First questions out of the way:

1. Do you have Puppies Available?  About twice a year.
2. What size are your Malamutes?  65-95# (ish).
3. Do they really have a six-year genetic health warranty?  Yep.
4. How much?  $1000 PET Price (kennel reduction pricing because of my new job.)  This is a $500 non-refundable-but-transferable deposit, balance due at 5 weeks.  Air shipping is available at cost to the buyer for airfare, crate, health certificate, and delivery to Nashville airport from Wayeh kennels.  But to be clear, this purchase price is for owners picking up at my house.)
5. Can I breed the dog?  That’s a different conversation.
6. What’s in the Application, Contract, and Medical Schedule?

Now the fun starts…

Ask MORE from your Breeder.

After leaving Boeing Aerospace to care for my grandmother and then my mother, I became a rescuer, dog trainer, and Malamute breeder.  I am available any time, as many times as, a puppy buyer needs help to raise a happy, healthy puppy for the lifetime of the dog. As a rescuer running Sleddog Rescue 1995-2008 and TNAMR (Tennessee Alaskan Malamute Rescue) since 2008, and saving over 700 Siberian Huskies & Alaskan Malamutes, I can tell you that the vast majority of rescue dogs are not in bad homes, they are in the wrong homes — owners who have an involved breeder and who take their puppies through classes do not generally give up their dogs.  And if a breeder were involved, the dog would be returned to the breeder and not handed over to rescue.  Through my experience rehabbing rescue dogs, teaching classes with Oak Ridge (TN) Kennel Club, and raising Wayeh dogs over the years, I have learned about dog training and dog behavior.  I am available to help any of my puppy buyers any time they need me, as often as they need me for life.  If a puppy buyer runs into a small problem, I can help them fix it so it doesn’t become a big problem.  Even if its a big problem, I can help that as well.  I am available @ Wayeh, over the phone, on Facebook or via email for my puppies and their owners for their entire lives.  Ask MORE from your breeder.

— Sidney Helen Sachs

Why are Wayeh puppies different?

It starts long before you see the pictures come up under Available Puppies (link).  Wayeh’s first litter (link) was in 1981 by Billie Stewart.  You can read how we got started in The Wayeh Story Beginnings & The Wayeh Story Today.  You can chart how we produced Twelve Wayeh Generations (link), and every litter under Photo Albums (link).  If you like history and pedigrees (link) as much as we do, you might enjoy seeing the foundation dogs of the AKC Alaskan Malamutes (link).

Wayeh sires and dams are more than just pretty faces

They are chosen for Temperament, Health, Structure, Working Ability, & Type.  Get out of the kennel and off the property for classes, shows, and adventures.  Proven out in the world, in harness, obedience, &/or the show ring (Working Housedogs-link).  Tested for hips, eyes, & thyroid.  Fed a premium diet.  Kept at working weight as benefits their heritage of being lean, long-distance runners.  Matched based on COI/COR (coefficient of inbreeding) (link) pedigree analysis & phenotype (looks).  And PROUDLY linked to every puppy with full AKC name, health clearances, and multi-generational picture pedigrees so you don’t have to ask for it.

We don’t limit or hide pedigrees, we brag about them!

Wayeh puppies are raised right

Wayeh puppies are whelped in the home & exercised in sunshine.  They romp through the yards and gardens, explore the woods and fields, try their ‘hand’ at puppy-safe agility equipment, and meet their great-great granddogs here.  They are weaned to premium dog food and get human food as treats.  They are also guided using modern puppy socialization techniques.  Every moment you and I spend with these puppies before 4 months is socialization — the socialization window closes at 16 weeks.  It’s now or never.  Therefore what happens from birth to go-home @ 9 weeks is crucial.

