Our Puppy Application Process at Magnum Opus German Shepherds
We’ve refined and improved our puppy application process over the years, and wanted to share it publicly due to the many questions we’ve received about the process!
Step 1: Fill out an application on our website. Filling out a complete and satisfactory application triggers two things. First, it adds the email you provided to our email list, and you will begin to receive occasional emails regarding upcoming litters as well as older puppies & dogs who are available if they match the criteria you selected. Second, you will be emailed a link to our calendar, which allows you to schedule a 30-minute phone interview with us.
Step 2: Your initial phone interview! This is meant to be an introductory, surface level-call lasting 30 to 45 minutes—although, we LOVE to talk about our dogs and there are definitely times it lasts a lot longer and gets into some very in-depth discussions. During this conversation we usually like to answer any questions you might have for us, chat about what you’re looking for in your next dog, and form a tentative plan for a planned litter or two that would suit your individual needs and preferences the best.
Many of our puppy buyers come to us not fully understanding the nuances of each line of German Shepherds we breed, or knowing which type would suit their goals best. We are happy to share our expertise on the subject, and guide you towards the best fit. And sometimes—we may not be a good match for each other, we won’t have what you’re looking for, or we won’t be comfortable placing a puppy with your family.
You don’t need to schedule this phone call right away, the link we send out to schedule the call won’t change, so feel free to hang onto it until you’re ready. We do get applications from people looking many years in advance for their next puppy, and we’re happy to begin chatting with you and forming a relationship well before your pup goes home. Many of our puppy buyers have become close friends over the years. However we only regularly plan litters 1-2 years in advance, and quite a few of these tentative plans do change, so if you’re calling more than 1-2 years in advance please be aware that most of the conversations surrounding litter plans will have to be hypothetical and non-specific.
Step 3: Hurry up and wait! We aren’t a high volume breeder and will very rarely have puppies readily available . It’s not impossible—sometimes pups temperament test differently than expected, or buyers have a sudden life change, which leads to a puppy becoming available after it’s born. But typically, our pups are reserved before birth. This means you can expect to wait some time for your puppy to come home with you.
In our world as breeders, we breed a litter approximately four months before those puppies will become available. Dogs are pregnant for 63 days, and puppies must stay with us for 8 weeks after birth at minimum. That’s over four months of planning and hard work on our end. We have found that it’s much less stressful for us to have a firm waitlist before any pups arrive, and then those prospective families are extremely invested and involved every step of the way as we bring the pups into the world and give them a solid foundation through our puppy raising process. Usually our waitlist is nailed down by the time the litter is confirmed around 30 days, or about 3 months away from pups going home. So if you’re coming to us expecting puppies to be readily available, we are not the breeder for you.
As a side note: we do call your listed references, landlords, veterinarians etc. We try to do this about 4-6 months in advance, when we are narrowing down the waitlist for a specific litter. A common issue we’ve seen with applications that are several years old is that information may be inaccurate or outdated by the time you’re ready to move forward. Don’t worry, you will always be given a heads up before we start calling and checking references and we will double check with you that everything is correct and up to date. This saves everyone a lot of time!
Step 4: Your next phone interview! Typically, this occurs after we have approved you for a puppy via research and checking your references, and when we have a specific litter in mind for you—so about 3-6 months in advance. At this point it may be awhile since we’ve spoken, so we do a lot of recapping and confirming and double-checking our notes. Your preferences and needs for your new family member may have changed, and we want to make sure everyone is still on the same page. If there are other members of the household that weren’t involved in the process before, now is the time to bring them into the discussion. We will discuss the details of puppy pickups/transport, visits to our home, puppy selection process, and be sure cover any other questions you might have. We’ll go over everything from puppy supplies to where you stand on our waitlist.
After this point in the process, we typically will start to communicate much more frequently. Text is by far the easiest and quickest way to get ahold of us for short questions, but emails and phone calls work too. If there are multiple members of the household who are involved in the puppy process, I’ve found that making a group text or chat saves a lot of time and keeps us all on the same page! From this point moving forward, we make ourselves as accessible as possible and welcome ongoing discussions. We’ll also keep you very updated with any news or progress concerning the litter you’re waiting for. This is an exciting time for everyone!
Step 5: Sign the Puppy Purchase Agreement, and place a deposit. Our puppy purchase agreement will be sent to you via AdobeSign. No deposits will be accepted until that document has been completed.
We typically accept a limited number of deposits after pregnancy is confirmed (about 3 months in advance of you bringing the puppy home). The number of deposits we accept varies with each litter—some we know will be very large, so we accept more, and some litters are predicated to be so small we don’t accept any. This deposit is non-refundable, should you decide against the puppy purchase after this point. If you do have some type of life event occur that requires you to put the process on hold, we will happily transfer your deposit to the next litter that is suitable and pick up where we left off when you’re ready. If we do not have a suitable puppy for you in the litter, either at birth (example: you have placed a deposit for male, but the entire litter is females), or when we perform our temperament testing at 7 weeks (example: you have placed a deposit for an IGP prospect, but there are not enough outstanding prospects in the litter), you will be offered the option of a full refund or transferring that deposit to another litter.
It’s important to note that we DO NOT allow puppy deposits to be placed based on color, or coat type. We only allow puppy deposits to be placed based on gender, and temperament. At this point, you’ll have been well informed of the possible color and coat outcomes of the litter; we want to make it abundantly clear that while we do our best to honor requests for a certain color or coat length it is NEVER guaranteed, so if you are dead set on a particular color or coat, we are not the breeder for you. If you do not want a puppy with any of the possible colors and coat types from a planned litter, you will not be put on the waitlist for that litter. For example, if you come to us requesting a service dog prospect and prefer a male to best fit your lifestyle, we can absolutely accommodate that. But if you come to us asking for a male service dog prospect who must also be a longcoated solid black dog, you will be turned away. (Also worth noting here that we breed ONLY for standard , accepted colors—black and red/tan saddleback, bicolor, black, sable. While we primarily own and breed for short-coated dogs, we have many longcoat carriers in our program and will produce longcoats in specific litters.)
Step 6: After a couple of extremely busy months of whelping and raising puppies (with constant pictures, videos and updates of the whole litter), your puppy is selected for you! We strongly feel that placing pups according to their temperament and drives (not color or size or whose eyes looked the cutest in the pictures) is the best way to set up our puppies and puppy buyers up for long-term success. With that in mind, we personally select a puppy for each family. When our puppies turn 7 weeks old we begin rigorously temperament testing, evaluating for working ability, performing conformation evaluations, and making final decisions on the placement of puppies in their prospective homes. At this point, we may have another phone call to talk about several possible candidates. It’s not terribly unusual, especially in larger litters, to get several pups that would fit well into each household. And sometimes the choice is unmistakably clear that one specific puppy is the best fit for you. We do our best to announce final placements just a few days after the pups turn 7 weeks old so you can watch specifically for him/her in the rest of the videos and pictures that we share until they go home!
Step 7: Enjoy your new family member! We provide lifetime breeder support as well as a comprehensive health guarantee for 26 months, and are always happy to take our dogs and puppies back at any time should any unfortunate circumstances arise. You’re part of the Magnum Opus family now. You’ll also have access to a wonderful private Facebook group, full of other owners from your litter and other related litters, to support each other and watch your puppies’ siblings grow up from afar! We are also always happy to offer training tips, advice, mentorship, or reduced-rate in-home boarding for any of our dogs and puppies. We are just an email, text, or phone call away!
