don't compromise -- you may have this pup for 15 years and you don't want to inadvertently support an irresponsible breeder, let alone a "puppy mill" or "show mill". This may all be redundant to you, but I'm going to say it all anyway. I didn't know this stuff until I was looking for my second Samoyed (I'd inherited the first from a roommate years before).

Just because a breeder has produced a bunch of show conformation champions does not mean they have a good reputation in the Schnauzer community for producing a healthy line. Make sure you know what diseases and congenital conditions Standards are prone to and what health certifications of the parents you should be looking for. With Samoyeds (I have an 8 year old, Gidget), it is extremely important that the parents and ancestors further back in the pedigree have been certified for their eyes and hips as Samoyeds are prone to certain debilitating genetic conditions. You should meet the puppy's parents -- personality traits can be inherited, too. Gidget has her daddy's piercing yap -- the one thing about her I would change if I could.

You may also find that there are breeders with older pups available -- 6 months, 1 year or 2 years old or more. They may have shown them to attain their conformation championship or bred them and are now looking for a good home to place them with. I drove up to Niagara Falls last spring with a friend who was buying a 5 month old Samoyed puppy from a Canadian breeder.

Which raises a point: don't confine yourself to American breeders, see what's available in Canada.

Some reputable Samoyed breeders have year-long waiting lists for their puppies.

I just looked at the website for the Standard Schnauzer Club of America and it looks professional and informative, with breeder referral and a litter page. I'm surprised how few regional-local clubs are listed. I see in Googling that there is a mini-Schnauzer club in Denver. I'd contact them to see what they know of any Standard Schnauzer club or breeders. Could well be that some of the mini-owners also have standards and could be helpful.

http://www.standardschnauzer.org/

If there is not a Denver club to join (great way to network for good breeders) then I would start looking for dog shows coming to your area, where you could meet Standard Schnauzer breeders. Here's a link where you should be able to find out about any All-breed shows or Schnauzer Specialties coming to your area.

http://infodog.com/showinfo/showmain.htm

"All-breed" dog shows frequently will include a "Specialty" show in the breed you're interested in. My local club's Samoyed specialty is going on this weekend in conjunction with an "All-Breed" show.

The Annual National Specialty for Standard Schnauzers is taking place next July in California. I highly recommend attending because you can meet many breeders there and you'd probably get a kick out of seeing all those Schnauzers. The National Samoyed Specialty is always a lot of fun for me and my Samoyed, Gidget. We're going to the next one later this month. There will be 400 or more Samoyeds there -- all meticulously groomed and confident in their status as "the one."

I also join my fellow EOC-ers in advocating rescue, if that had not already occurred to you. Every breed has a rescue component -- where pups are saved from pounds and taken in from people who simply cannot care for their pup any longer -- due to illness, death, divorce, job loss....

The housing foreclosure crisis has thrown many dogs onto the street and into rescue. A friend of mine recently obtained a Schnauzer from rescue. His owner had been foreclosed upon and had made the effort to find him a new good owner through Schnauzer rescue. He's a doll and very handsome. There is much to be said for a pup that's already house-trained and whose personality has formed.

Good luck to you in your quest. Meanwhile, I suggest you start subscribing to Whole Dog Journal and looking for a good book on raising a puppy, if you are set on a puppy. I recently took care of a breeder friend's two 10-week old Samoyed puppies. Had them for a week and it was exhausting! One puppy is tiring (because of the potty training you don't get a full night's sleep -- they have to be taken outside in the middle of the night when they are young). Two were absolutely exhausting.

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/


:-)

thank you all for the information, hiker chick i will deffinatly look into that show in california, i have family/friends out there anyway i was planning on visiting in the summer. i am well aware that there are plenty of dogs in shelter but i am pretty set on what i want, and my roomates have a 15lb pug mix, so if im going to be getting a dog that will grow to be 40-60 lbs i want to get it as a puppy so i know it will get along with the little dog. i would not mind the right 6 month or younger rescue animal if i can find one when im ready for it. im going to have the dog for a long time, so it is important to me to get exactly what i want, even if it means traveling accross country or even up to canada to get it. if anybody happens to stumble upon a standard schnauzer puppy at their local rescue, please post on here or send me a pm. i have found 1 breeder so far, but they just have giant's at the moment. my grandparents mini schnauzer just recently passed away at 18 yrs old and it was the best behaved dog ever, thats how i came accross them.

'twas a veritable Schnauzerville at the all-breed dog show today near Berryville, Virginia. Standards and mini.

Of course, I wouldn't have taken note but for this thread. This was the very first photo I took today -- in route to the Samoyed part of the grooming tents.
:-)

I would still recommend contacting the Standard Schnauzer Rescue, they are right there in Denver too...


Donna Starr-Gimeno (303) 860-0697
Most folks really don't understand that the dogs in rescue actually are the exact same dogs from the breeders, they just lost their homes for various reasons.

Rescue and shelter dogs aren't broken, defective or bad...

I would still recommend contacting the Standard Schnauzer Rescue, they are right there in Denver too...


Donna Starr-Gimeno (303) 860-0697
Most folks really don't understand that the dogs in rescue actually are the exact same dogs from the breeders, they just lost their homes for various reasons.

Rescue and shelter dogs aren't broken, defective or bad...

Amen to these words! Please, at least contact them and check what's out there. Right now there are so many pure breed dogs in the rescues. Give them a chance.

She wants a puppy. Puppies from reputable breeders aren't in rescue. Older dogs from reputable breeders may end up in rescue and the breeders are horrified if they find out.

I'm still in regular contact with Gidget's breeder in Colorado. Gidget's 8-years old and every year all the owners of the 8-puppy litter receive birthday and Christmas cards from the breeder.

Reputable breeders make buyers sign a strict contract requiring the dog go back to the breeder if it cannot be kept and they keep up with their puppies' new homes.

Puppies are alluring -- so cute and moldable.

But then I babysat those two 10-week olds a couple weeks ago and it was a stark reminder of how wonderfully calm, non-destructive and potty-trained mature dogs are. That and altruism are the great appeals of rescue.

Took three days to catch up on sleep lost during Puppypalooza.

Was reminiscing today with someone about Gidget's teething stage. She cost me more in shoes and sunglasses than I paid the breeder for her. I will very seriously consider an older Samoyed from rescue on my next go-around.

:-)

Purebred puppies can be found in rescues and shelters and sadly many never get the chance to leave. I'm not commenting particularly about Schnauzers since they are not my breed of interest, but I have seen Sibe puppies placed from both shelters and also from rescues, but I also live in a notorious puppy mill state. The only thing is rescued pups are not "papered", then again it's only paper and compared it saving a life that's inmaterial, IMHO.