Willow River Farm Barb Wilson Sick Miniature Australian Shepherd Internet, Wisconsin

I do not know why the person filing the report had isssues, but if he/she DID in fact purchase from Barb, (which I doubt,) the problems were not due to Barb Wilson's lack of expertise and care. We purchased a pup from her in May, and he is absolutely wonderful. He was vet-checked immediately and had no health issues at all. He was well-mannered from the start, already housebroken, slept through the night in his cage (with the door open,) and waited politely for permission to leave (unless he had to go outside, then he informed us carefully., and waited politely.) He knew all of the basic tricks and has learned many more since...and he is only 4 months old. The vet said he is "perfect," as well. 

He gets along with all animals, is friendly and polite with guests and children, pays attention to "no" and does not repeat the behaviour, and has never chewed anything that he wasn't given. He also is absolutely beautiful. His fur is thick and glossy, he has no problems with eyes or ears, and his stool was perfect on vet inspection.  I would like to know facts about the "sick" puppy, I highly doubt Barb would have been careless. We saw her interact with our pup and she was loving and focused on his needs. It was hot out and she even made sure he was comfortable during our visit. Please do not hesitate to purchase from Barb Wilson. If her other pups are anything like the one we were fortunate to add to our family you will be very pleased in every way.

One word of caution. With pups that are cared-for so carefully, a poor or careless caretaker can easily damage the pups in a very short time. Barb offers extensive information on her site to help keep your puppy healthy and mannerly. Her tips are ideal for mini Aussies, they work. 

I have read the complaint on here and I know how Jon feels. I bought a puppy and another lady near me bought a puppy out of the same litter as me. We actually made arrangements for me to pick up both puppies. Two weeks prior to me picking up the pups I was told that they were sick...throwing up and diarrhea. She said she was going to keep them until they were better. They never went to a vet to get checked but Barb communicated with the doc over the phone. When I arrived to get the pups they seemed ok. They were drinking water at least and did not appear to be sluggish or looking sick. When the puppies had their first stool is was runny which is ok. It is something that is expected since they were just sick and missed their deworming. The other pup was picked up the next day and my pup went to the vet that day too. At the vet he had ear infections, severe case of worms and dehydration. Not a problem. Things got treated. But three days later he still has diarrhea. I called Barb told her what was going on and she told me to put him on rice and ground beef. I did that but things still did not get better after three days. Back to the vet we went. I was given some meds for five days. Still did not get better. Vet put him on stronger meds for 14 days. Still didnt get better. For the first month and a half we were at the vet at least once a week. The other pup was just as sick. But when they called Barb she made it out to be their fault that their puppy was sick. The puppies were never taken outside so they thought going in their cage and laying it was normal. Barb is NOT on a farm. Who knows if or where this so called farm is. She is in a house in a neighborhood with a very very small backyard.

Her house is NOT clean. It smelled very badly of urine and feces. I could hear dogs barking from downstairs and when I went to leave I saw one in a cage at the end of the stairs. When I was there Barb said that she had a litter downstairs that were two days old and that night another litter was born in her bathtub. Yes! Barb is a puppy mill!!!! She has 16+ breeding females and just as many males as well. She has anywhere between 2 and 4 litters a month! When I asked for the shot records it was typed up on the computer. I asked about his papers and was told that when I fixed him I would get them. Now I paid more for my dog than the other lady did because he was show quality. Apparently she doesn't know that "Miniature Australian Shepherd" is not an AKC breed. So you can NOT show a mini. If you look up American Shepherd you will see that AKC has labeled the dog as being developed. I have one of each and there is a big difference between the two. Also no contracts were signed nor offered.

She does not know what she is doing when it comes to prices and what or what isn't a show dog. If I am paying for show then I sign a contract and get his papers. If I am getting a pet then I pay the same as everyone else and I get papers once he's fixed. There is another pup that got returned due to being sick also. She had it back on her website stating that the pup had been attacked and there was a mark on her nose. But there was no mark to be seen on her nose on the recent pictures posted. My boy is now almost 6 months and is healthy, smart, loving and quiet the protector of me and the other Aussie (a month younger than him). I love him dearly but there were many health issues and training challenges with him because of the dirty environment he was breed in. No, coccidia was not the issue with these puppies!!

