Go to our puppy questionnaire and scroll down about 9 or 10 questions to see our total price. Payments are divided between payment for the puppies themselves and payment for training. See our Trained Puppies page for details on what the training entails. Read below for details on our deposit and payment policies.
Payments Must Be Made By Check or Zelle or Venmo
All payments must be made by check or Zelle or Venmo. (Zelle and Venmo have limits that sometimes change.) Families must pay for their puppy in full before puppy selection time. This ensures that all checks are good and have cleared banks. We do not currently accept paypal, credit cards or any other form of payment.
$500 Deposit to Get on a Reservation List
A $500 deposit is due when you get on our list.
Second Deposit of $500 Due Before Puppies are 2 Weeks Old
We require a second deposit of $500 when puppies are 2 weeks of age for a total deposit of $1000. At this point, deposits are not refundable.
Contract Sent at 2 Weeks
I will send out a signed copy of our contract when the puppies are 2 weeks old.
Final Payment Due at 5 Weeks Along With Contract
Then before puppies are 5 weeks, final payment along with a copy of the contract is due back to us. It is your responsibility to get checks or all Venmo or Zelle payments here before 5 weeks. Sometimes USPS is slow. Venmo and Zelle usually limit amounts.
If you plan on making your final payment by Venmo or Zelle, make sure to check with your bank for both amount limits as well as limits on the time-frame in which you can make another transfer. It is your responsibility to get the process started in time to have final payments to us on time. For example, if you have a final balance of $5000 and your bank has a $1000 limit per week on Zelle and you want to use Zelle, you’ll need to start the process shortly after birth in order to meet your deadline with Zelle.
We will not accept a personal check after puppies are 5 weeks old. If your check is late or you’ve not made payment by Zelle or Venmo, a cashiers check will have to be overnighted. Cashiers checks must arrive before puppies are 5 weeks 3 days in order to get your puppy.
If we do not receive either Venmo or Zelle payment, or a personal check before puppies are 5 weeks or a cashiers check or cash before puppies are 5 weeks 3 days, you will forfeit your puppy as well as your deposit. We are extremely busy during the last couple of weeks that puppies are here. We need to have financial responsibilities taken care of early so that we can focus on the puppies themselves.
Payment Policies for Training Fees
For puppies held extra time, we must receive training fees no later than 2 weeks before the day you will be picking up your puppy.
Payment Policies for Deposits
We will fully refund your deposit if we can’t provide you with a puppy from the litter or litters that you request and of the sex that you request.
We will partially refund deposits in certain cases. When waiting for long periods of time, we do understand that life circumstances can change leaving you no longer in a good position to raise a puppy.
If you change your mind about getting a puppy from us for any reason before the litter is bred, we keep $200 of the $500 paid. We refund the rest.
If you need to cancel your reservation after the litter is bred but before ultrasound, we keep $300 of the $500 paid up to this point.
After ultrasound and until 2 weeks prior to the posted due date, we keep $400 of the $500 and will refund $100.
Once it is later than two weeks prior to the posted due date, there is no refund of the $500 deposit.
The only case where we refund deposits after birth is if we cannot provide you with a puppy of the sex that you request from the litter you request.
If you cancel after puppies are 2 weeks of age and before puppies are 5 weeks when full payment is due, the entire $1000 deposit (two deposits of $500 each) is non-refundable.
Late Cancellations
Once puppies are 5 weeks of age and you’ve sent in your contract and final payment, we consider that the puppy is your puppy. If a family needs to cancel for any reason after final payments have been sent, we keep $2000 or $2500 depending on if you had a pick puppy.
Late cancellations put us in a very difficult position. It often doesn’t give us sufficient time for us to find a good family for your puppy and then for that family to make plans to get to Alabama last minute. Often with last minute cancellations, we end up keeping puppies extra time beyond our normal training time. This is problematic to us as small breeders raising puppies in our home with limited space. This is especially difficult when we have litters coming up behind your litter.
In addition, late cancellations will put any replacement family in a negative position. The new family will not have any input as to which puppy will be theirs. Therefore, for non-pick puppies, we will keep $2000 and refund the rest after puppies are 5 weeks of age.
Late cancellations present an additional problem when you have agreed to take a pick puppy and you cancel after puppy selection. The puppy you choose may not be someone else’s pick puppy. Also, if puppy selection hasn’t started yet, we may not have another family lined up to take your pick slot. Therefore, all pick fees are non refundable if you should cancel after puppy selection. In other words, for pick puppies, we will refund all money paid except for the $2000 plus the $500 pick fee for a total of $2500 when a cancellation is made after puppies are 5 weeks of age.
