Guardian Homes

One of the biggest perks of having our dogs in Guardian Homes is that, when it comes time for them to retire from our breeding program, they are already in their forever home! This of course makes the transition so much easier for the dog.

It also provide the Guardian with a FREE superior-quality Pomsky that can be with their family for entire life of the dog. This also helps us ensure that ALL of our breeding dogs are part of a family structure, never just "kennel dogs".

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HOW DOES IT WORK?

To start off, we LOVE our dogs! And since you are here reading this, we know you love dogs, too!! Which is honestly the only way this awesome Guardian Home program can succeed. 

At it's core, our Guardian Home program means that the dog is in your possession, lives with you at your home, and is part of your family while also being part of our breeding program. Once the dog is retired from our breeding program, we will spay or neuter the dog and sign FULL OWNERSHIP over to you! 

Overall, we want this Guardian Home arrangement to be beneficial and a blessing to both your family as well as our family! So trusting them into your care is a decision we will make carefully and methodically.

Initially, we will go through an interviewing process starting with the Guardian Home Application to not only determine if your home will logistically work for a Guardianship, but also to ensure that we can have a very successful, long-term, working relationship between the humans as well as the dogs. We will plan for success from the very beginning! 

Transparency and open communication will be at our very foundation. We will  have a very specific and strong Guardian Home Contract that will first and foremost protect the dog, while also laying out all of the expectations and responsibilities for both us, the Breeders, and you, the Guardians. 

GENDER SPECIFICS
Of course being a Guardian for a female versus a male is a big difference!

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• FEMALE 

  • Females may be active in our program for several years and have up to 6 litters.

  • Due to the nature of breeding, whelping, and caring for puppies, only in certain and special circumstances will we consider placing a female in a Guardian Home. There are two options with a female in a Guardian Home: having her whelp and raise puppies here with us, or at "her home" with you. 

  • Each Guardianship will be unique. Since we don't want a female to undergo a high level of stress leading up to and during whelping, we would prefer to have her whelp and raise her puppies at "her home", which would be with you! In that case, we would hope for previous whelping experience with our Guardians, but we certainly understand that won't always be the case. As such, and in either arrangement, we will require a willingness on the part of the Guardian to listen to and follow exacting instructions, as well as welcome me into their home regularly and during specific time periods (like during whelping) to aid in the successful delivery and raising of those precious puppies.

  • If she is whelping and rasing puppies with you, we will purchase the needed materials we use for whelping and raising puppies (like crate, blankets/towels, playpen, etc).

  • If she will be here with us while whelping and raising puppies, she will come to our home about a week or so before her due date and stay until the puppies are 8 weeks old. Once the puppies are around 3-4 weeks old, she can spend some time away from the puppies and spend that time with you if you so desire! She will need to be brought back to her puppies at scheduled times during the day depending on the age of the puppies and where they are in the weaning process. 

• Here are some things that will be required for a Guardian with a female:

  • Be willing to have me stop by regularly to check on and have a healthy relationship with the female. Or be willing to come visit us for this purpose.

  • Be willing to bring the female to our residence and familiarize her with our home in the case she stays with us for any period of time (specifically during whelping and raising puppies).

  • Be willing to notify me when the female is in heat and be willing to bring her to our residence (or alternate residence of selected male) multiple times for breeding within a specific 7-10 day window when she is fertile.

  • Be willing to notify me when the female is in labor and have me present during the entire whelping process (possibly overnight!). 

  • When she has puppies, I will very likely need to be visiting at least weekly, and sometimes daily or multiple times a day (depending on the situation), to check on the growth and health of the puppies.

  • I will also need to visit weekly to do photo shoots, health checks, and/or administer medications/vaccines/microchips/etc of all the puppies. Depending on timing and the situation, I may need to bring the puppies and mama dog to my house to do photo shoots. If you are willing and able to do quality photo shoots, that's great! 

  • If at any point and for any reason I feel the need to have the puppies under my care in my own home, they, along with the mother, will immediately be transferred by me to our home for their health and safety.