• Dr. Carmen Battaglia’s Early Neurological Stimulation is the beginning of a socialized puppy.  Ever wonder how you get a super dog?  You raise a super puppy.
• Karen Pryor’s Clicker Litter.  The clicker can be your puppies most important tool, which is why we start there and strongly encourage you to continue.  The clicker facilitates learning.  The puppy learns quicker and retains the information forever.  It’s a tool, just like any tool, but this one is invaluable.
• The Rule of 7’s. This is fun.  Ever thought about finding 7 different things for a puppy to eat out of?  Don’t worry, we’ve already done that and more.  They’ve also met 7 different people by 7 weeks, played with 7 different toys, been to 7 different places, slept in 7 different places, eaten in 7 different locations, heard 7 different kinds of music, smelled  7 different distinctive smells…
• The New Knowledge of Dog Behavior, by Clarence Pfaffenberger, to stimulate the sense to get a happy, confident, curious puppy.
• Potty Training — no guarantees as to your consistency when you get the puppy home <G>, but we have STARTED crate training, paper training, house training, and litter training with cedar shavings.
• Regular Toe Nail Trims.  Sounds easy.  Unless you’ve ever tried to trim nails on a puppy that wasn’t handled.
• Regular grooming.  Again sounds easy.  Unless you’ve ever tried to brush a ticklish puppy for the first time.
• Car rides.  They go to the mail box.  They go to drive-thrus.  They go to vets just for a cookie.  They go over the valley and through the woods.  And they do it crated in a vehicle.  They make 2+ trips to our regular vet for initial check-ups, then dewormings, vaccinations, and health certificates.  They go lots of places so car rides aren’t frightening by the time they go home with you.  Or are air shipped.  Once the wheels start turning, most puppies go right to sleep because of the “white noise” of the engine.
• In addition, each puppy gets housetime separate from littermates and mom sitting in my lap while I answer email or watch TV; crate time in the kitchen and basement kennel with and without littermates and mom; yard time with littermates; kennel time with and without mom.

All of these things help socialize and train a well-rounded puppy.  But temperament can only be influenced so much and if you have a shy puppy at birth, you can have a shy puppy as an adult — or a shy puppy with tons of socialization and training so he learns extra confidence as he grows (my Wyatt is very shy but has LEARNED to be social).  If you have a rowdy puppy at birth, you can have a rowdy puppy as an adult — or a rowdy puppy who has learned extra self-control as he grows (my Maestro is very rowdy but has LEARNED self-control).

Wayeh puppies are evaluated objectively

We use a succession of simple tests/observations to determine the likely temperament and structure of the puppy as an adult.  Some homes are better suited for a quiet puppy, some are better suited for a rambunctious puppy — and some homes just want an idea of what to expect.

• Fishback’s Lead Dog Testing (6w)
• Puppy Temperament Testing (7w)
• Volhard’s Puppy Aptitude Testing (7w)
• Trotter’s Structure Analysis (8w).

Wayeh puppies go home with a suitcase

You’re going to need a few things on the trip home.  You should bring a puppy crate so he can ride safely home from Wayeh, paper towels and trash bags, bottled water and a water bucket/bowl, and a name tag with your info already on it for his new collar.  Wayeh puppies go home with:

• AKC limited registration, AKC papers provided after proof of spay/neuter AND an OFA hip X-ray at time of neuter as detailed in the Application and Contract (link);
• AVID microchip;
• Litter health record that details AVID microchips, regular deworming & fecal checks, flea/tick prevention, 2 vet visits, and the first vet-administered vaccinations;
• Medical schedule for the life of the puppy;
• 7-day warranty against communicable disease;
• 6-year warranty against genetic disease;
• Samples of their food, toys, and puppy collar/leash; &
• Lifetime support.

Breeding, Raising, and Evaluating puppies have important considerations that have far-reaching consequences long after the puppy goes home.

Matching Puppies

“But I want one that looks like THAT.”

Most of our puppies are happily middle-of-the-road on temperament.  They tend to be super-friendly by the time we are finished with our intense socialization.  They have met strangers, new environments, some very supervised adult dogs, new things in the house and yards.

But if that pretty face belongs to a barn-stormer of a puppy and you’re a quiet person who likes to watch TV, you’re going to have trouble keeping the party brain out of trouble.  If you have soccer kids over every weekend and teenagers floating in and out of your house every evening, than the softer puppy who is more hesitant, won’t fit as easily into your home.  You CAN make it work, but we try to eliminate as much work as possible by matching a puppy with your home.

That’s why we take into account your color and pattern preferences as we evaluate the puppies — even from birth, we are evaluating them.  All puppies are wonderful, of course, so we also do objective evaluations and rank the puppies BEFORE the picks.  In this way, the genetics of the puppy plus the early socialization we have done (above) are rated so that we place the puppies in the home that MATCHES them the best.  So your pick based on the pretty face may be a good puppy for you, but these evaluations will help us both determine that.