Six Shibas,
home before the first snow.

Three separate things get confused with each other constantly, so here they are side by side.

The take-back is not a return policy. It exists so that no dog from this litter ends up in a shelter or on a rehoming page, and it stands whether you have had the dog eight weeks or eleven years. Call us first, always.

Not beyond 72 hours, and you should ask every breeder who offers more exactly what they would hand you.

A health guarantee is a promise to give you something if your dog turns out to be sick years from now. For a breeder our size that something is almost always a puppy from a future litter. We are placing one litter. There is no kennel program behind us, and we are not going to promise you a puppy from a litter that may never exist.

Here is what we do instead.

Seventy-two hours. Take the puppy to your own veterinarian within three days of pickup. If they find a serious congenital defect or a contagious disease, bring the puppy back and we return every dollar you have paid us. No argument, no restocking fee, no partial anything.

Both parents on a full DNA panel, published on this site before you send a deposit. GM1 gangliosidosis is the disorder this breed is known for. It is recessive, so two clear parents cannot produce an affected puppy. A guarantee pays out after your dog is already dying. Screening stops it happening. Given the choice we would rather do the second one.

Pet insurance. Enroll in the first two weeks, before anything can be called pre-existing. It costs less than most people expect and it will cover far more, for far longer, than any breeder guarantee was ever going to.

After 72 hours the dog is yours and so is the risk. That is a worse deal than some breeders advertise. It is a better deal than the ones who advertise a guarantee they have no way to honor.

No, and it applies to us, so here it is.

Mica is registered with the American Kennel Club, and separately with the Continental Kennel Club as well. Her AKC pedigree runs back through Monark lines and her own sire carries an AKC DNA profile.

Fox is registered with the Continental Kennel Club only, a separate organization with much lighter verification. His own sire and dam were not registered with them at all.

That is what decides where the litter goes. CKC registers a litter when the dam is on their books and the sire is as well, and both of ours are. The AKC registers a litter only when both parents are AKC registered, and Fox is not, so these puppies cannot be AKC papered at any price. They are purebred Shiba Inu and they are registered with the Continental Kennel Club, but that certificate does not carry a traceable pedigree the way Mica’s does.

We would rather lose the sale than have you learn this afterwards. It is also why our price is what it is. Both certificates are yours to inspect before you place a deposit.

Because we can measure it instead of asking you to trust a signature.

Both parents have been through a full Embark panel, and Embark matches relatives across its whole database. Add the optional puppy DNA report at pickup and the result confirms the parentage of your specific puppy directly.

Proving parentage is the whole job a registration certificate does. A registry takes the breeder’s word for it and prints a certificate. A DNA panel measures it. We would rather hand you the measurement.

What DNA cannot do is act as a registry. It will not make a puppy AKC eligible, it will not get you into conformation, and it does not produce a pedigree stretching back generations. It tells you what the dog is, not who its great-grandparents were.

A full veterinary examination on both, and a complete Embark DNA panel on both. Mica came back clear on all 215 conditions in her panel. Fox came back clear on 209 of the 210 in his, the exception being a variant that affects how a vet reads his liver bloodwork rather than a disease. Both are clear of GM1 gangliosidosis, and because it is recessive, two clear parents cannot produce an affected puppy. The links on The Parents page go straight to Embark so you can read the results yourself.

What we do not do is OFA orthopedic screening, the radiographic hip and patella evaluations, or a CAER eye exam with a veterinary ophthalmologist. Programs that do charge more than we do, and that is fair. We charge for the work we actually do.

If we cannot place you with a puppy, your deposit comes back in full. No argument, no delay.

If you change your mind, the deposit is not refunded and there is no later litter to move it to. This is Mica’s last one. That is what keeps the waitlist made of serious people, and it is why we would rather talk you out of a Shiba on the phone than take your money first.

No puppy of ours flies alone in cargo. Most families drive to Boise, Idaho and pick up in person, which we strongly prefer, because it is the only way you meet Mica.

For longer distances an in-cabin flight nanny is possible, booked and paid by you directly. Ask early, since it affects which pickup week works.

Continental Kennel Club registration, for the reason set out above. Not AKC.

If you want a dog with an AKC pedigree for conformation showing or for breeding, we are the wrong litter. We will say so on the phone instead of taking your deposit.

For a pet Shiba who is going to hike, nap and ignore your recall, the paperwork changes nothing about the dog in front of you. Temperament, health and how the puppy was raised are what matter, and that is where our work goes.

No. These puppies go out on full registration with breeding rights, and whether to spay or neuter is yours to decide with your own veterinarian. We set no deadline and ask for no proof. If you do alter the dog, current guidance for small breeds generally favors waiting for growth-plate closure. If you plan to breed, we ask (we do not require) that you run a full genetic panel on both dogs first, the same way we did for this litter.

Six puppies: four boys and two girls. They were born on September 14, 2026.

Positions are filled in deposit order. If deposits ever outnumber puppies, the extra deposits come back in full. There is no next litter to roll into, so nobody is left holding a place in a queue that does not exist.

No. This is Mica’s last one, and it is the only one that has happened here.

She is nearly seven, and this is her seventh litter, but we have never bred her, including this time. Five were with the breeder we sold her to in 2021, and one with the family who bought her after that. This one happened at home. We got her back this year, Fox followed a few months later, and she came into season before we had the two of them reliably apart. The whole story is on The Parents page.

She has whelped all seven herself, no C-section, and her last was seven puppies. She is good at this. She is also past the point where anyone should be asking her again: the veterinary guidance on breeding careers puts a sensible ceiling at four or five litters and retirement between five and eight years old. Once these puppies are weaned she is spayed and retired, and she spends the rest of it asleep on the good chair.

We are telling you because it changes what we can honestly promise. A breeder with litters coming can offer you a replacement puppy if something goes wrong years from now. We cannot, so we do not offer one, and the deposit terms above say so plainly rather than in small print. It is also the reason both parents go through a full DNA panel before you send a dollar. Screening is the part we can actually deliver.

Photographs start once their eyes open, around September 28, then weekly updates by email to everyone holding a deposit, right through to go-home day.

We have lived with Shibas since 2020, when Mica first came home. Mica is the one in the house now. Fox, the sire, has been sold and has gone to his new family. Earlier this year we also raised one of Mica’s puppies from her last litter, from a small puppy until she went to her new family this summer.

We are not professional breeders and we are not going to dress it up. What we have is what a family learns from living with this breed: the escape attempts, the scream, the shedding, the negotiating, and how good they are once they decide you are theirs. It is also why we ask so many questions before anyone sends a deposit.

Less than you would think, but these six things matter.

A vet appointment in the first three days. The 72-hour check only works if your vet sees the puppy in time, so book it before pickup.

Pet insurance quotes. Most policies have a waiting period before illness is covered, so enroll the day you pick up.

A crate big enough to stand up and turn around in, somewhere the family actually is.

The same food. We send what they are already eating and tell you exactly how much and how often, so there is no sudden switch.

A walk along your fence line. A Shiba puppy fits through gaps you would never think to check.

A puppy class on the calendar. For this breed it is the best money you will spend in the first year.

Sometimes. It depends far more on how much reading you have done about the breed than on your résumé. A first-time owner who understands what a Shiba is will always beat an experienced owner who wants a compliant dog.

Yes, and we encourage it. Meet Mica, see where the puppies are being raised, and ask hard questions. We keep visits to the puppies themselves limited until they have had their first vaccination, at about six weeks. That is about their immune systems, not about hiding anything.