At Home Cocker Spaniels
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you health test?
We do our best to produce the healthiest dogs we can. We believe in having annual eye exams and we are in the process of genetic testing for PRA. One of our vets specializes in orthopedics and regularly checks the dogs for any abnormalities. Cocker Spaniels have a high incidence of luxating patellas so we have all of our adults' patellas OFFA evaluated.
How can I adopt a puppy?
We keep a waiting list. We ask you to complete and return a questionnaire. These are all reviewed and approved puppy parents are added to the waiting list. After the puppies are born and thriving, we contact approved homes in the order they contacted us. There is no cost or obligation to be on the waiting list. It is more important to us that you find YOUR just right puppy than that you adopt one of our puppies. Please just let us know if you find another puppy so we can take you off the list! If you are interested in completing a questionnaire, you can download one here.
How long is the list? How long do we have to wait?
We only breed our girls when they are healthy and have passed all their health screenings. They go in season on their own schedules! And the list is always long! But not every person on the list still wants a puppy by the time we have puppies. We've gotten down to person 46 on the list before we homed all the puppies. Don't be discouraged by where you are on the list.
Do you offer full registraion?
No. We do not offer full registration. Our puppies are all homed on a spay / neuter contract. If you are interested in getting a puppy from us, part of our contract is your agreement to spay / neuter your dog. It's really important to us.
What does my puppy come with?
We deworm the puppies 4 times before they go home. They see the vet twice and have their first set of shots. We work on house training by teaching the puppies to use a litter pan. Many of our new homes have reported quick training! The puppies go home with their immunization record, your AKC registration paperwork and a 1 year guarantee that your puppy will be free of genetic defects. We will ALWAYS take the puppy back though - ALWAYS.
What is your homing fee?
We take great care to breed dogs with great temperaments and beautiful looks. The health testing of the adults and the care of puppies are important to us. Our puppies are $800 regardless of color or gender. Every puppy gets the same love and care, no puppy is less valuable than another.
We LOVE to talk about our program and our dogs. We want to talk to you. Honestly. We're nice people! Please call Kate (540.282.8433) or Kelley (804.363.0888) or email us (athomecockers@yahoo.com)
Do you have more questions?
Where are you located? Do you ship?
We are in both Harrisonburg and Richmond VA. Most of the time the girls live with Kate in Harrisonburg. To ensure that every litter gets plenty of attention, we share the whelping and raising responsibilities so sometimes the litters are in Richmond VA.
We prefer NOT to ship. We will drive to meet you and make it as easy as we can to pick up but we prefer you pick up your puppy either from our homes or from an agreed upon meeting place. IF we do ship, it costs an additional $400.
Before you contact us, we want you to know...
Please don't just email or message us brief questions like 'price?' These are our puppies and it hurts our feelings. There are so many more things you should want to know than the price. If the price is all that is driving your decision, please adopt from a shelter. Ask us more questions about how we care for our dogs, what testing have they had, what is our breeding philosophy, what are we trying to achieve with our program.... And, please tell us something about you. We pour our hearts into these puppies and into our adults so please understand why we want you to get to know us and we want to get to know you.
