Menu
CB Animals and Pets Review of Joe Chisholm - Dog Breeder
Joe Chisholm - Dog Breeder

Joe Chisholm - Dog Breeder review: Breeds unhealthy puppies and sells for profit 15

B
Author of the review
4:20 am EDT
Resolved
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Featured review
This review was chosen algorithmically as the most valued customer feedback.

Our 1 year old puppy from Joe is already unable to walk due to bad knees from poor breeding - she's not only in a ton of pain, but the surgery required will cost almost $10K wil no guarantee of results. Joe breeds for his own monetary benefit with no thought of the victims he is leaving in his wake - poor, helpless puppies and the families who now are faced with huge costs just to keep them alive.

He should be booked and jailed as the special class of dirt bag he has proven himself to be - i have researched many other victims of his so i know myself to be a part of a large number of people he's conned.

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

15 comments
J
J
Jessica_OC
, US
Mar 04, 2021 1:25 pm EST

Thank you all for sharing your experiences as you probably saved me from buying a dog from these people! I was about to pick up a puppy today, but was speaking with someone named Ryan, who's apparently engaged to Sahara. They are also involved with a company called "Not Just A Puppy" - notjustapuppy.org and same on Instagram, but their IG is private.

Ryan was driving down from San Jose/Santa Clara area to meet me today in Valencia, which should have been my first red flag. His number and email show as "Joseph Chisholm" and thankfully I googled that name this morning. He said that Joe is his father, he isn't associated with him, etc. etc. I told him I was uncomfortable after reading these reviews, and said I wouldn't be meeting him without further reassurance and documentation on where these puppies came from and their health.

I repeatedly asked for the vet information and AKC numbers for the breeding pair. He couldn't provide either ("his fiancé doesn't want to give the AKC numbers out because then other people could register their dogs" . . . what?) and is currently threatening to report me to "the proper authorities" for not meeting him to pay him a cash deposit for his drive.

Do not engage with these people. Anyone who drives 7 hours round trip to deliver a dog without a pre-paid deposit is not running a professional operation.

H
H
Hello its me
, US
Aug 05, 2020 7:03 pm EDT

Does this joe character have any correlation with a breeder named Sahara? Her phone number a registered to joe so I found this page

R
R
Richie Hixson
, US
Nov 05, 2020 7:11 pm EST

Probably one in the same. Run from their ads, they're still scamming on all the pet sites, petfinder, puppydinder, etc...

J
J
Jessica_OC
, US
Jun 10, 2021 9:16 pm EDT

They are the same! Do not believe their stories and lies. Please see my other comment where I mention Sahara by name and she comes up with all sorts of lies. She is charging top dollar for purebred Golden Retrievers and they are sick at best, dying at worst.

M
M
Miriam C
Vacaville, US
Jun 10, 2021 9:52 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more
Replying to comment of

My golden was on the verge of death. Should we do a petition and sue them? What can we do legally. It is not about the money but to be able to take all of them down with their fradulent dirt bag selves.
@Jessica_OC
@Ritchie Hixson
@Hello its me
@breeox

R
R
Rachel Thur
, US
Mar 08, 2017 12:52 am EST

This is who we got our golden from back in February of 2010 in San Francisco when we were young did not know any better! The same home on Garcia in San Francisco where he is with the puppy pictured. My ex found him through Craigslist. He just said the puppies were from Oregon. I am glad we got her because she ended up being a "rescue" in the sense that she had horrible hip dysplasia, the worst the specialty surgeon had ever seen. He said she must have been birthed by a poor dog who also had horrible hips and should not have been pregnant at all due to the pain she must have been. All our pup knew the first year of her life was constant hip pain. It breaks my heart. $10, 000+ later our sweet Poly pup has a new hip and although we have had cancer scares she is doing well at 7 years old now. She has always been unusually skittish but is such a sweet girl. I would love to put this horrible man away as thankful as I am that Poly found her way in to my life.

R
R
ReeRee81
, US
Mar 07, 2017 3:30 pm EST
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I bought a golden in 2000, in Pleasant Hill. I also bought a much more expensive golden in LA, from a well known breeder. She died of bone cancer at 6 months old. The "puppy mill" dog lived until 2016, with no health issues. I hate the conditions and I wouldn't do it sgain, but I guess we got lucky with Joe. We will alwsys rescue now, but still find this sad.

