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Where to begin? I would usually never waste my time on something like this, but all of you out there looking for a siberian husky or german shepherd puppy, please for you own good DO NOT buy from COUNTS COVE KENNELS! Their website is nice, there dogs are cute, but when it comes down to it their service is down right rude and unprofessional. I have been around dog breeding my whole life and have never once met anyone who treated thier customers AND their customers family the way Counts Cove Kennels does. I was worried about them signing the guarantee on the puppy I purchesed becuase many and most large dog breeds such as Siberian Huskies and German Shepherds have hip and elbow problems. I paid $1, 020 for the puppy. I believe I have EVERY right to worry about them following through with their 3 year health and hip guarantee. I started to recieve rude e-mails attcking me on a personal level because I was worried about them not following through with signing the guarantee. I was told I was raising red flags with THEM, beacuse I was so concerned. Even though this breeder was the one with my credit card info and other info on ME, she was worried I was going to con her? How does that work out? My family breeds dogs and have been for many years now, when a family member of mine attempted to contact the breeder and see what was going on, she was rudely hung up on. In all my life i have never met a breeder that would hang up on a customer, regardless of if what they were hearing was not what they wanted to hear. The rudeness did not stop there. I finally wrote an e-mail back in an extremely professional and mature way, unlike the breeder who insisted on writtign back unprofessionaly and immaturely, and explained how her actions were uncalled for. Even after my family and I were disrespected, I held my composure and yet she did not. The next e-mail was 3 sentences only and each one just as umprofessional and disrespectful as before. If anyone has QUESTIONS FOR ME, feel free to leave a question or comment on here if possible and I will be GLAD TO SHOW YOU THE E_MAILS!
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
At the end of 2014, one of Count Cove's satellite facilities in Monterey County was shot down. Here's the URL link from the Monterey SPCA's Winter/Spring 2015's newsletter about it. They don't mention the kennel name or Lisa's name because at the time they were seeking PC 597 Animal Cruelty Charges when this came out.
I used to breed and show AKC Champion Siberian Huskies. I got out it when I became an animal control officer. As a former breeder of Siberians and now an ACO. I would say avoid Lisa's Count Cove Kennels like the plague. Don't be fooled...
www.spcamc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/SPCA-newsletter-w-s2015.pdf
Count Cove is nothing but a Puppy Mill!
All I can say is most of these people must have gone to a different CCK then we did! We couldn't be happier with Alice and our pup! We put a deposit down in January for a black and white blue eyed male. I watched the website nearly to the point of being a stalker waiting for a litter with one that we wanted and not once did I see the same dam bred twice. If this was a puppy mill, I'm convinced that b/w blue would have come up sooner. We had every opportunity to choose a different pup along the way, and there were many beautiful pups over the months but we're glad we waited. We brought Boo home 8 days ago and he's everything we hoped for. Boo is handsome, healthy, spunky, and AMAZINGLY smart. We actually waited 3 extra days for him because Alice cared enough to be sure his health was good. She's been extremely informative and caring the entire time. And guess what- if you listen to what she tells you, all of her methods work! Boo is doing great with house training, chewing, mouthing, all because we paid attention to what she says. This woman knows her dogs! I have no doubt that she will always be available to answer any questions we may have. We love our pup dearly. Thank you Alice!
Yes I agree with you. We got a Husky puppy from Alice back in 2003, she was the most helpful person with us even let us post date checks for the payment. even after we could call her and get any questions answered. In fact we are going to go back soon and get another Siberian Husky from her in a few months... see you soon Alice...
I purchased a puppy from counts cove kennels despite all of the negatI've comments i had read and I have to say that now i am wishing i had paid more attention. When i receI'ved my puppy he was delI'vered to me and was full of his own poop and pee head to toe i felt so bad for the poor thing once i got hI'm in the house i gave hI'm a bath and it took for ever to wash all the poop off of hI'm. Then i had to deal with hI'm having diarrhea for about 2 weeks after we got hI'm and within a few days after we receI'ved hI'm he started biting a lot. I figured it was a puppy thing since i had never owned a husky before but in the 2 months I've had hI'm hes become extremely agressI've and bites everyone in our household I'm not one to complain or start problems I've always found Alice to be nice but shes breeding way to many dogs at a tI'me they are not being properly socialized now my puppy attacks my child and rips her clothes and cuts her up pretty bad and i love my dog but I've tried every training technique possible if he doesn't stop i have to get rid of hI'm its not fair that i paid as much as i did for this beautiful dog and it seems like hes got some serious issues maybe from over breeding or not being socialized as a baby i don't know but I'm heart broken over this.
