Steadfast Kennel is an AKC Breeder of Merit intent on preserving the Standard Schnauzer breed in health, form, and function as a working dog and family companion. As such, our puppy placement process is built on core principles that promote responsible and purposeful dog ownership. We strive to match our puppy temperaments and physical traits to the new owner’s environment, wants, and needs. Just like children in a family, some puppies have special qualities and abilities that are better suited for a show (conformation) home while others may be better suited for sport/performance. All our puppies will make exceptional pets, but only a subset will be placed with pet homes not engaged in dog sports or shows. Standard Schnauzers are an intelligent, duty-driven, and active breed that love to train. And we take our role to serve as their advocate very seriously. We seek homes that will treasure them as much as we do, while honoring their working dog heritage by providing them a fulfilling sense of purpose throughout their lives.
Our primary goal is a healthy puppy that is a blueprint of the breed standard. We guarantee our puppies will be healthy and beautiful, with no known genetic flaws. We are steadfast in this promise and guarantee it in our contracts. We participate in the Canine Health Information Center (CHIC) Program and only breed dogs that have cleared all health requirements through OFA. Our puppies go to their forever-homes vaccinated, dewormed, microchipped, and registered with the AKC. We perform biosensor exercises (early neurological stimulation) starting when puppies are 3 days old and continue their training throughout the time they’re with us. Most are almost completely potty-trained and know basic sit/stay commands when they go to their new homes at 10 to 12 weeks old. Please note that some breeders let puppies go at 8 weeks old, but we are persuaded by studies that indicate the period of 8 to 11 weeks old as the Final Imprinting Phase – one of the worst times for a puppy to experience the unknown! We believe a disservice is done to the puppy and the new families when it is separated from its known environment during this important development phase.
When you review the lineage of our puppies, you will see they descend from excellent Champion and Grand Champion bloodlines. Many are titled in companion and performance sports such as Barn Hunt, Fast Cat, Coursing, Dock Diving, Farm Dog, Canine Good Citizens, Trick Dogs, and Therapy Dogs. We’re very proud of all our titled dogs because they’re a testament to good breeding and the dedication of their proud owners. Showing and titling is where your puppies’ legacy is recognized and recorded for posterity, so even pet owners should encourage and support these efforts since it represents your puppy too! A very important value we hold is that no matter the classification of your puppy (show, performance, or pet) he/she represents our kennel, is loved by us, and is expected to be a great ambassador of the standard schnauzer breed. These goals are achieved not only by genetics, but also by their environment. That is why we don’t use a “first come, first serve” approach for applicants, but rather a stringent evaluation of many factors to ensure best-matched unions. With these factors considered, we hope potential puppy owners will better understand our selection process, and trust in our choices.
The Steadfast Methodology of Assessment and Guidelines of Puppy Placement
It’s sad there must be a monetary element to puppies. If we had our way, everyone would get a free puppy! However, there are a lot of expenses associated with getting to a pregnancy (sometimes including in vitro fertilization), during pregnancy, and rearing of the pups. We only breed dogs that have, at minimum, reached champion level since that proves they’ve been evaluated by multiple judges. Further, our dams (mothers’) are tested and pass, at minimum, all health tests specified by the Standard Schnauzer Club of America (SSCA) and receive extensive veterinary care during pregnancy, including ultrasounds, x-rays, the highest quality food, and supplements to ensure not only her health but the health of the litter. Once the puppies are whelped (birthed), there are MANY mouths to feed, special care in getting the best nutrition through their mother, tails docked, dewclaws removed, AND TIME! It’s a full-time job making sure the puppies and their play/bed areas are clean, receive the utmost attention required to develop physically and socially, and loads of nutritious food. Bottom line, we spare no expense for our puppies!
For the reasons above, we do not accept deposits before we have puppies available, nor before we’ve had time to evaluate them. The price of all our puppies are the same whether they are deemed as potential show puppies or not. There is an additional flat fee if you want to have your puppy’s ears cropped and it covers the cost of surgery and aftercare.
Our application is purposely extensive because it allows us to make our first-pass evaluations of potential best-fit homes for our puppies. We encourage you to be as forthcoming and thorough in your answers as possible since ‘best-fit’ comes from knowing our dogs and getting to know our applicant’s desires and interests. We really want to get a sense of you/your family and why a Steadfast puppy would add to your home. We want to hear your story! You can find the “Puppy Application” under the “Litters” tab on this website. You will be asked if you have read and understand the content of this document before signing the puppy application.
Sadly, we will receive more applications than we have puppies available. It is difficult for us when we don’t have a great match for nice folks that undoubtedly would be great puppy-parents. We’ll provide referrals to other reputable breeders when we know of available puppies, and we encourage you to stay in touch with us even when you get your puppy elsewhere. We really want you to be part of the standard schnauzer community!
Timing of The Assessment Process
First and foremost, our dogs and puppies are our pets and family members. Whether a puppy goes to a show home or a pet home, we expect the same active lifestyle and safe environment for them. As such, we look for environments where a puppy can thrive and flourish. We are so committed to the assessment process that we put together a panel of reviewers to assess each application. The reviewers are specialists in the breed and often have experience in breeding, training, conformation (showing) and sports performance. We take each application and set objective measures for rating. When complete, we rank each applicant relative to the puppies in the litter based on our assessment of their classification (show, performance, and pet). Although, some puppies may fit more than one classification.
