Majestic View Kennels review: Dog breeder 1

I wanted to share my experience with MVK because I see so much info all across the board and wanted to add my honest review. I'm not here to discredit anyone's experience but merely to share for anyone considering, especially those seeking a service dog prospect.

I got my dog from this breeder in 2019. I did extensive research for a suitable dog to train to assist with my disabilities so I decided on a NAS versus an NAID, per Karen's recommendation. He's 6 now and absolutely fabulous with animals, kids, and service work. He's extremely smart and bomb proof with tasking. He was able to start working reliably in public at 2 years old. He helps me enormously and I'm very happy with him!

I've worked in the pet industry for quite a few years and have pretty high standards on what I think is good care. I found the kennel to be clean, appropriate food, water, and shelter, and all the dogs during our visit were friendly and seemed to love Karen and visitors. I worked with dogs who have been neglected or abused and saw no signs of that whatsoever in my own dog or the ones we interacted with who ran up to the fence for pets. It was winter time and all the dogs had a huge fenced area that was clean, big shelters with straw. My puppy was very friendly and social, healthy weight, and ran right up to me when we picked him up at 8 weeks.

I want to say that if you're considering a NAID/NAS, I truly think a lot of feedback I see about this place is due to people expecting an easy family type dog as advertised. I've worked as a dog trainer for a few years and I want to be honest that NAID/NAS are just not that easy as a breed because there seems to be a lot of confusion thinking they're like doodles or other "designer breeds" (I hate that term).

NAS are awesome and my favorite because I enjoy headstrong, intelligent dogs but the advertising is very misleading on her site if you are new to dog ownership (which is why you should research beyond just the breeder on any dog anyway - I felt prepared before bringing my boy home). NAID/NAS are fantastic family dogs *IF* you know how to teach working dogs like shepherds and malamutes. They need a job to do at all times and need to be taught to have an off button or you'll run into a lot of bored attention-seeking behaviors like most high drive dogs. Once you have that training and lifestyle in place, they're the BEST though. My dog lives for learning and making sure everyone in the "pack" is happy and safe.

My dog is exactly what I want because I've invested 1000s of hours of training with him. However I want to be clear that if it's not realistic to you or your lifestyle to always be training, home most of the time, investing at the very least 2-3 miles of exercise daily, and enjoying tons of training with your dog, you're probably going to have a bad time with this breed. They are very athletic and go a bit stir crazy if you can't meet their needs. He's by no means a couch potato! This will manifest as running out doors if you don't teach solid boundaries around thresholds and doorways, as you would with any northern sledding type dog. Once they get it, though, you're good to go!

NAS/NAID need socialized a lot to avoid guarding or fear behaviors — I definitely ran into these issues when my dog was in puberty, which isn't a condemnation of the breed but honestly very normal for high drive dogs. I've worked with so many breeds professionally and my dog is the hardest I've ever had due to very high intelligence and stubbornness (northern breeds like malamute etc., pretty normal). He's perfect for me because I love his goofy, stubborn personality and we have a great bond. That stubbornness and intelligence is perfect for me because he understands when to break obedience to perform a service task (for example for an anxiety alert, he needs to understand when it's appropriate to break down stay to stand up at times and alert me).

As for health — my dog developed hypothyroidism at 2 years old. He is otherwise extremely healthy and just takes a pill twice a day thank god but I was not expecting any health issues at all given that he's from a breeder. I'm thankful it's not worse and understand that hypothyroid is common amongst giant breeds but still worth noting for anyone considering. His hips etc. are all good according to the vet and he's fine to help me with momentum pull, bracing, and counterbalance tasks. He's never had any other health problems besides some allergies that are no big deal (ragweed during summer and eating chicken). I've spoken to others with NAS and they said their dogs also had allergies (nothing too crazy) and one had an eye issue.

I love how quiet he is; that really made public access training easier! Thyroid problems have made his coat a bit challenging but I personally think hypothyroidism can happen in most giant breeds. He's a long haired double coated dog, so high maintenance hair is literally what you're signing up for. I saw some people complaining that their dog sheds a lot, which I think is the stupidest criticism ever of NAID/NAS; they're enormous shedders no matter what and that should be obvious lol! I wanted a hairy dog so I don't care about that, just pass if you have carpets I guess.

I'd personally go to this breeder again, given we could have a chat about health issues and genetic testing. I have heard some rumors about unethical culling practices on these boards, but I'm personally not sure if that's real or not, given a lot of these things seem to come from other people breeding NAS/NAID so I don't know if they're competing or something. I have a hard time believing that after meeting her in person and seeing how kind she was when she interacted with her dogs.

I did find her difficult to communicate with and a little defensive when I was asking for advice after bringing my puppy home (I was new to pups and had a question about worming), but she has always been cordial and respectful to me. At the time she advised I see a vet, which is always solid advice.