I still do not quite know what to believe about CCK. I had a deposit down on a puppy, chose one, and the day before it was to be shipped to me I was advised that a couple of the puppies from the same litter had passed away after getting to their new homes, and that the puppy I had chosen from that same litter, after getting her first vet visit in order to obtain a health certificate for shipping purposes, had heart trouble. Alice thought maybe the dam was getting too old and that the entire litter was possibly sick. She offered to send me two from the same litter, the one I had already chosen and another one of my choice, for the price of one. Potentially two sick puppies? After two from that litter had passed away? The second puppy I had chosen supposedly also had heart trouble, so, after all of that my name had to go back on the waiting list because she did not want to ship both puppies in that condition. Alice seems like a nice person, I never had any issues in that regard, and she was honest about the discovery at the vet's office. I do have to somewhat agree with the post above though, because it does appear from the website that the dams being bred are bred far too often to be healthy. Not healthy for the dams or the puppies that are being born sick. I have never been to the kennel so cannot comment on how clean or not clean, but after my short-lived experience with CCK, I decided to forfeit my deposit and have since gotten myself a sweet, healthy husky girl from someone other than Alice. Perhaps it would have worked out in the end if I would have chosen another puppy from CCK, but I just couldn't risk the heartbreak of picking up a puppy at the airport that was breathing. I am not advising against purchasing a puppy from CCK, but after reading a number of comments about sick puppies, not only on this site, but others, I only wanted to share my experience.
Alice Counts is a SCAM ARTIST and PUPPY MILL! We bought a dog from her, picked him up and ended up returning him because he was a very poorly socialized animal. He was already developing separation anxiety and we had only had him for a few days! He was mean to our 2 yr old female collie, who is the sweetest dog you'll ever meet so there was no reason for him to be mean. He did not work out in our family so we returned him.
We are the people that I guess she is telling people "dumped" him in her lap and she so graciously offered a full refund. Well guess what, that's SO not true! We had him for a week and in that week's time, we were all very stressed and at each others throats. Our collie was disconnecting from all of us because the pup wouldn't let her be near us and was bullying her for no reason! We made the decision to return him because it was the best option for both the puppy and for us. We called her and when we said we needed to bring him back, she was VERY rude and sounded very "put-out". We took him back and when we got there, she grabbed him out of our hands and told us to leave. We said we weren't leaving without the refund and she said she wasn't going to give that to us. She then tried giving us the puppy back because she didn't want to give us the money! Needless to say, we are now in a legal battle with her because she STILL has not given us OUR money and this happened in July 2012!
That's good that she has applications NOW. But for 20 years, she didn't. She just started the application thing after the fiasco with us. This shows she DOESN'T CARE who the puppies go to!
I have been keeping track of her website for a year now and paying attention to the sires and dams she is breeding. Guess what... there are several females that have had at least 2 litters since July! This is unhealthy and cruel! Females are not supposed to have that many litters! A breeder is supposed to wait at least one heat cycle before breeding that female again and each heat cycle happens every 6 months. That's 2 litters MAX per year. One poor female has had 4 litters since April 2012 and 2 of those litters are 2 months apart, which is the amount of time it takes for them to carry to term.
So say what you want about how "great" she is, put the proof is in the pudding. She has TERRIBLE business practices and treats her customers horribly if they disagree with one little thing she says. She's a SCAM ARTIST and PUPPY MILL and doesn't care about her dogs!
