PICK YOUR GERMAN ROTTWEILER BREEDER CAREFULLY

ABOUT PETER HANNEN OF VOM NEUENSCHLOSS ROTTWEILERS

Many people who like my dogs ask about their breeder, Peter Hannen of vom Neuenschloss Rottweilers, but I do not recommend him. I found out about good/bad breeders the hard way with him, and breeders are not always what they seem. Unfortunately, you often don't find out if your breeder is going to be good or bad until you have problems with your dog. That's where the rubber hits the road, so to speak.

In my case, the breeder out and out lied about health certifications on his dogs, and when my dogs failed OFA and were found to be dysplastic, he decided to not honor his contract or refund the difference in price between a show and pet quality dog. He did offer a replacement puppy, but frankly, why would I want another dog from a breeder who doesn't properly clear his breeding stock? Two dysplastic dogs is quite enough, thank you very much.

Don't get me wrong, I love my dogs with all my heart and soul, but it breaks my heart to know that as a result of his breeding practices, as they age, their hips will likely become excruciatingly painful, very costly, and it may shorten their lives.

What makes it even more difficult is to have a dog like Max, that has so much potential to compete in the highest levels of obedience, schutzhund and agility, and to know he can't do those things because of his crappy hips. Or to have a dog like Luna, that won every class she was entered in during her puppy show career, and to see her mature into an even more beautiful female, only to know that she can never be bred and to see her lost potential as a breed champion.

These are two dogs that I really feel could have had something to contribute to the breed, if only they had the most important piece of the puzzle. Genetic health.

We got Max as a 12 week old puppy from Peter Hannen. Our rottweiler, Reno, had died of cancer a month earlier, and we missed him horribly. We began searching for a breeder, and I admit, I was desperate to find a puppy. It was excruciating for me coming home every day after work to an empty house that seemed so dead and cold without the life he breathed into it, and I dreaded the weekends.

Having gained some knowledge of the breed during our years with our other two rottweilers, Reno and Vegas, I knew what a backyard breeder was, and knew it would not be a good idea to search in the newspapers. So our search for a reputable breeder began.

We went to some shows to try and make some contacts. Several of the breeders we talked to were quite rude to us when we tried to talk to them. Without any show experience, or the desire to show, we were not worthy of consideration, or apparently even common courtesy. We did find a few nice ones that didn't have any litters planned, but who were at least kind to us and were willing to put us on their list. Exceedingly frustrated, we turned to the Internet. We called all over the US talking to breeders. Some were terribly rude, some scared the bejeebers out of us with the way they were importing litters from Germany and selling puppies like cattle to whomever would pay the price. Some were nice, but had no puppies available.

It was through one of those breeders that we were referred to Peter Hannen. He had a 10 week old male puppy left from a recent litter that was a small male. He told us that even though he would mature to be within breed standard, he was having a hard time selling him because he was small. We were A-OK with that because at the time, we were not really sure if we were interested or not in showing dogs. He sent us a hand written contract, guaranteeing Max as a show quality male, and with a health guarantee for hip dysplasia. We jumped at the opportunity, and two weeks later, we had our precious rottweiler puppy, albeit, without the promised registration papers.

We called Peter immediately because he had told us that he would be shipping the papers along with Max's crate. Peter told us that there was a delay with AKC because Max's sire and dam were imported from Germany. It sounded plausible, so we waited another two weeks and called again when no papers arrived. Much to our distress, his phone number had been disconnected. We called all three numbers that we had for him, and all three had been disconnected. A few days later, the signed contract that we had mailed to him came back as undeliverable.

We were worried because during our search for Max, an interest in showing our dog had kind of sparked, so we contacted AKC. They told us that Peter had registered the litter late, and that there was no delay from AKC in registering the litter due to the sire and dam being German imports. They had been previously AKC registered. AKC told us that they had sent the registration slips out to Peter a few weeks prior, but it was to the same address that we had.

I turned to the Internet to try and find Peter, and found quite a bit of distressing information. Court documents on the King County Washington website about bankruptcy, siezed property, and several different addresses and phone numbers that had all been disconnected. I was beginning to get worried that we had not done such a great job of picking a breeder.

We got back into contact with the breeder that originally referred us to Peter, and she told us not to worry, that Peter would eventually contact her because they co-owned some dogs together. She was right, and sure enough, she called us back two weeks later with a working number for him. She also said she had talked to him about Max's registration slip, and that he promised to send it out.

When we called him, he was apologetic that he had not sent out the papers. He promised to send them out immediately. A few more weeks passed, and still we had no papers. I continued to call and pester him about it daily, which is why I am sure that I eventually got them - two months later. From what I have heard, some of Peter's other puppy buyers were not so lucky about getting their papers.

Max was a quite a dog, and as responsible pet parents, we did everything within our power to help him grow up to be a great dog. We fed him a quality dog food and kept him lean, we were cautious about too much exercise, we didn't let him run and play on slick floors, and we didn't let him jump on or off furniture, but at around six months of age, we started hearing a clicking noise in his hips. He was not showing any signs of discomfort, but we took him to the vet anyways. The vet said the clicking was a sign of hip dysplasia, recommended we wait until he was a year old to x-ray his hips, and to start him on glucosamine supplements, which we did.