M
M
MP in Bay Area
Castro Valley, US
Feb 10, 2015 11:17 am EST

Thank you for providing this forum. We have unfortunately and very similar story with our dog, Ginger, whom my husband purchased from Joe Chisolm in December of 2005, in Concord, CA. I was against buying a purebred, and looked at all the shelters and couldn't find large-breed puppy for our kids to grow up with, so my husband looked for a Golden, his favorite breed. Never again will we adopt/purchase a dog without going to a responsible breeder or knowing the health/breeding background. Ginger was born Oct. 9, 2005 at Golden Arrow Kennels in Eagle Point, Oregon. I actually took the kids there in 2006 to see where she was born, and it was definitely a "Mill" in that it was cage after cage after cage of puppies. We saw her sire as well. They only let him out of the barn once a day to run around. By that time, the dame wasn't there, and I don't know what happened to her but she had evidently had many litters. We left there with my kids saying "I'm glad Ginger didn't have to stay at that place". We loved Ginger dearly, and she was a true family member, "big sister" to all of us and our other animals. Unfortunately, in Dec. 2013 she developed Osteosarcoma in her lower jaw, and we took her to UC Davis to have the cancer removed. They also found in the process of her diagnosis that she had Chronic Renal Failure, "CRF", aka kidney disease and only had 25% use of her kidneys. We went through 2014 with her many ups and downs in health challenges, including hip dysplasia and degeneration of the spine. She was pretty happy in the "up" times and we are so glad to have had that year with her. We loved her so much would do anything to help her get the care she needed, we sold a violin, a boat, and received generous donations from family and friends to pay for her vet care at UC Davis and here in the Bay Area. In the end, as the vets all predicted, the CRF worsened quickly and she couldn't recover. We lost her on Jan. 6, and we are still devastated. She was my baby, my side-kick, and the best doggie family member anyone could ask for. I still cry for her daily, she did not deserve to go through what she did with her health issues. I will never, ever pay money for a dog again when there are so many rescue and shelter dogs that need homes, we have a shelter dog chihuahua mix who is 10 years old, and a cat, and they both miss Ginger too. I wouldn't trade having our time with her for anything, but I will never willingly, or passively, participate in purchasing a purebred dog again. If my husband decides he absolutely has to purchase another Golden, he knows he needs to research it very carefully first. This man, Joe Chisholm, should be put out of business, and never allowed to sell dogs again. Does anyone know his status as of now? I'm sorry to hear of all of your losses as well, it is so sad. Best wishes to all of you and your animals.

T
T
talkingtina
Martinez, US
Feb 18, 2013 7:18 pm EST

My husband and I bought a puppy from Joe Chisholm in February 2012. After we left I had a bad feeling he was a puppy mill dog due to the fact that the mother dog wasn't on site, he brought us puppies from 2 different litters to look at and we had to stay on his porch to pick a puppy. We should have just left and not bought a puppy because everything about this transaction pointed to it being a puppy mill dog. After the fact I also looked at the AKC papers and both parents are owned by the same 'breeder', this is another red flag that this is a puppy mill dog.
I took the puppy in for a health check and turns out he had/has giardia, besides that all other tests came back negative. We are working now to clear up the giardia and I hope and pray that as this dog matures he is good tempered. I love our puppy and hope he turns out to be healthy dog but I would never recommend anyone to Joe Chisholm or any dogs from Golden Arrow Kennel out of Oregon.

S
S
SWells
Danville, US
Sep 01, 2011 6:25 am EDT

We bought our golden from him when he was in Pleasant Hill in July 2000. We never received Gabby's papers. She had a horrible case of girardia (I apologize for spelling that wrong) which cost us almost $1000 in vet bills and medication to get rid of. Gabby passed away this year of cancerous rumors in her kidney, spleen and liver. She should have lived longer than 11 years. I knew when I saw him and the puppies that they were from a mill. There were no parents on site, just a picture. The living conditions were poor as well, but I felt that I had to rescue a dog from the situation. I hope he gets put out of business. I should not have supported it. He is a horrible person.