I recently bought 2 puppies from CCK. I read all the complaints, joined the Facebook page, and was so excited and just thought those complaining were just complainers.. Until I took the puppy to the vets. My female had giardia and coccidia, and my male had giardia. I understand that it is common, but the diarreah was so bad with both of them. I called her and she sent antibiotics, but at 800 and 850 for these puppies, I shouldn't have had to call her at all. She also informed me that was the last time she would help with it. I had to place them on a bland diet and give them antibiotics until their bowels were regular. My male is healthy now, but the female is still having growth and weight issues. Training them is taking care of some of the aggressive behavior they had when I got them. The other issue I had was she recommended me free feeding them, and they poop everywhere. No matter how much I tried to train and praise good potty behavior. They didn't have a sense of "let me not poop in the house" because of the conditions they were in when I picked them up. I switched them to scheduled feedings and they are much more happier with it. The kennels were dirty and poopy and it smelled disgusting. She said her guy that was so supposed to clean them cancelled, well, it didn't look like that. It look like they were left like that all the time. Alice was nice, but to me the living conditions the dogs were in when I went, and their conditions when I brought them home were unacceptable. I wish her luck but I'm explaining my side of things. I'm not even going to attempt to hold her to the health guarantee or anything because I just want to rid myself of her and the whole situation and move on with my puppies. As far as their AKC papers, after seeing all the complaints, I could care less. I'm glad I got my puppies out of there.
The original poster strikes me as an uneducated tool. Your report is hard to follow, and full of grammatical errors. Thanks. Anyway, moving on.
I have a one year old husky from Counts Cove Kennels. I bought him directly from Alice Counts.
First of all, my husband and I did go through a screening and application process for our puppy because someone had previously bought a puppy and after three days dumped it back at Alice's claiming they weren't cut out for the amount of energy a husky puppy requires. Alice takes back puppies gladly, offering a full refund. After posting this little guy's plight on her Facebook group, he found a home with a family that already owned one of her huskies and is thriving.
My husky had accidentally ingested a substance before we got him - as puppies tend to do. Alice counseled us on how to take care of him and offered to reimburse us any vet bills due to the ingestion. When we got him, he was perfectly healthy! Happy, well adjusted dog. I have had zero problems with him in the last year that weren't off his own making, like eating a rotting dead bird.. Sigh.
When I mentioned to someone that a lady had punched my dog in the face at the dog park, Alice was on the phone calling me within an hour to see how he was holding up. In fact, no issue has been too big or too small for her to immediately address with me and my dog.
I would greatly recommend Alice as a breeder. We even keep in touch with my boy's brother from her CCK litter! And that woman owns two, bought nearly a year apart, both healthy and beautiful.
I purchased a puppy from Siberian Husky from Alice in 2008. My Dakota has a beautiful personality and I love her very much... But she has Lupus and now I am faced with huge vet bills. I feel so bad when I look at her and see what this disease is doing to her.
I called Alice right away when I started to see the lesions on my dogs nose. Alice told me her dogs get the same thing and she gives them zinc tablets... So in a nutshell she knew her kennel had a blood line of dogs with lupus and kept on breeding them! She refused any other information and became very nasty when I asked why she would breed dogs with such an illness! Lupus doesn't show any signs until the dog is over year old.This meant the one year warranty that I received was done.Not that would give my dog up, I will do what it takes to help her..but I'm struggling with the added expense. Don't buy from her...trust my broken heart!
I bought a Husky puppy from Alice and feel I could not have had better service. She helped me all the way through the process, talked to me through e-mail often, and sent me the best Husky on the planet.
Alice holds a Husky round up 2 times a year and has gobs of customers attend with their dogs. I went to one in San Diego, I like her so much I drove from Utah to attend, and I had a great time.
My Husky had soft stools when he arrived, but with the plane trip and seperation of him from his litter, it's a wonder he wasn't stressed out even more. he was the happiest little guy from the first moment I saw him at the airport, and is still happy all over, all the time. I went and got $14 worth of some very minor medications from the Vet and he was right as rain.
If you are looking for a husky and you don't consider Counts Cove, you are missing a great opportunity with some healthy and awesome puppies.
Don't let some angry person who wants everything done for him because he is too lazy, make your decisions for you. I'd recommend this breeder all day long.
Mike
To Tori: Furthermore, I would not purchase a dog from any breeder who refused to offer such a guarantee!