The clicking continued, and when he turned a year old, we had the vet take a look at his hips. Our fears were confirmed. Max was dysplastic. We had the option of surgery (to the tune of over $10,000), or to manage it through supplements, exercise and weight control. Since he was showing no sign of any pain and spending $10,000 was just not possible for us, we opted for management. When I told Peter about Max, he seemed genuinely concerned, and told us he would give us a replacement dog from another litter if we wanted; however, he did not have any litters at the time.

During all this time, we had been keeping in close contact with Peter, and had struck up a friendship. I wanted a mentor in the breed, and Peter was very knowledgeable about German dogs. I talked to him regularly on the phone about rottweilers in general, and about Max. I build websites, and shortly after we got Max's papers from Peter, he asked me if I would build a website for him. He said he had paid a guy for a website some months back, but that he had never launched the site. He told me that he had been having some hard times financially (which I knew to be true) and couldn't pay me for the site right then, so we worked out a deal that in exchange for the site, he would give us a show quality female. A dog that would hopefully become my foundation bitch.

The site I built for Peter was a nice one. He got comments on it all the time from other breeders, and I saw the nice comments posted in his guest book. My specialty is seach engine optimization, and I worked diligently at getting his site to the top of the search results. He was consistently in the top five for all his targeted search words and phrases, and Peter began selling a lot of dogs from his website. It became one of the top rottweiler sites on the web. As his webmaster, I started getting a lot of emails and complaints in his guestbook about the dogs he was selling. Show people who had bought show quality rottweilers from him, but never got registration papers, people who were upset because their dogs were dysplastic, temperament problems that had become unbearable. I would talk to Peter about it each time I got one of these complaints, and he ALWAYS had an excuse, and it was ALWAYS the other persons fault, never his.

Peter frequently sent me information on his litters to put up on his site. He bred a lot of dogs. Each time I put them up, I would ask him about the replacement puppy for Max, and about the show quality bitch he was going to send me in exchange for the website. Everytime I brought it up, he said I did not want a dog from this litter or that litter, that it was the wrong litter for my goals, blah, blah, blah. After a year and a half of these kinds of excuses from him, I asked him to either make good on his promises, or pay me for the website and the difference in price between show quality and pet quality for Max, and I sent him a bill. He told me he didn't have any money to pay for it, but he promised to send me a puppy from one of two litters that he had upcoming, that both were very nice breedings. I was pretty excited when he told me about these litters, so when he wanted me to list them for sale on his website, I brought it up again, and this time he finally agreed to send us a dog, and we got Luna. Luna was to be the replacement for Max, and he still owed us an additional dog for the website.

While Luna grew up, I continued to work on his website, putting up litter after litter after litter, but I was not in a rush to get a third dog from Peter. Two young rottweilers was quite a handful, and I was actively training both dogs for obedience and showing Luna in breed. The complaints continued to come in from his website, and I questioned him about each one. It was always the same story. People had unrealistic expectations and it was always their fault, never his.

My knowledge of the breed was growing, and more and more, some of the conversations I had with Peter distressed me. He had a falling out with one of the breeders that he co-owned some dogs with. I managed her website as well, and although I do not know the details of what happened, she asked me to remove all references to him and kennel vom Neuenschloss from her website. There were also times that the search engine algorithms would change and his site would drop in rank, and he would not get as many inquiries from the site. He would be distressed about this as he did not work, and told me he relied upon what he sold through his website to help support his family. A Canadian breeder who had bought a dog from a very nice breeding that he had arranged was furious because Peter would not send him the registration papers. Peter blamed it on a another breeder in Canada, and the guy was posting daily in his guestbook that he was a crook, and sending me e-mail after e-mail. Every night I had to remove his entries from the guestbook database. Then I started getting e-mails from Brazil on Peter's dogs, but he was always very tight lipped when asked about what he was doing in Brazil.

When discussions started about revising the AKC breed standard to address tails, I encouraged Peter to join the ARC. As someone who was importing dogs from Germany with tails, I thought he would want a voice in the process. His response shocked me. He said that he couldn't join ARC because he bred litters back to back to back, and because he refused to do OFA health certifications on the dogs he imported if they already had German clearances. Since this is an ARC Code of Ethics requirement, I was surprised, particularly because he had told me that he did clear his dogs through OFA. Comments like these gave me cause for concern about what Peter was doing with his breeding practices. He also made comments to me about wanting to breed for the pet market, rather than the show/working market, because these people were just too picky about their dogs.

He told me about a bitch that was sent to him for breeding that had apparently got out of his yard and was seriously injured. It ended the dog's show career, and the owner was suing him. Again, Peter felt no responsibility, and told me that it was the owners fault for not telling him that the dog was a runner. A pattern was clearly emerging, and more and more, I was ashamed that my dogs carried his kennel's name.

