Dustin Retrievers

I’ve had three labs from them in the last 8 years each one beautiful, healthy, happy, well behaved and trainable. Never had anything but great experiences with managers and the family. We often board are labs when we leave town they bend over backwards to accommodate. Can’t recommend them more.

We would like to file a complaint against Dustin Retrievers for
- selling us a dog that exhibited clear signs of neglect or psychological problems not consistent with a properly socialized, healthy animal.

My partner and I purchased a one-year-old chocolate lab (Otto) from Dustin Retrievers on 7/2/2023 and immediately experienced problems with the animal consistent with my above description. The dog urinated on himself almost immediately when we approached him to take him out, feed him, offering him treats, attempting to have him chase and retrieve anything. The dog was timid at the breeders and the owner Shawn had to force him into the kennel in the back of our car, making flippant comments about how the dog just needed to get comfortable.

As you can see from the attached texts, this was more than a case of the dog getting comfortable in his new environment. The problems culminated when on 7/14/2023, Otto went literally berserk and slipped his collar and ran away. He would not even respond to his name. We have spent days looking for him, posting on social media, working with animal control and the local shelter to no avail.

When we contacted the breeder, they feigned concern but fed us platitudes. At one point last week, they even admitted the dog had issues. That said, at no point, did they fully take responsibility for selling us a dog for nearly $3,000 (if you threw in the training DVDs they pushed on us that we paid in cash) that was not ready to be sold and should not have been sold. In fact, we never received proof that the animal was healthy and properly vaccinated and cared for prior to our purchase. We received a form document with handwritten information and market documents of his pedigree but nothing that was official and proper.

We got emotionally invested in the dog and wanted to keep him to see if he would work out but came to the conclusion that he was unmanageable after he ran away. We are just not equipped (nor is anyone really) to manage and live with a dog that has psychological problems like Otto.

The only concrete response we got was that they would sell us another dog at a “discount” purportedly. We are not interested in such, given our sincere concern with the breeder’s practices and quality of animals. Sadly, we feel that any animal we would get from Dustin Retrievers would be damaged at this point.

We would only be satisfied with a full refund for a defective animal that we had for less than two weeks. His behavior, including the apoplectic fit he had before he ran away is a result of a poorly bred and/or trained and/or abused animal.

Dustin Retreivers sold me a pup with registration. After a few years and wanting to breed we sent in the registration only to find out the Dustin’s used it for a different dog out of a different litter. Very slow response time from them once we found out. Then they said it happens all the time and they could fix it. After waiting 5 months on the Dustin’s, I emailed the AKC myself and got it taken care of in less than 10 days. Very poor customer service in my opinion. Seems like a puppy factory to me.

Got a Chessie out of Oak and Remi. One of the best dogs I have ever seen. I have been involved in hunting for over 30 years and involved with Retriever Field Trials and Hunt tests for the last 12 years. Carl, Shaun, and Janet are great to deal with and have always been there to help when I have questions. They truly care about their dogs and clients. We are now in the process if purchasing a second chessie from them, a female and can't wait. Thanks, Jimmy Cusack Carson City Nevada

Whipworms and bloody diarrhea are not a normal occurrence in puppies, in spite of the Dustins saying it is so. If you want puppies that are plagued with medical problems than by all means, do business with them. I did, and I've been paying my vet ever since.
I can't speak for other breeders but I would never do business again with these people. Horrific conditions, filthy...they really should be prevented from breeding retrievers..

As previously mentioned, lots of medical problems with their puppies...that they said were NORMAL! The conditions where the dogs are kept were filthy. Thousand of dollars already spent on a lab that was purchased from them years ago. These people are [removed] in the highest order and make backyard breeders look good in comparison.

The complaint that [redacted] is referring to allegedly happened before 2005 (over 10 years ago in California, we moved to Montana in 2006 and his dog was never with us in Montana), we did not have his dog for 6 months nor did we abuse his dog in any way.  The last contact we had with Mr....

[redacted] was between July 19, 2014 and August 12, 2014 when he wanted to purchase a Chesapeake puppy from us (obviously not concerned about his complaint at this time). He wanted some information on the puppies, we sent him our information, and he wanted to be 1st or 2nd pick and needed more information on top of what we sent and was very demanding, we decided it best not to sell him a puppy. He became upset and then sent hateful e-mails accusing us of abusing his former dog 10 years earlier.  He has since posted many hateful e-mails on the Internet about us, our family and our business, all because we would not sell him a puppy.  We have not had any business with [redacted] for over 10 years and have not had contact with him for almost a year in a half.Thank you for your time with this matter, I will forward said emails,Sincerely,[redacted]

Would never buy antything from these people. Lots of medical problems with the puppies I bought...internal parasites, bloody diarrhea, etc., that I was told was normal. Older dogs have medical problems as well. Not happy with these people.

Review: I sent a 2 year old pup to [redacted] for 6 months of professional training on blinds. The poor dog came back malnourished, smelling like a skunk, in very poor condition, with no blind training what-so-ever. [redacted] would never return a telephone call or respond to legitimate questions via email. There was no training plan or schedule. Turns out the dog spent the entire 6 months in their kennel with zero training. I wasted thousands of dollars. I feel so bad, that I ever exposed my poor dog to that kind of treatment. It took me 18 months to undo all the damage he did.

I would not recommend [redacted] Retrievers to anyone that cares about their dog.Desired Settlement: I WANT MY MONEY REFUNDED FOR NON PERFORMANCE.

Business

Response:

The complaint that [redacted] is referring to allegedly happened before 2005 (over 10 years ago in California, we moved to Montana in 2006 and his dog was never with us in Montana), we did not have his dog for 6 months nor did we abuse his dog in any way. The last contact we had with Mr. [redacted] was between July 19, 2014 and August 12, 2014 when he wanted to purchase a Chesapeake puppy from us (obviously not concerned about his complaint at this time). He wanted some information on the puppies, we sent him our information, and he wanted to be 1st or 2nd pick and needed more information on top of what we sent and was very demanding, we decided it best not to sell him a puppy. He became upset and then sent hateful e-mails accusing us of abusing his former dog 10 years earlier. He has since posted many hateful e-mails on the Internet about us, our family and our business, all because we would not sell him a puppy. We have not had any business with [redacted] for over 10 years and have not had contact with him for almost a year in a half.Thank you for your time with this matter, I will forward said emails,Sincerely,[redacted]