I know people who have bought pups from this breeder. I personally have raised Standard, Mini, & Toy Aussies and been in veterinary medicine for 24 yrs. Even the BEST breeders have things pop up. In my experience if the puppies are routinely dewormed and vaccinated, coccidia can still be missed. It is not killed by the regular dewormer. Another Important point is most puppies do NOT show signs of coccidia (it is stress induced most of the time) unless exposed to stress of some sort. Then it hits fast. I imagine a plane ride would be high on that list. Also, I raise aussies as I said. My kennels are cloroxed & parasite free.....Now that said, I live in the country in a ag community w/chicken farms & i wave a pond. Coccidia is everywhere!. I let one preg female out and she returned a few min later with the back end of a jack rabbitt. She ended up w/coccidia as did her puppies.   I truely understand the frustration on the buyer end. If it was me I would help offset a portion of the cost (only me not a suggestion). However to claim this makes them a disreputable breeder seems unfair.

Again, I do not know these people but I have friends that have gotten pups and were 100% pleased. I only came across this site because I was interested. What I (Istress only i, not giving advise) would have the pups tested fo coccidia before putting them on a plane ONLY after reading this post. Again, the puppies can show NO clinical signs at all until stressed! That is my opinion for what its worth.

I am Barb, I am blessed to have the mini Australian shepherds in my life.
I am blessed to do something I love, with a wonderful husband and our beautiful farm.
Mr. Kevin Taylor wrote this complaint because he had a huge bill from a animal hospital who ran expensive tests- x ray, ultra sound, blood tests, tests for liver disease etc. i saw the copy of the bill.
(the puppy had a vet exam before leaving my place, and showed no symtoms of illness)
He had a long plane ride and he was dehydrated as well as showing systems of Illness, with in a few days/A parasite can grow rapidly during stress, for a puppy. The stress of the plane, the move, etc. The medication-Albon is inexpensive and used for this parasite. I called the animal hospital for the test results for the parasite and the vet tech ( after having the puppy several days) looked at the chart and said the test was positive, they had not treated puppy for that. When they finally did, puppy recovered. when he was here, he was  a very outgoing loving puppy, we enjoyed him, i think the hospital lengthen his suffering and I felt Kevin should bring all his paperwork to a animal board for review.
Instead he wrote this slander and defamation of character, to me and my business.

They sold me a sick dog. That is a fact. Read my report. They sent me a sick dog and refused to help me at all. Analysis showed the dog was infected with parasites on delivery. It was only 3 days later and they basically told me to go to hell.

Willow River Farm - mini australian shepherd Coccidia

Do not buy from this obvious over-breeder. Is it a puppy mill? You decide.

 I am an Arizona resident and was not able to visit Wilson River Farm prior to purchasing from them two male puppies in the summer of 2011.  Based upon its impressive and informative website and my conversations with Barb (who by the way was extremely professional and always available to answer my questions), I decided to purchase not one but two beautiful puppies within a couple of months of each other.  My puppies were separately same day shipped to me on Delta Airlines and arrived in perfect health.  To this day there have never been any health issues, and they are well socialized with terrific and loving temperaments.  They are now inseparably part of our family and I will be forever thankful for having come across the Wilson River Farm website.

These accusatory remarks appear extremely uninformed and suggest a lack of experience with puppies in general, since it is well known that coccidia is a commonly found parasite in puppies that is easily and quickly treatable with prescription medication from a vet.  

I felt compelled to share my experience about Wilson River Farm because in  my opinion the accusatory remarks were complete falsehoods.       

I bought a miniature australian shepherd puppy from Willow River Farm.  I had it vet checked including parvovirus, which was negative.  Less then three days after I received the dog it deteriorated very rapidly and required immediate emergency hospitalization to be saved.

