Majestic View (Indiandogsare4u)

[Katlin]

I noticed this lady seems to be a huge puppy mill, not only that but she mentions the tamaskan dog on her site

Majestic View Kennel's personal experience with the Tamaskan Dog breeders of the U.S. has proved to be very enlightening, and costly, to say the least, and the following is simply a caution to those individuals who may be interested in purchasing such an animal.

Found at the bottom of this page

I assume she's either tried to, or has purchased a Tamaskan from Aatu, RPK, or someone else in the states. Just a heads up.

[Valravn]

Yep. Total puppy mill. I've heard horror stories about this woman.

[HiTenshi16]

I've come across her site before, something about it just told me stay away.
What a bunch of rubbish she posted at the bottom!

[TerriHolt]

people sometimes make comments without finding facts and some people falsify 'facts' to push what they want you to buy... she seems to be the latter

[AZDehlin]

I have also come across her site before... bunch of rubbish

[MaineiacJay]

Majestic View Review

first off, a little bit about me. i do own a NAID and i love him to death. but i do not recommend the breed and do not, by any means, recommend the founding breeder, Majestic View Kennels.

during my interest in majestic view, i was naive and did not really look into it. her dogs were interesting in appearance and the description of the dogs seemed to fit my life style. understand that it was only after i got my boy from a different breeder (at least i managed to him from the best breeder of the bunch by far) that i began my research into Majestic View and the breed as a whole. if i had known what i know now, i would not have gotten a NAID, however, i am glad that i got him from a different kennel, because i would be very sad if i had encouraged and promoted such as horrible a kennel as Majestic View.

the below information is not simply anecdotal. a lot of the information i got is from Karens own website, from Karen herself through emails, and from many other owners of NAIDs, most of these owners who contacted me were ones that had their concerns and doubts about Majestic View and wanted to share their experiences with their own dogs, some of which were out of control. these were people that needed help because the dog they got was not the dog Majestic View described. below is some information on Majestic View and the problems with her kennel.

1) puppy mill
Just looking at her page, how can one not see what she is? she is one person, not exactly young, caring for a minimum of 42 adult dogs (counting all "sires and dams" and assuming that all of the "past sires and dams" are deceased). how does one person provide the social care of so many dogs? sure, she can run around and give them all food and water by herself, but where is the love and attention? with 24 hours to a day, she would not even be able to give a half hour session with each dog a day (i need to believe she sleeps and eats every day?). no play, no walks, and i doubt she actually spends the time to train each dog individually. i highly doubt they are anything but outdoor animals as i cannot see so many dogs, especially with the behaviors they have probably adopted (if anyone has experience with a dogs transition to the home after so much time outdoors, im sure they would understand), being taken indoors. so, 42 adult dogs, minimum, housed outside their whole life (remember they are in Michigan, which means there are many months of poor weather, both hot and cold), with no love, attention, socialization or training. their only real reason for being is to breed. this brings us to the puppies.
currently, she has 29 puppies. 29. right now. this brings her total to 71 dogs and puppies. how in the world does one person care for 71 animals? especially when the puppies desperately need socialization, as well as plenty of TLC. sure, she says she brings down the church kids, but those photos are years old (at least 3 years old), and her word is just that, her word, written on a website. do they really continue to give the puppies the love they dearly need? do they come daily? are they able to give all 29 puppies the love and care they need and SHOULD get from their breeder? but then, a real breeder who cares about her dogs and the puppies they produce should not breed more than they can handle. im sure any breeder can appreciate this simple statement. another question? where exactly are they housed? its obviously not indoors looking at the pictures (is that chicken wire on the windows? plywood, etc). and it seems odd that everyone with the puppies are wearing coats and hats? is it cold in there? i hope not, for the puppies sake =(
at what age should a dog no longer breed? having done research (and having ethics), the norm seems to be 5 years, going up to a max of 8 years (females) and 10 years (males) and even those feel like extremes. karen has bred at least two of her dogs at the age of 11 (her original NAID and Hakata We, who produced only one puppy to this litter), she told me so herself. i spoke to another owner who got a puppy free from Karen because the dog was "too wolfy" to sell. she talked to Karen and Karen mention a vet visit with Whitney (one of her oldest dogs at that point), and how the vet told her that she should not breed her any more after she informed him that she had 11 litters previously (!!). after hearing this, i checked back through my emails with Karen, because i felt a pit forming in my stomach. there was one email that mentioned how Whitney had gotten into a severe fight with another of her dogs and had to be put down. the date of Karen and the other NAID owners conversation and the date of this fight put the vet visit and the "fight" about 1 year apart. i dont know if this matters, its just something that stuck with me and made me feel kinda sick thinking that maybe this fight was aloud to happen because maybe she saw no more use for Whitney as a breeding dog?
she breeds her dogs too young with obviously no health testing (she also does not offer health checks on the puppies, unless you pay her $53 - at the time - to do it. she has sold a puppy with parvo at least once). she breeds her dogs at one year old, which i believe is too young for a dog, especially a female. how do i know this? again, she told me. "I am keeping 3 female NAID pups so it will be a yr. before they are ready to be bred as well." note that this is a statement from a litter that was not even born yet and she had full plans to breed them?