$100 Change Fee if Original Litter Has Not Yet Been Bred
Sometimes people get on a list and want to change litters to a later litter. We allow that if two conditions are met. There must be availability on the new list. You must notify us of the change before the original litter is bred. There is a $100 litter change fee.
Change Fee After Original Litter Has Been Bred is the Same as a Cancellation
If someone gives notice that they want to change after a litter is bred, the fee to change is the same as a cancellation. This fee is $300 after a litter is bred but before ultrasound. It is $400 after ultrasound but before 2 weeks prior to posted due date; $500 after 2 weeks prior to posted due date. There is no fee in the case of a litter not having enough puppies for someone. This fee is only for those cases where people are choosing for themselves to wait for a later litter for personal reasons.
No Litter Change Fee if Someone Moves to an Earlier Litter
Occasionally, I decide to breed a dog last minute. Sometimes a litter has more puppies of a particular sex than normal. This gives an opportunity for someone to change to an earlier litter. Before opening the new list for the general public, we will usually offer those puppies to someone already on another one of our lists. There is no litter change fee for those cases where a person is moving to an earlier litter.
Training Fees
We discuss our training fees for our training program on our puppy questionnaire. Training fees are due at least 2 weeks before puppies are picked up if paying by check or 1 week prior to pick up if paying by Venmo, or Zelle. You can also bring cash for the training when you pick up your puppy. (We provide a receipt.) The cost of the puppy him/herself is due by 5 weeks with the same payment policies as all other puppies.
We do not want to keep a puppy any longer than our latest pickup date, not even overnight. Our family works around the clock when we have puppies here. We often make family plans that begin the day after puppies leave (sometimes the evening that the last puppies leave). In addition, if we have another litter here, all of our puppy areas might be full.
Picking up Outside Our Pick Up Windows
Though we don’t want to, if an unforeseen circumstance causes a family to be late, we might be able to accommodate. If we are able to logistically keep the puppy, there will be a charge of $450/day for any puppy left later than 12 weeks 3 days. The same holds true for puppies picked up after 11 weeks if we are not offering the 12 weeks plus program for your litter.
However, if a family wants to pick up in after a normal pick up time that is not the last pick up time for the litter, you can do it as long as we have puppies being trained at this level already. The additional charge is $350/day starting at the previous stated pick up date for your litter. Your puppy will be trained along with our other puppies. However, puppies not left for the entire 12 1/2 weeks program won’t get the off-site socialization. We start this socialization at 10 weeks for our 12 Weeks Plus puppies.
If a family wants to pick up after 8 weeks but prior to 10 weeks, the extra charge is $250/day and there will be no heeling training. Puppies will simply practice and become more proficient at the skills listed for our 8 week old puppies.
Health Certificates are $150. Usually They Are Not Necessary
Health certificates are $150. This barely covers our cost for the certificate. The tiny bit extra doesn’t make up for our time in having to make a separate trip to the vet. Most, if not all, airlines do not require health certificates for in-cabin flights. As of the writing of this section of this page, no airline requires them for in-cabin flights. If an airline employee tells you that you need one, they are probably confusing in-cabin flying with flying in cargo. Check on-line for official information. Phone customer service employees with ALL airlines are often confused over regulations regarding in-cabin pet travel. We’ve never heard of a puppy flying any airline in cabin that needed a health certificate.
Cost for Us to Meet You at the Birmingham Airport
We will most likely not be able to meet you at the airport. It is very important that you come all the way to our home. There simply is not time or a place to demonstrate all the things we need to go over at the airport.
However, in the rare event that something happens necessitating this option, someone will meet you there with your puppy. There will be an additional charge of $300. This covers our costs and time during our very busy pick up days.
We Reserve the Right To Refund Any Deposit
Summer Brook reserves the right to refund a deposit if we later decide that placing a puppy in a particular home is not in the puppy’s best interest. We do not sell our puppies to anyone that we don’t feel will give a good home to a puppy. We try our best to vet puppy applications up front. It is very rare that we might find ourselves in a position of refunding a deposit for these reasons. However, we will. Providing good homes for our puppies is priority.
Full Deposit Refund If Not Enough Puppies
If a litter does not produce enough puppies of the gender you request, we will give a full refund of your deposit. Often families ask to leave their deposit with us and wait on another litter. However, unless there is another litter planned with availability, we will not keep a deposit. If a family wants to start over with another litter, new price, contract, and policies will apply.