When Luna turned two, we anxiously got her health clearances done, although we were in no hurry to breed her. I had discussed some potential stud dogs with Peter, but first we wanted to put her back in the breed ring to finish her AKC championship. She was a late bloomer, and needed to mature physically to compete in open, and we also wanted to get an obedience title or two on her. She had done really well in her youth classes, winning every class she was entered in but one, and in that class she took second. She had received some very nice comments from judges, including breeder judges, about her potential, and I was pretty excited about her future. She passed her heart clearance, her CERF eye exam, and she passed her elbows. Then I got her hip results, Unlateral Mild Hip Dysplasia Left. I was crushed.

I contacted Peter, whom I thought was my friend, only to hear, "Gee that's too bad. What do you expect me to do about it?" Instead of a sympathetic ear, I got the cold shoulder.

After he found out that she failed OFA, he wouldn't answer my phone calls or return my emails. I really did not expect him to do anything at the time, but his lack of any response angered both me and my husband. When I was waiting for the results from OFA, I was checking their online database daily, and I noticed that her dam was not in the database. I also talked to another breeder who had used her sire, Lauser vom Schwaiger Wappen, in several breedings in her kennel. She told me that Lauser was ED++, not clear as Peter had told me, and that she used him very cautiously in her breeding program because of this.

I did get hold of Peter. I called him from a cell phone where he did not recognize the number. We had a long talk (or should I say argument) about the lies he had told us. Again, he took the position that it was not his fault. He offered to send us another replacement dog, which we declined. Why would I want another dysplastic dog from him? Instead I told him that I wanted him to pay me for his website, and that I would accept only a small portion of what the bill actually was, and that we would call it even. That small portion was a measly $1,000 - the difference between a show and pet quality dog from his original contract. More than fair in my opinion for 3½ years of work on his site, and two dysplastic dogs. He refused. He said he had no money to send and hung up on me.

Luna's dam, although born, bred and living in the United States, has never been cleared by the OFA, or any other organization as far as I can tell. Peter told me during that last phone call that she had been cleared in Brazil (??), which is sure strange since she has never been to Brazil by Peter's own admission. I asked him for proof that she was cleared somewhere on the planet, and of course, he has never produced anything. He still continues to use her in his breeding program, and she still has no OFA record. When Peter offered Luna to as a replacement puppy for Max, he told me that her dam was OFA certified good, and that her sire was certified in Germany as free of hip and elbow dysplasia. Both of these statements are, of course, false. Her sire is HD+/- on hips, and ED++ on elbows. Her dam is anyone's guess, but mine is that she may have failed OFA, which is why he went to Brazil.

When I asked Peter about this information I had found out about her sire and dam, his answer to me was that it "must have slipped his mind". How can something as important as health clearances slip your mind when you are a breeder?

I sent him a bill again, and tried reach him by phone. No response. Since he had not paid me one dime for his website, I took it down. It took him about a week to notice, and he called me when he did. He thought it was a problem with the site that I would fix for him, free of charge of course. I informed him that I had removed the site, but if he wanted to pay the bill for it, I would be happy to send him the files and copyrights. He hung up on me again, and had one of his friends (Erika Butler) copy the site (verbatim) I had built from the search engine archives. I had to threaten him with a copyright infringement lawsuit for him to change it. It still does not meet the requirement of substantially different as required by law, but at least it is not the same as what I created. Thankfully, I retained and registered the copyrights to the site, so the graphics, design, code and most of the text is mine. All he owns are the pictures of his dogs. What I really regret is that he still reaps the benefit of all the work I did to get him ranked high in the search engines. Unfortunately, I can't undo that much as I'd like to, and he will still continue to suck in unsuspecting buyers as a result.

That is why I am sharing my story of my experiences with Peter Hannen of vom Neuenschloss Rottweilers on the Internet. If it saves one person from the heartache that I have about my dogs, then I have done the right thing to try and rectify the damage. There are other similar stories out there, just Google his name and kennel. Here's one: Tank's Story.

Could all of this have been avoided if the breeder had done the proper health clearances on his dogs? Even with the best breeding practices, genetic disease still happens. It is; however, far less likely to happen when dogs used in a breeding program have been properly screened for genetic disease. With Max I think it was a fluke. Even with the knowledge I have now, I still would consider Max's breeding a good breeding. However in Luna's case, I feel that the answer quite possibly is yes. Had Peter told the truth about her sire and dam, I would not have accepted a puppy from that litter. What concerns me the most about Max and Luna's breeder is the number of dysplastic dogs that I directly saw complaints on. Search for his kennel name in the OFA database and you will see very few of his dogs in it, even though he breeds and sell A LOT of dogs. Why is this?

Why is it that his current sales contract allows for his puppy buyers to breed once a purchased dog reaches two years of age and clears OFA, yet he does not OFA his own dogs? What about titles? Shouldn't an ethical breeder require that the dogs he produces be titled before they are bred? If he is breeding to the German standard, shouldn't a BST be required? Why does his contract for hip dysplasia only offer a guarantee up to 24 months of age, when he knows darn good and well that you can't x-ray a dog for OFA prior to 24 months of age, even if it's by by one day? Why are the links on his new website to puppy websites where puppy millers and backyard breeders advertise their dogs for sale?

Why do you see so few of his dogs in the show ring? In dog sport? Just who is Peter Hannen breeding for and selling to? You be the judge.