Very bad experience with Sandy Aussies and Pomeranians
Had a very bad experience with Sandy Aussies and Pomeranians, but what I have realized is that this business has very much insulated themselves from reviews, so thankfully I can review on Yelp. I put down a deposit with her for a Pomeranian for my wife's birthday. We drove over 3 hours from NJ to Fultonville, NY to pick up the puppy as agreed with Megan Sandy, the owner. When we were about 15 minutes away I get a text from Megan saying "I will bring him out when you arrive." We drove to NY to have an opportunity to see where the puppy was brought up, have a chance to interact with the puppy, and to meet the parents, as with any responsible breeder. So I texted Megan: "Megan we were hoping to come in and meet the puppy, have a chance to play with him, and to ask some questions." She texted back that she doesn't bring people in the house. Then she texted that she works from home for NY State so "I'll have to be quick." So in the period of about 2 minutes, we were told that we could not come into her house / place of business, and that she would have to be quick so not only could we not see where the puppy was brought up, but we would have minimal time to interact with the puppy. And all of this happened 15 minutes before we were scheduled to pick up the pup. I texted back respectfully that we were very concerned with not being able to see the environment, parents, play with the puppy, etc. Her response was "Okay, I will decide for you. I will refund your deposit now. Sorry we didn't see eye to eye and I wish you luck in finding the perfect breeder". We were obviously devastated, so we headed home.
Then while we are on the way home, the excuses started to come. Everyone is sick, the stress of strangers in my home is too much for my dogs, I'm a very busy person, I have a dog in labor. All of this after we drove over 3 hours, she had a $500 deposit from us and all of our information. Also, despite her cancellation of the agreement and promise to refund, she has not sent anything and will not respond to texts asking about it.
So then I am thinking, but she had all of those good reviews. So I start digging. Apparently, Good Dog allows breeders to remove any "Stories" that are submitted that they do not like (see gooddog verified-owner-stories). I tried to leave a review on Facebook but reviews are shut down for her site. I tried to leave a review on Google but there is no ability to do that (maybe because they did not register with Google as a business but not sure). Why would someone go to all of that trouble to avoid reviews, except ones that they can control?
So I am hoping that I can help you avoid the experience I had. We will find a dog that we can love from a reputable breeder, but I wish I had known in advance.