Red Barn Kennel

Red Barn Kennel Positively is a Puppy Mill Chariton, Iowa

4th of Sep, 2011 by User235711

I did not know you could file a report until today, when I was looking on line to see if Red Barn Kennel was still in business. When I saw there were to other complaints I had to speak up also. I purchased a Shiba Inu from Red Barn Kennel in 2006. She was flown to Phoenix on October 10, 2006 when she arrived I could tell right away she was sick. Her nose was runny, her eyes were crusted over, she was coughing and wheezing, and very lethargic. I had email and phone contact with Sharon Loney on a regular basis before my puppy arrived but when I tried to contact them after I got her, my phone calls were never answered and my emails were never answered either. I had to drive 2 hours to Flagstaff with a sick puppy. When I got home I went straight to the vets office and she had an upper respiratory infection. She weighed less than 3 pounds and it was touch and go for almost 10 days. I slept in the bathroom with her with a humidifier going. She just turned 5 years old on August 5th and I am so happy that she is mine, I just wish I would have known more before I purchased her. In 2009 I flew back to Ohio to pick up another Shiba Inu puppy from a breeder that I did research on before purchasing a puppy from and when I was telling her about Red Barn Kennel the first words out of her mouth were "They ARE a PUPPY MILL!" and she had heard of many complaints about them. Just remember if you ever purchase a puppy DO NOT buy from pet stores and do your research on breeders before purchasing from them!!

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Comments

4520 days ago by Mojoia

Wow, that is shocking!! We have two Shibas both from Red Barn. Before we even paid for them we were asked to have our vet check them out. Our pups were fine and still doing fine. It is a shame that people do not have a vet check out an animal prior to purchase. Infections, and breed deformities are easy to detect, and they still recommended that you have your vet check them after yours. It is a shame to see first time owners and puppy purchasers reading more on the internet, and relying less on their vet. Hell I spent 1.5 weeks a month driving to Red Barn to see my pups growth before she was able to come home. So did you pick your pup or mail order it? Did you have your vet check it ASAP, or did you wait until you noticed signs of stress etc????

Please you are an owner, it is your responsibility to verify a puppies health the day you get them! If the puppy was sick from birth, that is a different story, but to have one that young shipped to you at that age site unseen, don’t pass the the blame for your negligence. It is not the breeders fault that you were unwilling to travel and select the puppy, much less force it to be shipped with out a responsible person looking out for it’s welfare.

4520 days ago by Mojoia

4519 days ago by Bxrlover05

In December 2005 we bought our female boxer from Fred and Sharon Loney. I have to say that while these rip off reports are alarming, we've never had a single problem with our little girl. She was healthy the day we picked her up (my husband met her with our pup at the airport on his way to vacation), and she's been healthy so far. She's six years old now and just as happy and energetic as she was when she was little. However, for our second dog we bought another boxer, but from a different breeder. Not because of anything we had against Red Barn Kennel, but just to have a different bloodline. He came from a breeder that showed their dogs, and his parents were AKC pointed, and his grandparents and such were Champions. Both his parents were large, beautiful dogs, and the breeder was an AKC registered breeder. He is the one who has all the health problems. Not that they are bad problems, he just has skin allergies that range in symptoms from general itchiness to complete loss of hair on the sides of his body. And I question his intelligence at times, too. He's also very lazy, which is completely uncharacteristic of a boxer. But I most certainly do not blame his breeder for his problems. This is what you're risking when you buy a purebred dog. Purebreds by their very nature have more health issues than pound puppies and dogs. THEY ARE INBRED TO CARRY ON SPECIFIC GENETIC TRAITS!!! That may be a reason why you've had such bad experiences with your pets. I'm not saying that for sure, but you have to look at it as a possibility.
I will say one thing I noticed about the quality of the service we got from each breeder. Our male's breeder called and emailed frequently when he was young just to check up on him. She would always ask for pictures of him and ask how he was doing with his training, i.e. housebreaking and good manners in general. Practically as soon as he was born she began teaching him and his littermate’s good behavior. She even went so far as to refer to him as our baby. Once we got Pepper from Sharon Loney, we never heard another word from her. While we were buying her, she was very polite, and accommodating to our needs. She drove hours to the airport to meet my husband and hand over our puppy. But once the transaction was done, that was the end of it. I've even sent her pictures and a handwritten letter of our dog just to tell her how wonderful she is, how smart, sweet, and sensitive, but I never heard anything back.
Without seeing firsthand the conditions the dogs were living in, I can't and I won't say for sure whether Fred and Sharon Loney are running a puppy mill. I have owned a dog that did come from one, and I will tell you the differences between him and Pepper is vast. He was sickly all the time and looked less and less like a boxer as he grew up. As far as picking up a puppy from the airport that was sick, you are required by the airline to obtain a health certificate on that animal if it is going to fly. A vet may have given your pup a clean bill of health when he examined her, and she could have contracted something while in flight. It's not the same temperature at 35, 000 feet as it is here on the ground. It's very cold in the cargo hold where they keep the animals. And as far as shipping a puppy unattended, I shipped both my dogs unattended as adults before my husband and I deployed to Iraq 4 years ago. Sometimes it's just a necessary evil. And besides, even if you do fly with an animal, it will still ride in the same place on the plane, unless it's some sort of toy breed that you can carry on with you. But here, this is not the case.
In closing, I would just like to point out that just because you buy a purebred dog from a breeder, and that pup is AKC registered, it does not mean that you will receive a perfect animal. You are still getting a living, breathing thing, and it can get sick and it will someday die. Just because an animal is AKC registered, does not mean that it is superior to any other animal you could have gotten. It only means that you are getting an animal that conforms to the AKC breed standard (and that both the parents were AKC registered). I'm not defending anyone here. I'm only telling my experience with this particular breeder and stating some facts that maybe you haven't thought about.
As for our Red Barn pup, we couldn't imagine our life without her. Nor would we want to. There's nothing like coming home to her bright eyes and wiggly butt. She's like our very own ray of sunshine, she completely lights up our life. She cute as heck, smart as a whip and completely in tune with our emotions. When we fight, it visibly takes a toll on her. When we're happy, she's twice as happy. Even when we have family and friends stay with us for a few days she accepts them into the household with that same wiggly butt and even gets emotional and depressed when they leave. But of course she gets lots of love from us in the meantime! Even if her breeder was questionable, we wouldn't trade her for the world, and we would never go back on our decision to get her. She has completed our life in a way that no other dog we've had has been able to. Simply put, she's perfect.