KraftwerkK9 Issues - Page 2

I have never purchased a dog from Wayne or a puppy.  With that said, I beleive the problem that many have with Wayne are his prices on his puppies.  When you spend 2000-3000 for a puppy you are putting a lot of faith and trust into the parents.  This is what I mean the puppy does not work (puppy tests are all you can do), you do not know how big, how small, hipps, temperment ,personality and work ability of the dog in the future.  So you are going based on the parents traits and ablities.  This is said about all puppies not just Waynes, the difference is you can spend have the money and have the same chances.  I know Wayne s dogs are titled and hipps done and so fourth but so are so many other litters.  You have people who breed the same quality and charge half as much.  Also dealing with a smaller kennel does have advantages.......Now if you found the pedegree, the puppy etc..that you absolutely love than spend the money and take the chance............

I love my GSD I got form Wayne, was it worth the money? Not really I can admit that now. And I got mine before he took his prices to the $7000 range for an adult. He made a lot of promises and claims about the dog I bought and most it turned out where not true. 

He claimed all his dogs where raised in a loving home environment, After getting the dog it was clear he had never been in a home before when he did not know how to handle the stairs in the house and other thing a dog raised in a house would know.  I contacted the breeder in Germany and was told no the dog was raised in a Kennel and was never an inside dog.  Also the Breeder sold the dog to Wayne because he had gone as far as he could in training; the Dog would never be a SCH 3 dog so he cut his investment and sold him.

When I first contacted Wayne I was assured I would be purchasing a Rock Solid Home Protecting K9 that would Title very well in Schutzhund.  What I got was a Dog who would never go after anyone with a hidden sleeve on. Put a big sleeve with a big old Jute cover on it and he gets all kind of fired up.

Am I happy with my Dog, bottom line YES! Would I ever pay that much again HELL NO!  Does my dog protect my family indeed he does, he alerts any time someone is on the property, and one night he even fought off a crack head breaking in to the property, the guy went after me with a crowbar and the dog took him down hard and did a lot of damage to the guy. 

So take what you will out of what I said, I am no expert all I can do is share my personal experiences.

Drew,

I really do think you are doing your homework, much better than we did unfortunately.  I also don't doubt that there are people who are satisfied with Kraftwerk puppies and even some adult dogs.  You may actually be safer purchasing a pup since you can likely see the parents and the cost is less.  I would caution anyone against purchasing an adult dog, because I do believe there are issues with many of them.

Like you, Wolf359, we were assured that our male was raised in a home environment, but he was bewildered when faced with stairs.  He also peed in the foyer for two weeks when left for a few hours and repeatedly took pillows off the sofas and chewed them.  I attempted to contact his breeder in Germany on their website, but they never responded.  Pictures on their website show their dogs in kennels.  Someone may have walked him through a house once, but that was about it.  I believe he was sold for a reason, his illness, and they figured they would capitalize on his pedigree and cut their losses.

Now, he is a great house dog with wonderful manners and a wonderful temperment.  He is my shadow and I feel confident he would protect me in an instant.  However, knowing now what I know, would I have paid the ridiculous sum I did to acquire such a chronically ill dog who may have a short life span and costs thousands of dollars a year in vet bills, meds, and prescription food?  Of course not.  I thought I was getting a well-bred, trained, healthy animal.  We will care for him for the rest of his life because we made a commitment, but we were had.  Shame on us.   It won't happen again, and I wouldn't buy a raffle ticket from Wayne Curry.

Thanks for all the comments, DoubleX I have always made it a policy to never buy an adult dog, for all the reasons listed above, I refused to cleanup someone else's mess, you have no idea of the animal's mannerism, habits or triggers.  When you bring an adult dog into your home, you have to conform the house to him, not the other way around as it should be with a puppy, he will conform to your house.  I believe adult dogs are mostly sold for business reasons, either they are no longer profitable for the business via breading or titles or there are issues, either way, not an animal I would want.

Again as in Wolf359s situation purchasing an animal site unseen is such a huge gamble, not sure your money would be better off in Vegas.  So far all the majority of emails I have received have been very positve experiences with the puppies and overwhelming negative with adult purchases.  Wolf359, when you contacted Wayne were you offered any remidiation for your purchase?

DoubleX,

With out the peeing and illness your discription of your dog exectly discribes mine!  I would not trade him for the world now but I indeed would never buy anything from WC again.