Additional testing showed that the puppy was infected with the Coccidia parasite.  Here are a few quotes from peteducation.com.

"A puppy is not born with the coccidia organisms in his intestine. However, once born, the puppy is frequently exposed to his mother's feces, and if the mother is shedding the infective cysts in her feces, then the young animals will likely ingest them and coccidia will develop within the young animal's intestines"

"from exposure to the coccidia in feces to the onset of the illness is about 13 days."

So this mean that the puppy was clearly infected at the breeder facility and most likely from eating feces of another dog that was shedding infective cysts.

The puppy survived and required additional medication.

The breeder refused to cover any of the medical costs including the medication.  They also treated us very unprofessionally and even seemed uncaring and hostile.

I STRONGLY advise anyone looking for a Miniature Australian Shepherd puppy to not even consider purchasing from this breeder:
Barb Wilson
Willow River Farm
Miniature Australian Shepherd
http://www.willowriverfarm.com

I made that mistake and hopefully this information will help you to not make the same mistake.

Thank you.

After reading the negative report about Barb and Willow River Farm, all I can say is that the buyer must be completely ignorant of contracts and puppies. 

I have known Barb for many years, have been to their farm to see the operation and how they raise their dogs and have purchased several puppies from them.  The facilities are clean, the dogs are cared for better than most people treat their own pets and Barb is almost obsessively concerned for the well being of her puppies.  She still contacts me on a regular basis to check on them and is always asking for current pics of the dogs. 

If the buyer had even read the contract he signed, he would have known to call her as soon as he noticed something was not right with his new puppy.  Even if he didn't read the contract, wouldn't common sense tell him to call the person he got the puppy from?  Every puppy I have ever purchased ( I have gotten several from Barb over the years) has been taken to my local Vet immediately for a check.  The initial examination always includes worm/parasite tests.  I don't know what Vet he uses but any Veterinarian that I know would have first checked for parasites if he knew the puppy had just been received and had been shipped, especially if the dog didn't appear well.  If you had a cold and went to your doctor, would you not think something was fishy if he sent you for a brain scan, an MRI of your shoulder and an EKG?? 

I feel bad for this buyer, it seems like he may have been taken advantage of by this vet.  I feel even worse for the new puppy, he/she suffered needlessly.

Barb runs a first rate operation, cares for her dogs and their puppies and is very knowledgeable about their healthcare and health issues.  To slander her for this buyers' mistakes and not contacting her concerning this new puppy is inexcusable and wrong.

I hope and pray the puppy is doing well.

My name is Michelle and I live in Ohio and I would like to comment on a Rip Report I recently read about Willow River Farm.  I find the report to be very inaccurate and untrue.  I have been to Willow River Farm on three different occasions in the past five years to pick up puppies I have purchased from Willow River Farm.  Most recently in September of 2011 to pick up a puppy I purchased for my Son.  I have purchased a total of 4 beautiful Aussie's from this breeder and none of these puppies had any issues when I first brought them home or now for that matter.  I can tell you this farm is not a puppy mill as stated by the person who wrote the rip report.  If the purchaser had the puppy ship to them then obviously they did not visit the farm.  It is a beautiful property were the dogs are turned out in huge fenced areas to run and play.  It is unfortunate that this particular puppy that was mentioned in the rip report was sick.  However I also am very aware of the Health Guarantee that is signed by all individuals purchasing a puppy from Willow River Farm.  I have signed four of them one for each puppy I have purchased.  The contract clearly states that if a puppy does not pass the physical or has any serious health problems documented by a licensed veterinarian the breeder should be contacted before any treatment is started or the contract will be void.  Sounds to me like this particular individual did not follow the rules of their signed valid Health Guarantee Contract and medically treated the puppy without contacting the breeder and therefore voided their contract.  It is unfortunate that they now feel the need to make trouble for this respectable Aussie breeder.