Adding a Maijani Puppy To Your Family
To be accepted for a placement we require a visit to our house to meet the prospective mother and her relatives, as well as to get to know us personally as breeders. We've found that families considering a Ridgeback get a lot of benefit from spending time with Ridgebacks of different sizes and "looks", and spending time with us and the dogs helps answer all sorts of questions about the prospective parents and whether or not a Ridgeback is right for your family. If a home visit isn't feasible for out of state families, please let us know and we can discuss options.
It's important to understand that families who would like to add a Maijani puppy to their family need to come to our house and meet us and our dogs, even families who currently or previously have had a Ridgeback. Simply requesting to be added to our waiting/information list does not mean a family is approved for a puppy placement. We will keep inquiries on file during the times when we don't have a litter planned, and upon confirmation of a breeding we will work with our inquiry list to schedule times to visit.
When we have finalized plans for a breeding, we will update the home page of our website announcing the planned breeding with a general timeframe of when we might expect puppies. We will update our Upcoming Litters page with information on the proposed sire and dam, and then provide additional updates as the breeding is completed.
About 3 1/2 weeks after breeding, we schedule an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy. It's very difficult for the vet to tell us exactly how many puppies we should expect but they are able to tell us if there are, or there are not, puppies on the way. They also tell us how many they are able to see. So with confirmation that we are in fact expecting puppies and a general sense from the ultrasound as to how many puppies we might expect, we are then able to finalize names for our waiting list. If we haven't already met prospective families we'll then schedule time for them to meet with us. Because ultrasounds aren't an exact science, it's possible there may be more puppies than the vet is able to locate. Our goal is to have transparency with our prospective puppy people so when we believe our waiting list for a litter is likely full we will hold off on scheduling interviews but may accept additional names for our waiting list as "back ups" in the event we have a larger litter or if someone has to drop off the approved list. Gestation is approximately 60 days, and because our top priority is the comfort of the mom-to-be we'll stop scheduling interviews about a week before her due date so we minimize stress and disruption for her.
Because of the uncertainty regarding litter size and what we may get in terms of male/female and show potential/companion/ridgeless mix we don't know for sure what will be available until after the litter is born. After the first few days when we know all the puppies are ok and growing, we will reach out to our prospective puppy people about their preferences and specific situation and if we believe there may be a match we will accept a deposit to hold the puppy. At that time we'll also reach out to our back up names to let people know if we have unexpected availability. Responsible breeders seek to improve the quality of the breed, and therefore in our litters we hope to produce at least one or more show potential puppies that can earn their AKC conformation Champion title and could someday be considered to be part of the breed's future as a sire or dam. We determine our show potential puppies at approximately 7-8 weeks of age although puppies with some disqualifications such as a short ridge, offset bite, dermoid sinus, or kinked tail are obvious much earlier. We stay in contact with our prospective puppy owners through the process about the status of the litter, although we may not be as responsive as we'd like during the first couple of weeks as we're not getting much sleep!
Families interested in adding a Maijani Ridgeback to their home should submit an inquiry telling us a bit about themselves through this website on the Contact Us page.