2) lies to sell dogs
lets take a look at the About sections. "NAIDS are hypoallergenic". this is laughable. lets first take a look at the facts. according to James T C Li, M.D., Ph.D., there is no such thing as hypoallergenic dogs. he states that the source of allergies is often a protein found in the saliva and urine of dogs and cats. this protein sticks to the dead, dried flakes (dander) from the pets skin. there are some breeds , such as poodles, that shed less fur, in turn, shedding less dander than most dogs, and smaller dogs are easier on allergies because a smaller dog sheds less than a larger one, therefore producing less dander. however, all in all, there are no truly hypoallergenic dogs.
Now, assuming that Karen's statement about NAIDs shedding less is true (which it isnt), then NAIDS *could* be better for allergy sufferers than say, a German Shepherd, who shed heavily year around. unfortunately, they do shed all year around (trust me on that one!), though, yes, they do shed less during summer months after the pretty long period of heavy shedding of the winter coat, but it does not, by any means, take only a week or two, as she states (i have brushed daily since June and it is still coming out in clumps!). now for genetics. the supposed mix that created this dog is the mysterious Native American Dog (with two dog in this mix, i wouldnt count on it offering much assistance to this "hypoallergenic" breed), the German Shepherd Dog (heavy year-round shedder), Siberian Husky (heavy shedder), Chinook (heavy shedder), and Alaskan Malamute (very heavy shedder) does not exactly make a lightly shedding dog. add in the fact that these are large dogs (my boy weighs just shy of 100lbs), the idea that these are hypoallergenic dogs is kind of humorous.
Now, lets move on. Karen states that the NAIDs are used in a variety of work. Therapy dogs, Hunting dogs, Handicap Assist dogs, and Seach and Rescue.
Lets start with Therapy and handicap assist. to do this, we need to take a look at their temperament and behavior as a breed. these dogs are extremely shy and timid by nature. i have talked to MANY owners and they all say the same. maybe they dont get enough time with their parents or the breeder, but chances are, its because that is the temperament they were bred with. think about their origin with Karen, about the care their parents, grandparents, greats, etc got and still get from their founding breeder. remember that she does not care about the temperament. she describes her dogs by appearance, breeds, for appearance. she would not think twice about breeding a dog that is afraid of the world if it had a pretty coat color, or blue eyes, since its the look of the dog that gains interest. you cannot see a temperament through a photo, but you sure as hell can see the cool appearance, so why does it matter how the dog behaves?
Sociallizing the dog throughout its life can help, yes, but the chances you will have a dog that does not frighten easily, readily runs up to strangers, tail wagging, is slim to none. it will, most probably, scare easy, and will always be wary of strangers. trust me, ive tried. so, to think this breed could ever be a therapy dog or assisting dog is improbable. these jobs require a dog to be comfortable around strangers as well as hospital equipment, such as wheelchairs, IV poles, walkers, as well as a hospital noises ( i work nights at an assisted living facility and even at 1am it is anything but quiet, and you should hear it at 7am!). NAIDs would do terribly at this job. i would not bring my boy here out of fear that he may get scared and react badly, not to mention he would be utterly miserable and scared to death of all the people running around trying to get their work done and the bells and alarms that make up the background to this place drives me crazy sometimes.
Hunting Dogs - have i tried it with my dog? nope. would i dare? nope. you see, another aspect of the NAIDs personality is that they have a very high prey drive. my boy chases anything that moves, cats, squirrels, other dogs, etc. they are indipendant canines, they honestly dont care about what your doing half the time, as long as there is something better elsewhere. i wouldnt bring these dogs hunting because they would probably run after the first squirrel they saw, leaving you in their dust. and if there are enough things to investigate, i would worry they would take their time coming back, or get lost in the process.
Search and Rescue - there are a few different things about this category. would they do well in the initial training? definitely. they have a great sense of smell and they are smart, so they pick things up pretty quickly and they usually hold onto what they learned. however, where they excell in this training, thats about where it ends.. search and rescue dogs are typically used to find missing people, so of course, they need to be comfortable around strangers, and sometimes, frightened strangers. lost children for example may yell and scream, they may cry and fling their arms around their rescue dog. this would not fly for a NAID. a SAR dog if often sent ahead of the handler to search the area, whether it is a dense forest, a building, a mountain, whatever the area, the dog must have full focus on the scent. with the drives this breed has, there would be no focus. so where training stages could be accomplished with ease and efficiency, actually using a NAID for a real search is improbable due to their temperament and drives.
now, im sure this all seems pretty pointless and your wondering "who cares if it cant be a hunting dog, therapy dog, assistance dog, or whatever??" but where that may not be the case for you, you would be surprised how important these details are to someone looking for a unique dog that fits their lifestyle, which may be one of the jobs listed. it makes them sound like a shepherd, an all around versatile dog, which the NAID is not. it gives people a false idea of what to expect, and when their puppy arrives and its a terror because all they were expecting was this intelligent, gentle giant, its the dog and the family that suffers, and that should not happen.