It took about 2 months and a lot of one on one time exploring the house together.  The one thing that I found odd, was the dog refuses to get in bed with anyone. It was the first time I had seen a dog not want to cuddle in a warm bed with its family.

gefauhr

I was offered $1000 off my next purchase.......  They advised that we get another dog and when they have a friend in the house with them everything will calm down...... I turned him down. 

Wolf359,

I would have to say that remedy would not have been satisfactory to me either, did he offer to take the animal back since it did not perform as advertised?

Wolf359,

We obviously heard the same spiel.  We were offered $1,000 toward his "medical expenses" immediately, with no hesitation.  We turned that down because we felt he was worth much less than we paid for him, given his health.  The $1,000 wouldn't have covered his first endoscopy.  Things went down hill after that and the offer was withdrawn quickly.

It took us a few weeks to get the housebreaking light bulb to go off and for him to conquer the stairs confidently.  As the months have passed, he has become very affectionate, although at first he was very standoffish and did not want to be touched that much.  He just wasn't used to it.  Now he is easily as affectionate as my female whom we acquired at two months.

They are both spoiled house dogs, but I draw the line at sleeping with 170 lbs of GSD.  They both begin the night sleeping on rugs on either side of our bed.  At some point, our female moves to her own bed in an adjoining room.   Our male, curiously, moves into the bathroom on the tile floor.  He usually ends up in the toilet room, curled around the base of the toilet.  We assume it is more familiar to him as a kennel dog, sleeping on a hard floor, and the tile and porcelein keep him cool.  It can be a challenge to get up in the night and not turn on the lights.  No amount of coaxing will get him in a "doggie" bed.  It's a little odd, but we love him anyway.

I have a 2 year old spayed black female that was bred Kraftwerk.  I didnt get her from them directly, and after owning her I would probably never buy one from them without really knowing the dog.  She has total negative drive, so much its a daily trial to keep her from being total destructive.  I wont kennel her, although where I got her from did -  as she will pace until her paws are raw.  I keep her crated unless I can pay 100 percent total attention to her.  She is extremely obedient - once you have her attention.  I relate her to a ADHD child - you must constantly keep her attention.  She is like a rubber ball bouncing off walls.  She also bonded to one person, not the family.  I am happy that she was never bred, she certainly does not have the temperment, in fact I dont think she would even take care of puppies.  A shame, because she has a truely stunning pedigree - albiet a few too many linebreedings for my taste.

Although I never purchased from Kraftwerk I did inquire about some of their dogs before I purchased my Agar from Eurosport.  I had never dealt with Kraftwerk and at that point never heard anything bad or good about them but I can tell you from my own first impression I had decided I would not be buying a dog from them as I got the impression they were quick to make one committ to the purchase convincing them that their starting price of $7,000 is a fantastic deal and you won't find anyone selling dogs of such quality for less.  I was less than impressed with the level of arrogance and quite frankly I was one of those people who actually could have and probably would have gotten snowed into buying a $10,000 dog BUT I was fortunately completely turned off by the "sales pitch" or lack of that I elected to move on. 

Most definately they are extremely overpriced.  I ended up with a way better dog than they were trying to sell me and it cost me a couple grand less importing from Europe.  Why anyone would pay $2-3,000 for a friggin pup is way beyond my rationale???  That is just way stupid, dumb.  And there is no sales pitch that can make it justified for a pup to be worth that much- unless it craps out diamonds.  The funny but sad part is one who can afford or even one who can't afford but buys one anyways is usually the one boasting to their friends they just paid $3000 for a pup- fast forward a couple years later and see that same $3000 pup out somewhere working at a club next to the guy who paid $1000 for his pup that makes the $3000 pup look like he's standing still- who's got braggin rights then and who's got SUCKER written on their face??? 

I was told by Kraftwerk that $7000 is for a green dog or at least a fairly green dog.  That was when our conversation ended quickly with a "thanks for your time".  Hey maybe other's are satisfied but I find it odd that not many of their customers are screaming from the rooftops with satisfaction but instead we hear the complaints.  I understand you can't please ALL your customers but when the dissatisfied are over riding the satisfied then something's definately wrong with that picture.

If you live close to the breeder it's approximately the same cost as importing a pup from a  breeder when all is said and done, and the odds of getting a good one probably are the same.

If a breeder produces 20% good pups from a given litter that's very very good, not many do but it depends on what your perception of good is.

So if they sell 200 a year and 40 turn out, your going to get some whiny customers. The adult prices are just nuts.