Obtaining a Dog or Puppy from Wickhaven

A puppy is an investment of time, money, and love. At Wickhaven, we strive to breed puppies that conform to the breed standard and with the intention of improving the quality of the breed as a whole. Of course not all puppies will meet the criteria by which we evaluate potential show and breeding dogs. The puppies who do not meet this criteria are sometimes available to the right homes as companion pets who we hope will provide your family with years of love and friendship. Our dogs are considered members of our family and we expect that a Wickhaven puppy will be treated as a member of your family as well.
All our puppies are raised in our home. We spend hours socializing and providing human interaction to help make a confident and happy puppy. We observe and evaluate each puppy so that we can make recommendations about which puppy would be best suited to your lifestyle and interests.

Wickhaven puppies are sold on contracts providing a guarantee against hereditary defects, whether they are sold as show potential or as family companions.
The parents of our puppies have been chosen for their individual qualities and their potential to contribute these qualities to future generations. All dogs used for breeding by Wickhaven are tested for hereditary eye and patella problems. We require that all pet puppies be spayed or neutered by the age of 5 months.

We interview our prospective buyers carefully. We will not to sell a puppy to a home where we believe the puppy is not best suited, so please do not be offended that you will be asked a great number of questions if you should decide you are interested in one of our puppies. We are simply trying to determine whether or not one of our puppies will be right for you.

-A Word on the Hairless vs. the Powderpuff Variety-

Please be aware that we get requests for hairless females (for show and for family companions) far more than anything else. Most people are drawn to the look of the hairless Crested from the start, and fail to really consider the powderpuff variety. The “puffs” are probably the best kept secret in the toy dog world. They do not shed, and while they do need to be groomed on a regular basis, they can be kept in a short “hairless” clip giving them the outline of the hairless variety, or in a “puppy clip”, which gives them shorter hair and a fluffy look.

Also, many people do not understand that within the hairless variety there is a vast difference in the amount of “body” hair and “furnishings” (hair on the legs, tail and head) that each dog has. While the hairless dogs in pictures you may see will probably have silky, smooth skin on the body, the amount of grooming that goes into getting these dogs that way is sometimes much more extreme than what is required to groom a powderpuff. This is where breeders use the terms “natural hairless” and “hairy hairless”. The natural hairless has little to no hair on the body, and often, but NOT always, the furnishings will be thin and sparse. The hairy hairless may have a thin strip of hair running down the spine and onto the thighs, or it’s entire body may be covered with hair except under the chin or on the backs of the thighs or belly. The hair on the body of these dogs will often be coarse and feel like the coat of a terrier. The furnishings on these dogs will usually be fuller and have more length to them. These dogs are still genetically hairless, but because of the way the hairless gene in this breed works, it is called “variable”, or rather, the gene presents itself with “variable expressivity”. Even when we breed two naturally hairless dogs together, there is no guarantee on what we will get as far as body hair is concerned on the resulting puppies. It’s the nature of the genetics of the breed. So…, if you desire a hairless dog with the “pony” look, chances are you will be doing a fair amount of grooming to keep your dog looking that way. In either variety, puff or hairless, if you do not want a “full” face (long hair on the face) then it will have to be clipped or shaved.

Our dedication to this breed is evident in our choice of the dogs we breed, the care with which our dogs are raised and the extent to which we go to ensure the best possible homes for the puppies we sell.

If you have questions or are interested in a puppy or an adult dog from Wickhaven, please drop us an email and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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