At approximately three weeks after the pups are born, we’ll start reaching out to potential puppy parents for phone interviews. It is common for us to have at least one reviewer on this call as well. This process could take a few weeks. So, if you don’t get a call right at three weeks, don’t stress. After we have completed all our phone interviews, we will begin final prioritizing of applicants. We aim to complete the process and notify all applicants by the time the puppies are six weeks old. Once you have been notified that a puppy has been placed with you, there will be additional documents to sign, payment to be made, and time for you to make travel arrangements and decide whether you want your puppy’s ears to be cropped.
A Word on Cropping and Docking
Tails are docked in what we believe is the least stressful way. At birth, we place a tiny rubber band on the tail, so it constricts the blood flow and the tail portion below the band falls off within a few days. We place the bands on puppies right in front of mama and there’s no crying and no stress by either puppy or mama. At this young age the tail has not yet fully developed blood vessels and nerves, and the whole process is drama-free for all. Because we perform this docking at birth, we generally will not be able to offer undocked dogs to prospective owners.
We have a wonderful vet that has many years of experience performing ear crops and is a loving mini-schnauzer breeder as well. He’s well-trusted within the Texas standard schnauzer community and we’ve had no infections or repercussions from his work. Ear-cropping is optional, and we will have matched our puppies to selected owners in time for them to make and notify us of this choice. The puppies’ ears are usually fully healed by the time they’re ready to go to their new homes. If for any reason they’re not, we would keep the puppy long enough to complete the healing process unless the owner is willing to take responsibility for the aftercare.
We consider cropping and docking to be an elective surgery no different than dewclaw removal or spay/neuter when done for convenience. Your desire for cropped or uncropped ears does not impact our decision when selecting potential owners.
Your Opportunity to Assess the Litter
We used to invite applicants to visit us so you could get to know our dogs, the puppies, us, and the environment in which we’re raising them. However, with current COVID concerns we’ll likely need to scale-back this option. Instead, we encourage you to do most of your research online. You can learn about us via our website, Facebook page, and YouTube channel. We have Steadfast owners from prior litters that would be happy to speak with you about their experience with us and our dogs. We hope to also offer a live feed puppycam.
Important Policies of the Kennel
We do not ship our puppies nor allow a puppy to be placed in a cargo hold. If you’re selected to receive a puppy, you will have to come and get your puppy personally. You can either fly in or drive. Once we have notified you of placement, we will work with you to accommodate your transportation plans.
We do offer “turn-around flight” service to our puppy parents that choose that option. This means you book a roundtrip flight with just a couple of hours layover between arrival and departure. When you arrive, we meet you at the airport with your puppy, a soft-crate carrier that fits under the seat in front of you, and all the necessary paperwork for our transaction and the puppy’s travel requirements. There are additional costs you’ll have to cover for this method since we must take the puppy to the vet for the health certificate required for airline travel, buy the crate that you’ll take with you, and travel to/from the airport. We only charge for those actual costs, nothing extra. There are areas around the airport where we can go sit, socialize, do paperwork, and let you and your puppy get to know each other better. It is of utmost importance you schedule your arrival date WAY in advance. Airlines have restrictions on how many pets can be in the cabin of any given flight and you need to notify them in advance and reserve it. So, if you plan to fly home with our puppy, you should start planning the very day you’re notified you’ve been selected as a puppy-parent. Remember not to book your flight for an earlier date than what we’ve agreed to as your earliest pick-up date. We will work with you to the best of our ability to plan and make the transfer as smooth and as easy as possible.
Stay in Touch
We want you to commit to keeping us up to date on your puppy throughout their life. This is an important feedback loop for us as breeders. We are proud of the lives we’ve brought forth and want to know how they are doing mentally, physically, and socially; any challenges you may experience, and most importantly, how much fun you are having with your dog. We hope you’ll come visit whenever the opportunity presents itself. We have some owners that meet up with us at events, some that come over for a play-day, and still others that drop off their Steadfast dogs for extended stays with us since it’s sort of like going to grandma’s house!
We hope you will follow our Facebook page “Steadfast Standards” as it’s a great way for you to see information about your puppy’s litter mates and keep up with all the kennel’s activities. In addition, by sending email updates, pictures and videos we can see how our hard work has paid off! At anytime during your dog’s life if you have questions or problems – WE ARE HERE. Bottom line, we are a free resource for you at anytime! Need a play date? We can hook you up within our community network. Remember the lifetime commitment we discussed earlier? We are committed to you and the dog for life! It works both ways. When we hear from you, we are able to make decisions regarding which dams (mother’s) and sires (father’s) produce the happiest and healthiest puppies. And, just like the application, we want to hear all the wonderful stories of how your puppy has added to your home! We like to hear what you are doing with your dogs. Are the dogs: competing in sports, camping, hiking, hunting, swimming, socializing with other dogs, or brightening your children’s lives? These are all important factors to know as we strive to be the best breeders of standard schnauzers.
When Your Puppy Arrives Home
You should have read several puppy preparation books by the time you pick up your new bff, but you are welcome to contact us anytime! In our experience, new puppy owners often have questions in the first days/weeks. Don’t hesitate to call or email us! Besides being a resource for you and your puppy, as breeders we have a network of fellow breeders, handlers, and other schnauzer aficionados across the country with whom we can connect.
We also encourage you to join dog clubs. We are members of the AKC, the Standard Schnauzer Club of America, and the Red River Standard Schnauzer Club of Texas. These clubs provide an important network and a wealth of information backed by experience. We encourage all our future puppy parents to join the Standard Schnauzer Club of America and the Red River Standard Schnauzer Club of Texas (if you are in any of the major cities East of Austin/San Antonio). Clubs members are not only about show dogs but also enthusiasts involved in a wide variety of activities including: K9 sporting events, grooming, feeding, genetics, training, and service/support dogs. We encourage you to take advantage of the benefits they provide.