Merindah Farm Miniature Schnauzers Breeding Program
We breed Miniature Schnauzers for health and temperament first, then type. Every one of our breeding dogs is DNA tested through Orivet and Embark before they join our program, and we keep an extensive multi generation family tree so we never breed related dogs.
Breeding Miniature Schnauzer Puppies in South East Qld
Are you concerned about the health of your future Miniature Schnauzer puppy? Do you value knowing their parents are loved and respected? Do you worry about the formative young stage of their life before they join your family? Do you feel equipped to manage a young animal’s training and nutritional needs?
Our dogs have had comprehensive genetic testing through Orivet and Embark to ensure we are breeding sound and healthy dogs to produce puppies with the best chance of a long healthy life. We have researched and built an extensive family tree for all of our breeding dogs, to minimize the risk of breeding related dogs.
The decision to breed makes us responsible for the whole of life happiness and well-being of all our dogs. We don’t re-home our foundation breeding dogs that are with us, once their breeding is finished they are desexed and become a farm dog, they will always have a home with us.
Guardian Dog Program
Our succession plan for breeding is to find Guardian homes for the young females that we breed and select. This is so they will always have a home with a family, before, during and after they are part of our breeding program. Our Guardian families are carefully selected and they are well known to us before we will place one of our young girls with them. There is a contract between us and the Guardian family for how the dog is to be cared for and the responsibilities for each side.
Training Puppies
Merindah Farm puppies are raised in environments that progress their natural instincts toward toileting, socialization and diet and they are introduced to having polite manners and listening skills. We welcome people to visit us and see for them selves, how our puppies are raised - transparency and honesty are important to us.
Breeding Healthy Puppies
One of the best gifts we can give all our puppies is to have a careful breeding program ensuring that we do not support any inbreeding practices. We do this by maintaining an extensive ‘family tree’ database allowing us to assess the breeding and relatedness of any males that we purchase to introduce new genetics. All pure breeds have a percentage of relatedness, we aim to keep our relatedness very low.
Our breeding dogs have Full Breed Profile DNA tests with Orivet and Embark, testing for known heritable diseases of Miniature Schnauzers.
All our breeding dogs are fed a healthy raw diet and are not exposed to chemicals or toxins, ensuring they are at their peak of health before conceiving. We make all the puppies food from scratch from raw or cooked ingredients, and supplement where needed with freeze dried goats milk from a local dairy.
Our Health Testing in Full
We are happy to share exactly what our dogs are tested for. Embark tests for Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, Myotonia Congenita, Persistent Mullerian Duct Syndrome, Factor VII Deficiency and ALT Activity. Orivet tests for Dilated Cardiomyopathy, Factor VII Deficiency, Mullerian Duct Syndrome, Myotonia Congenita, Spondylocostal Dysostosis, PRA Type A, PRA Type B and Pancreatitis.
Both provide a Coefficient of Inbreeding percentage, which tells us how related a dog’s parents are, and we aim to keep our relatedness very low across every litter.
You can meet all of our dogs on our Our Dogs page. Our current litters and waiting list are on our Miniature Schnauzer puppies for sale page, and puppies can also join families outside Queensland, see our Miniature Schnauzer puppies Australia-wide page.
How We Support You
Part of sending puppies out into the world with their new families is our responsibility to provide ongoing support to our puppy families and we do this in many different ways, particularly in regard to ongoing training and nutrition.
We want the puppies that we bring into the world, to go out into that world with their families and have the best possible life. Building strong and respectful relationships with our puppy families, enables families to feel they can contact us at any time during their puppies long life, for support from us.
We are also able to provide a boarding service for limited numbers of our families dogs at a time. This service is provided for a daily fee and requires families to provide enough food for their dog or dogs, for the duration of their stay. Dogs must be able to sleep in a crate at night. Boarding does need to be booked in advance.
HAVE QUESTIONS?
Common questions
What health testing do you do on your breeding dogs?
Every breeding dog has Full Breed Profile DNA tests through both Orivet and Embark. Embark tests for Demyelinating Polyneuropathy, Myotonia Congenita, Persistent Mullerian Duct Syndrome, Factor VII Deficiency and ALT Activity, and Orivet tests for Dilated Cardiomyopathy, Factor VII Deficiency, Mullerian Duct Syndrome, Myotonia Congenita, Spondylocostal Dysostosis, PRA Type A, PRA Type B and Pancreatitis.
What is a Coefficient of Inbreeding?
It is a percentage that tells us how inbred an individual dog is. If our breeding practices cause a higher coefficient of Inbreeding (COI) this effectively narrows the gene pool, which significantly increases the risk of health problems. Both Orivet and Embark provide it, and we use it along with our extensive family tree database to keep relatedness across our litters very low.
What happens to your breeding dogs when they retire?
Our foundation breeding dogs are never rehomed. Once their breeding is finished they are desexed and become a farm dog, they will always have a home with us.
What is the Guardian Dog Program?
Young females we breed and select go to carefully chosen Guardian homes that are well known to us, so they always have a home with a family before, during and after they are part of our breeding program.