3) Suspicious beginning
I find the start of the Native American Indian Dog to be a little suspicious if anything. Karen states, on her website, that she used to breed and raise wolfdogs, however, she told me in an email in 2009 that she had a wolfdog rescue until 2000, when michigan banned wolfdog ownership. these are two very different things. a rescue takes in animals, a breeder produces them, so which one was she? and where did her wolfdogs go? michigan offered wolfdogs already owned to be grandfathered in, though they did have strict regulations on owning them. they also allow ownership with a permit. so i wonder again, where are her wolfdogs? because they were long gone when i conversed with her back in '09. it seems odd that her wolfdogs seemed to have disappeared right around the time the NAIDs showed up, looking and acting so wolf like... do they actually have wolf in them? i am unsure, but with the founders origin, the appearance and the temperament of these dogs, i do have wonders... to me (understand this is an opinion, a speculation that I have based on what i see), it sounds as though she never really wanted to give up wolfdog breeding, as she said on her website, that where she bred AKC collies, wolfdogs were "[her] love and passion". if she is breeding wolfdogs under a new "designer" status, this could cause major problems for unsuspecting people living in areas where wolfdog ownership is illegal.

To conclude, i want everyone to understand that this is what i have found after talking to Karen, to other NAID owners, from looking over her website, and from speculations based on everything listed above as well as some other lesser information that i excluded as this review is already long enough and points out much of the big issues i have come across with the breeder and with the breed. the final decision as to whether or not you want to get a NAID with the review provided is yours and yours alone. i just hope you consider the information provided and think about the future with your pup and do not rely on the founding breeders website for information about how NAIDs really are, because as a NAID owner myself, and having talked with dozens of other owners, i see everything that is wrong about that site and the false information provided about this breeds behavior. i have seen owners struggle with their dog and even one that considered euthanasia because she was being terrorized by a dog that hadnt even reached a year old. why? because she had false expectations, believing what was written on a website by a money hungry breeder. so please take the time to think about this choice, for the dogs sake.