FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do you guarantee your pups? Yes, Gracie’s pups are. We guarantee you will receive a healthy puppy, we will reimburse any vet expense for sickness for 5 days. This guarantee does not include abuse coverage due to environment or lack of nutrition. Provide veterinarian written diagnostics, dated within 5 days of receiving the pup, and receipt, we will pay for treatment up to the cost of the puppy. They are guaranteed for 24 months for Hip Dysplasia. We will replace the pup with the next litter or refund the cost of the pup. This is void if the pup has been spayed , neutered or was bred before 24 months. We will not pay for any diagnostics or testing. You will be required to provide documentation from OFA. We will not ask for the puppy back, they are a member of your family. We are committed to breeding quality puppies and will always stand behind our pups, within reason, up to the cost of the pup.
How much do your pups cost? 2025 litter is $1,400, a deposit of $200 may be paid by check to reserve a position in the picking order. Deposits may be paid by check, balance due may be paid by check received prior to pick up or cash. You may choose a gender when making a deposit, a certain color won’t be guaranteed.
Is the deposit refundable? Yes, if Gracie does not get bred or does not take in the breeding that was reserved. Or you may carry it over to the next cycle if desired. It is NOT refundable if you just change your mind. We plan our breeding around deposits.
Do you ship pups? No, I do not ship our dogs. Any arrangements will need to be made by the buyer. We can help with transportation to and from the Milwaukee (MKE) airport.
Can we pick out our own pup? Yes, you may visit in person or follow Fournier French Brittanys on Facebook. There will be many videos and pictures of your pup. I can also email photos, if requested.
Do you restrict the registration? No, you will be able to register your pup with full AKC and UKC registration. The litter will be registered with both.
Do I need to follow a naming convention? Yes, the Epagneul Breton uses a naming convention. 2025 is an “W” year. The name must begin with a W and end with “du Fournier”. The registered name does not have to be the “call” name. A google search will yield many “W” dog names.
We reserve the right to change our cost, terms and/or conditions at any time.
A good resource to see French Brittanys in action without the influence of breeders (no business on this page) is the facebook group- French Brittanys of America “Epagneul Breton”-. It has photos and posts from regular people that just love their French Brittanys. You can see them in their everyday lives.
Why I no longer remove the Dew Claws
Do the Dew(claws)?
M. Christine Zink DVM, PhD, DACVSMR
I am a vet that works exclusively with performance dogs, developing rehabilitation programs for injured dogs or dogs that have had surgery as a result of performance-related injuries. I have seen many dogs now, especially field trial/hunt test and agility dogs, that have had chronic carpal arthritis, frequently so severe that they have to be retired or at least carefully managed for the rest of their careers. Of the over 30 dogs I have seen with carpal arthritis, only one has had dewclaws. The others have all had them removed.
If you look at an anatomy book (Miller’s Guide to the Anatomy of Dogs is an excellent one – see figure above) you will see that there are 5 tendons attached to the dewclaw. Of course, at the other end of a tendon is a muscle, and that means that if you cut off the dew claws, there are 5 muscle bundles that will become atrophied from disuse.
Those muscles indicate that the dewclaws have a function. That function is to prevent torque on the leg. Each time the foot lands on the ground, particularly when the dog is cantering or galloping, the dewclaw is in touch with the ground. If the dog then needs to turn, the dewclaw digs into the ground to support the lower leg and prevent torque. If the dog doesn’t have a dewclaw, the leg twists. A lifetime of that and the result can be carpal arthritis. Remember: the dog is doing the activity regardless, and the pressures on the leg have to go somewhere.
They can be absorbed by the dewclaw, or they will move up and down the leg to the toes, carpus, elbow, and shoulders. Perhaps you are thinking, “I never have had one of my dogs have carpal pain or arthritis.” Well, we need to remember that dogs, by their very nature, do not tell us about mild to moderate pain. If a dog was to be asked by an emergency room nurse to give the level of his pain on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the worst, their scale would be 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Most of our dogs, especially if they deal with pain that is of gradual onset, just deal with it and don’t complain unless it is excruciating. But when I palpate the carpal joints of older dogs without dewclaws, I almost always elicit pain with relatively minimal manipulation.
As to the possibility of injuries to dew claws. Most veterinarians will say that such injuries actually are not very common at all. And if they do occur, then they are dealt with like any other injury. In my opinion, it is far better to deal with an injury than to cut the dew claws off of all dogs “just in case.”
Anatomical diagram viewing the medial side of a dog’s left front leg demonstrating the five tendons that attach to the dewclaw.