To Tori,
I first went to Counts Cove Kennels to see the facility before I purchased a dog and the kennels are clean, the dogs are all happy and healthy and they are all loved and well cared for. This kennel did have many puppies to choose from but they are FAR FROM A PUPPY MILL. I have seen puppy mills and they are not pretty. These dogs live like kings and queens compared to any other kennel I have seen. I now have a Siberian Husky puppy from Counts Cove Kennels and so far he has been great! He is happy, healthy, ACK registered, OFA CERTIFIED, microchipped and vaccinated. He loves our daughter and even gets along with the cat (who always hated dogs). My question to you is: Do you understand what a guarantee is? It is the seller's promise to the buyer that, should there be a problem as specified under the guarantee, the buyer would resolve the issue in the manner which was promised. I HAVE a copy of the pedigree on my dog which goes back five generations and it shows that there is absolutely no inbreeding or line breeding involved. NOT TO MENTION that California requires EVERY BREEDER to offer their customers a 1 year GUARANTEE against any hereditary, genetic life threatening or quality of life defects. So maybe your question should be "how come CALIFORNIA can REQUIRE breeders to offer such a guarantee"?
To SMDogSeeker: Dogs tails can be broken IN UTERO (before they were born), so how can you just Assume that he was "slammed" into something?! When I visited the kennel, I interacted with many of the dogs and NOT ONE OF THEM showed signs of neglect or mistreatment. I am a veterinary technician and have been for 12 years, believe me, I have seen my share of abused dogs and the dogs at Counts Cove are definitely NOT ABUSED. And to comment on you parvo remark... well you should just look up parvo.. maybe educate yourself a little bit and realize that not many other breeders would have been so honest about it.
To all: I totally and completely agree with "carrieb". I WOULD, HAVE and WILL CONTINUE to recommend this breeder to anyone looking for a great puppy from by an awesome breeder.
Ok, so lets think about this like logical adults. This kennel has been in business since 1993 or 1994. I know they have alot of puppies (which by the way does NOT make it a puppy mill), so lets assume that they sell 100 dogs per year and multiply that by 16 years (at least)...that is 1, 600 dogs that they have sold (I have no idea how accurate this number is, this is just to prove a point). Out of 1, 600 dogs I have found a very SMALL handful of complaints which most of them sound like personality conflicts... I have 2 german shephard dogs (sisters) that I purchased from Counts Cove Kennels in 2004. They are going to be 7 years old in August and they are in PERFECT health. I have them groomed regularly and taken to the vet for their shots and checkups regularly and they have never had anything wrong with them at all (other than bumps and scrapes from being normal playful dogs). I have 3 young children and our dogs are so good with them! They have always been happy and playful.
I really cannot believe some of you people that are willing to bash somebody's business instead of handling your problems in a mature, adult manner.
I have referred Counts Cove Kennels to countless friends, family and co-workers and NOT ONE has had a problem or complaint. I will and do recommend them to everyone looking to get a puppy.
I strongly suggest that anyone reading this page and these complaints to go on their website where there are PLENTY happy and satisfied customers that you can talk to! I also have no problem talking to anyone about my experiences with this Kennel and the owners.
@mini29...so your problem is basically a personality conflict? Shame on you for trying to bad mouth this wonderful kennel!
@Smdogseeker...you ARE aware of how Parvo is transmitted right? This is NOT a disease that is caused by a breeder! At least your problem shows that she is honest with her clients...she could have very well lied to you about what happened or tried to do something else less honest!
@Tori...you "know for a fact that Counts Cove does NOT check their breeding stock for juvenile cataracts and hip displasia which is prevalent in the Siberian Husky breed"...that is funny - HOW do you know this? Do you do their paperwork or something? About your "puppy mill" comment...have you been to their property? They have what 2 acres of land with 2 HUGE indoor / outdoor kennels and have been in great condition everytime I have been there...I don't know how anyone would think to call their kennels in horrible condition. These are some pretty big accusations you have going on.
Sorry to rant and rave but this kind of outright slander really gets under my skin...especially since most of it is completely ridiculous.