  • Be willing to have me bring the puppies to their 7 week vet appointment at Creekside Vet in Mitchell, SD (or meet me there with the puppies).

  • Be willing to communicate concisely and clearly about any concerns or questions you may have about the female or the puppies and bring them to the vet or have me bring them to the vet for any issues that may arise at any point. Their health and safety is always our biggest concern! 

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• MALE 

  • Male dogs may be active in our program for up to 6 or more years.

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• Here are some other things that will be required for a Guardian with a male dog:

  • Be willing to have me stop by regularly to check on and have a healthy relationship with the male.

  • Be willing to have females brought to your home for breeding during the specific 7-10 day fertile window that the female requires. If any female is part of another Guardian Home, be willing to have that Guardian accompany their female, in addition to myself.

  • Be willing to part with male for the mating process, if necessary, during the specific 7-10 day fertile window that the female requires. This may entail you needing to bring the male to our residence or other location for multiple days.

  • Be able to ENSURE that the male is unable to escape or run away. This could result in him impregnating a female that has not been spayed. We have the training resources for you to be able to achieve this (see below).

TRAINING

All dogs will need to be trained to: sit, stay, come when called, as well as be crate trained and potty/house trained. No need for extra tricks for fun, unless that is something you desire to do! 

In addition to this, we will require that all dogs will need to be trained to behave off-lease, not to "door dash", or dig out of their containment. This will ensure that the dog doesn't run away or escape and get lost, stolen, or worse, killed. We have the resources to share with you to ensure your dog is a well-behaved and obedient member of your family! (Specifically we will recommend you to Baxter&Bella's Online Puppy School or Kota's Center for Canine Behavior). With consistency and these helpful tools, this is easily trainable!

SOME OF THE PERTINENT DETAILS
Dakota Pomskies will take care of any breeding related vet bills. Guardians will be responsible for the standard vet checkups, annual vaccinations, rabies shots, monthly heartworm/flea/tick medications, daily food/treat costs, as well as any training requirements that the dog may have. This includes transportation for those standard things. We have all of our dogs seen and treated at Creekside Vet in Mitchell, South Dakota, and will have all of our Guardian Dogs be seen there as well.

We also do extensive health testing on all of our breeding dogs to ensure they are healthy and will produce healthy puppies. Again, we will cover those expenses! Most of the exams can be completed at Creekside Vet in Mitchell, SD, but all of our dogs will likely need to make a yearly trip to somewhere like Denver, Omaha or other place to get that testing done. Specifically we currently need to travel to those places to test for eye disease. We can bring the dog with us when it is time for those tests to be done, and it could potentially be a couple of days that the dog is with us travelling. Each trip will be unique. If you are traveling or it works to have you bring the dog to be tested instead, we can work together on that! (I hope you see a pattern here: we want to work with you to make it easiest for everyone!)

We will also need periodic photos of the dog. You MUST take high quality photos, and have a good camera on your phone or DSLR. Most phones nowadays take great photos, so it should be easy! I will likely also come and do periodic photo shoots with the dog and may need to bring him/her to a beautiful/photogenetic location to have those taken. This would always take less than a day, and most likely just a couple of hours at most.

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OTHER INFORMATION

If at any point in time the contract is breached by allowing the dog to stud or breed outside of our arrangements, the dog is neglected/mistreated, becomes exceedingly overweight, or the communication makes the situation impossible to succeed, among other possible scenarios as outlined in the Guardian Home Contract, the dog or puppy will be immediately transferred back into our possession and the Guardianship will be terminated.

If you think this may be a great solution for you, and you live within a 2 hour radius of Corsica, SD, then please complete this application. If you are a bit beyond that and are willing to work with us, please fill out the application anyway and we can go forward from there!

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The information in this or our Guardian Home Contract may change at any time, as our goal is to first and foremost protect and keep our dogs and puppies safe and healthy no matter what. As always, we will keep you up to date and we are always here for any questions you may have!

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