I:  Application

If you are interested in acquiring a Lakecrew PWD and we have an expected/available litter, we ask that you submit a puppy placement application.  Your honest and detailed answers will help us place the right puppy in the right home.  As you go through the form, please give careful thought to our questions and your answers.  We encourage you to ask us questions as well.

We will review your completed application and then call you to discuss your criteria for a puppy, answer your questions, and ask any questions that we may have.  Rest assured that the majority of PWD breeders out there will have a similar "interview" process.  Those who don't may be more interested in making money than in the welfare of their puppies. 

Puppy placement application form

II:  Contract Review

If we believe a Lakecrew PWD would be a good fit for you, we will send you a sample copy of our sales contract for your review.  We stand behind our contracts, so we advise you to read the "Lakecrew Portuguese Water Dogs Conditional Agreement of Sale Contract" carefully and voice any questions or concerns you may have about it. 

III:  Placement Criteria Form

If you are in agreement with the specifications of our contract and would like to proceed with adopting a puppy, we will send you a placement criteria form to be used to indicate your puppy requirements and preferences. 

IV:  Placement Fee

We require a $500 placement fee.  Please note that this fee is NOT a deposit for a puppy.  Rather, it serves to reserve a place on our list of prospective owners to match up with puppies from a specific litter. 

If we are able to place a puppy with you, the placement fee will be applied to the purchase price of a puppy. 

If we are unable to place a puppy with you due to the size and makeup of the litter, the placement fee will be refunded in total.  See below for details of our refund policy.

V:  Placement List

Once we receive your completed placement criteria form and placement fee, we will add your name to our litter's placement list.

VI:  Puppy Matching

We will choose a puppy for you based upon your lifestyle, experience level, and puppy personality & sex requirements.  We will pay careful attention to the information you provided on the placement criteria form. 

It is important to match the temperament of a puppy with a caring and responsible family whose activity and experience levels will provide the greatest success for that puppy and the greatest satisfaction for the owners.  While we will also try to match a puppy based upon coat type and color preferences, we consider those to be secondary characteristics.

Show and performance homes will have priority over pet homes.  Experienced show / performance homes will have priority over beginner show / performance homes.

All puppies will be placed as either PET or SHOW dogs, with corresponding contracts.  We will not later re-evaluate the pet pups for show potential. 

• Our pet puppies are sold on AKC Limited Registration and spay/neuter contracts, and are never to be bred.
• Our show potential puppies are sold on a co-ownership contract, with showing and breeding terms specified.

The price is the same for our pet and show puppies, but the options and responsibilities are much different.

We use a different set of criteria for placing show prospect puppies than we do pet puppies.  For our show prospect puppies, we are interested in owners who are fully committed to taking the steps necessary to realize the dog's potential and who will successfully meet the challenges associated with ownership of a show potential dog.  We do give preference to prospective owners who have already managed a dog to its championship, but will consider all applications on a case by case basis.  If you think you might be interested in a show puppy, we ask that you take a few moments to read our "Pet versus Show" page.

If you are opting for a pet/companion puppy, that does not mean the puppy you get will be poor quality.  The differences between our show and pet puppies are usually very subtle.

VII:  Notification

Our puppies will be watched from the beginning to determine temperament and personality.  In addition, they will be evaluated for show/breeding potential and temperament tested at about 7 weeks of age.  All of that information will be used to match up each puppy to its new family. 

We will contact all of our prospective owners within a couple of days after the conformation & temperament evaluations to discuss the puppy we feel is the best match.  Ocassionally there will be two puppies that an owner/family can choose between.

Unfortunately there are times when we are not able to place a puppy with someone who is on our placement list.  Every litter is different and sometimes there just isn't an appropriate puppy available.  This happens infrequently, but is a possibility.  As mentioned above - if we are not able to place a puppy with you, your placement fee will be completely refunded.

We recommend that prospective owners not make any puppy-related purchases until we have informed them that we are able to place a puppy with them. 

VIII:  Going Home

The puppies will be ready for their new homes at 8-9 weeks of age.  They will have been wormed, microchipped and given their first set of vaccinations. 

We provide new owners with a binder of information about their new puppy.  It will include vet visit information, puppy care guidelines, health certifications for the parents, general PWD information, and photos of the puppy & parents. 

We will also send home a goodie bag containing, among other items:

• Booklet - "The Portuguese Water Dog, Guide for the New Owner" by Verne Foster
• Laminated PWD clipping guide (which illustrates scissoring and clipping for both the lion clip and the retriever clip)
• Small bag of kibble the pup has been eating to aid the transition to a high quality food of your choice

As responsible breeders, we wish to stay in touch with those who purchase our puppies.  Doing so helps us keep track of their growth, health, and activities.  For the first year of your puppy's life, you will be responsible for sending us monthly updates and photos of your puppy.  Thereafter, we will occasionally request that you send us information regarding the health and development of your Lakecrew PWD.  If that type of communication isn't your cup of tea, then we are not the right breeders for you.

We want you to be happy and content with your pup AND with us as breeders.  We also want your pup to be happy and content with YOU.  That is why it is SO important that careful, educated decisions are made regarding ownership of a Lakecrew PWD.