The last few days I have been talking and talking and talking. All the prospect owners have questions and I have loads and loads of advice I want to give. I don't pretend to know everything, but I certainly have an opinion and also a lot of experience. So I thought it might be wise to get a new section in my website and save myself repeating myself all the time ánd making it easier for people to look things up. When you buy a pup most breeders will tell you a lot of things, half of which you have forgotten by the time you get home. This way you can take your time and look specific advice up when you wonder about something. On the other hand, it is always possible to contact me whenever a problem arises or you're stuck with a question.
In part you find it here in English and you can find a link to a more complete version in Dutch at the end of this page.

Pups don't leave their mom before they are 9 weeks old. Often pups are sold at 8 weeks, but nowadays they get an inoculation at 6, 9 and 12 weeks and I hate my pups to go to a new place - which is quite traumatic because they loose everything they know -, be there for one or two days and then have to go to the vet and get a shot - which is another traumatic experience -.

When they leave they are vaccinated, dewormed at every two weeks ánd their mother has had Stronghold which enables the pups to be born without worms at all!, they are chipped and of course they are pedigreedogs. My kennelname is 'The Sounding Burrows' and according to colour they get another extra name next to their surname.
The red or wheaten pups simple have the extra name 'red', e.g. The Sounding Burrows Red Rune.
The grizzle and tan, black and tan and red grizzle pups all get the extra name 'grizzly'.
The blacks and blues don't get an extra name, because that is the prime colour I am breeding, so it will be 'The Sounding Burrows Bailey Bar'.
Also in the future I hope to get liver lakelands and I am still thinking what extra name I am going to use. Suggestions are very welcome. So far I was thinking of Leonidas. You know, the Belgium chocolates, because some people call the liver chocolate, and it has a nice classical ring to it (I am a teacher in Ancient Greek and Latin).

When you get a dog, I expect you not to want to change him into something he is not. I do not have their tails cropped and I don't expect someone else starting to cut of parts of the dog. That includes castration! If you don't want the dog to behave naturally, and you want him to be something he is not, take a bitch, look for another breed or don't take a dog at all.
Compared to castration cropping is a light thing (and I never would even consider doing that). Castration is a real operation that involves anaesthesia and that is always a risk. Don't have your dog operated on without a medical reason, you wouldn't do that to your child either!!! If you get a dog, be a responsible owner and don't let the dog wander about without supervision. That not only prevents any unwanted litters, but is also the way to keep dogs an accepted factor in everyday life.
Dogs that roam around without supervision can not only sire litters or get pregnant, but they also soils the streets and gardens, can get into fights with dogs or other animals and might even bite someone.
Castration is no solution to so called problems as sniffing around too much, fighting with other dogs, walking out on you and riding up against people. These are factors yóu control by raising your dog properly.
Also vets often promote castration to avoid the dog from getting cancer. And yes a dog with no balls can't get cancer in his balls.
But ... would you consider cutting of his legs to save him from getting bonecancer??? These problems can only be addressed by careful breeding. To know if there is cancer in the bloodline you need to let the dogs grow old wíth their balls and if they die in old age and they never have had cancer you know that is a good line to breed. If you castrate everything before they are two years old, you won't know their genetic make up.
This is also the reason I like to use older dogs as studs to my bitches. The father of my first litter was 9,5 years at the time and he has never been ill in his life, has a wonderful temperament (which takes two to three years to develop - another reason for late breeding) and certainly has no prostate or testicle cancer.

Well, if all this is no problem, my next point is, that in Lakeys are a small breed and there a particularly few blacks. As a result I want to keep every dog that has good qualities available for breeding. This goes particularly for the dogs. A bitch is a different story, because that asks really a lot from the owner. Either the bitch goes back to the breeder to have her litter there - and I don't want to do that because this is quite upsetting for the bitch and at such a time she mostly wants the person she knows best around, which the breeder at that point won't be.
Or she has her litter with the owner, but that means they have all the trouble and I think it only fair for them to have that when they are free to sell and keep the pups as they see fit. Shortly: when a bitch is a good for breeding and I want to sell her it is up to you whether you want to breed her or not.
For a dog it is different, because it only takes a couple of hours at most to do his service to the breed. The advantage is that he can live his life as a nice family pet and get all the attention he needs, but still gives something back to the breed. If I would keep him myself he would have to be in a crate each time one of my bitches is in season. Since I already have two bitches and will get more that would be often.
Of course not every dog will be of this prime quality so I won't always ask it of you, but you ought to know that it is a distinct possibility and it is a part of the contract when you buy the dog. Details are discussed when you are interested in a particular pup whether I want to use him at all, just a little or that I have very high hopes.