T
T
TRUDY WEINS
Fairfield, US
Oct 18, 2010 11:22 pm EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

I ALSO HAVE A VERY SAD STORY BOUGHT A GOLDEN FROM JOE CHISHOLM IN PLESANT HILL CA . I HAVE NEVER BEEN ABLE TO GET HER AKC PAPERS. I HAVE REPEATLY TRYED SINCE APRIL 2004 HE DID GIVE ME BOGAS AKC NO#S THOUGH . MY STORY DOES NOT END THEIR. THINKING MY DOG ZOIE WAS OK TO BREED I DID AS PER HIS OK. TWO YEARS LATER MY BOY TOBY DIED OF LUNG CANCER HISTOLIC SARCOMA WITH A RUPTURED CRUCHIT LIGAMENT THAT STARTED THE WHOLE THING. 13 MTHS ALMOST TO THE DAY MY OTHER PUP SAMPSON SUFFERED AWFUL FROM THE SAME CANCER HISTOLIC SARCOMA BRAIN TOMER I AND MY HUSBAND HAVE BEEN UP AT UC DAVIS FOR OVER A WEEK . SAMPSON DIED ON OCT 10TH AT 3PM. HE DIED SUFFERING AND CRYING IN OUR ARMS AND THEIR WAS NOTHING WE COULD DO. ACORDING TO UC DAVIS THIS WAS A RESULT OF EXTREAM INBREEDING . WE ARE DEVASTATED TO SAY THE LEAST. OUR SONS ARE GONE AND YES WE HAVE NO CHILDREN SO THEY WERE OUR KIDS. HELP US BRING JOE CHISHOLM TO JUSTICE ALL WE WANT IS TO PUT THIS MAN OUT OF BUSINESS ! FOR GOOD AND WHO EVER ELSE WAS INVOLVED IN HIS WHLE SCAM WE COULD CARE LESS ABOUT ANY MONEY FOE OUR LOSS NOTHING CAN BRING OUR BOYS BK WE JUST WANT TO SHUT HIM DOWN IF INTERESTED IN JOINING OUR QUEST PLEASE CALL JIM AND TRUDY WEINS [protected]

J
J
Jerry Driscoll
Fremont, US
May 22, 2010 10:54 pm EDT

Joe Chrisholm resides at 15 Garcia Drive, San Francisco, CA on [protected], we bought a female
golden retriever from him. we purchased her on Monday and by Tuesday she was having diaheria and not eating, she got worse, by Friday she was not eating or drinking at all. We kept in contact with him and he said she probably ate a plant that made her sick. I fed her rice and chicken and pedilite in a syringe per his instructions. We had 2 other golden retrievers and never had any problems. After four years we gave in to our daughter and bought her a dog because she had no animals stories like her brother and sister, her story
was short and sad. we took our dog to a vet on Saturday and she had parvovirus and a 50 /50 chance of living with no cure and if we paid 700 to a thousand a day/night there was no gurantee she would live . We returned her to Joe and got a refund and our guess he would let her die. It was a hard decision to make. We were so attached and loved her dearly, do not buy from this man

S
S
SuzanneJ
Monte Sereno, US
Feb 02, 2010 5:56 pm EST

Jennifer
we just bought a puppy from him ( 1/18/10) and had no idea his history. Our puppy is 10 weeks old and seems OK, very healthy - although the vet did find a slight heart murmur. She said that this is relatively normal in some puppies, but we should have an echo cardiogram done when he is 6 months old. His other tests were all normal.

We still have not gotten any papers. Joe did say that if we weren't totally satisfied we could return the puppy for a full refund or chose another puppy. He was very vague about the ### ( she wasn't there), but stated that the parents were both OFA certified. We didn't see that information either. I asked him again for the AKC and OFA documents, but he never seemed to have them.

If this is the same Joe Chisholm - I do have a photo of him attached when he was showing us how to train the puppy, he now lives in San Francisco at 14 Garcia Street. Every time we have called him with questions, or concerns, he returned our calls within a couple of hours.

Right now we are under going a dilemma, should we take back the puppy or take our chances?

View 0 more photos
J
J
jenniferpuppies
sdfsdfsdfsdf, US
Aug 22, 2009 9:46 pm EDT

I bought a puppy from joe too. He is now 1 year old, there are no problems so far, but joe seems to have disappeared off the face of earth. i really need to find him /:

P
P
puppal
Columbus, US
Aug 10, 2009 11:38 am EDT

Too bad you didn't research as thoroughly before you bought your dog. Some breeders are notorious for puppy mill techniques designed to earn large profits at the expense of the animals.

Good luck with your dog.