I bought a male from her back in 2010, he's 13 now and has anxiety issues. When I went to get him there were NO parents on premises, even a litter of newborns and no mother, they all lived outside in a cage. When I went to get my dog she told me to pick him up and carry him to the lawn. As in their feces is not cleaned up just hosed off into the grass. These dogs had no life and my dog I got from her took TWO years to get him to be potty trained and had no sociable skills whatsoever, I love my dog but he is not sound. So there is definitely problems in the bloodlines somewhere.
Try this...a good place to start.
http://www.shca.org/shcahp4f.htm#CA - This is a nice registry for Siberian husky breeders
Orange County Has some great Siberian husky breeders, sired and papered dogs. Don't let the price of counts cove convince you that its the place to go, i would have gladly spent A LOT more to have a healthy puppy.
after going though the nightmare like i did at counts cove kennels...i did some homework i suggest you do the same.
yea...my dogs tail is broken too...obviously slammed in something...god that lady is horrible.
I was searching for a Siberian Husky puppy in California. I was browsing the Counts Cove Kennels website and I was pretty excited..I thought I had finally found a reliable source for my puppy. I looked up reviews on CCK and came up with 3 whole pages of sites that said "Counts Cove Kennels Complaint Report" or something along those lines. I am in desperate need of a Siberian husky puppy. Can anyone refer me to a nice, trustful breeder? I have no clue whatsoever on choosing dogs or their breeders. Thanks.
Holy Cr@pp! this breeder is a nightmare!
my 1st puppy Choice i waited a month and 4days before it came home i was told it...contracted and Died of Parvo.
my 2nd puppy Choice i waited another 3-4 weeks and 1 week before it was supposed to come home i was told it Died of "Improper Cleaning of kennels with chemicals".
One Puppy From the original litter i selected from luckily survived parvo and chose him to save him from having to deal with these conditions. Needless to say he came home sick, with diarrhea and was givin a "stool hardener", the medication she gave me was a Anti-biotic, NOT a stool hardener. LYING TO SEND SICK PUPPIES HOME.
I know there are MANY people trying to get puppies from Alice going through this same problem, I suggest get your money back ASAP.
DO NOT BUY FROM COUNTS COVE KENNELS.
I WILL NEVER EVER RECOMMEND SOMEONE TO THIS BREEDER.
check out their facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=234725211306
Yes, they breed many many dogs. Run thru some of the photos and comments and it seems like they have hundreds of happy customers. Whenever you are this big, you are bound to have an unhappy customer somewhere.
Just my 2 cents.
how did it turn out curiouslikeacat? i just reserved my pup, how long did it take for them to post your deposit? for some reason its taking a while with mine...*shrug* or maybe im just anxious.
ok help! we have put a deposit down on 2 pupppies that we are in love with. I am so disheartened with what I am reading and so I would like to see th emails from the breeder
Counts Cove kennels is a PUPPY MILL! Please check with the Siberian Husky Club of America...www.SHCA.org
She is NOT a member because all the she does is breed her dogs. She has OVER 100 dogs... that is RIDICULOUS! Her dogs are kept in horrible conditions. Please do your research before buying from anyone who sells puppies. If they don't do the health certifications required for that breed, they are a PUPPY MILL! I know for a fact that Counts Cove does NOT check their breeding stock for juvenile cataracts and hip displasia which is prevalent in the Siberian Husky breed. Ask to see PROOF of the parent's of your puppies health checks. These are called CERF and OFA numbers. If they can't produce them... they are nothing but a puppy mill and can't possible guarantee their puppies to be free from genetic diseases. I PROMISE!
I bought two puppies from Counts Cove Kennels and had no problems whatsoever. They were being flown from California all the way to Florida and this was coordinated without a problem. Alice was always a pleasure to do business with. I can see where someone insisting that the seller sign a 3 year health garantee would raise a flag in my mind too. With all the weirdos out there I could see someone mistreating their dog and then trying to make a claim waving around a garantee. Not saying that you sound like one of those people, but you can never really know. My dogs are both beyond 3 now and have never had so much as a health hiccup. Don't let the above user's comment turn you off, contact Alice and find out for yourself if you have any interest in her pups.
Kevin - Proud Owner of Baron and Navarre from Counts Cove Kennels