Majestic View Kennels reviews and complaints

Yesterday we were forced to very prematurely say goodbye to our beautiful dog gus. Just 17 days shy of his sixth birthday, and three days after a $3400 eye surgery, gus out of the blue lost the use of his hind legs. What began as a strange gate in the evening, progressed to full paralysis in a matter of hours. Faced with horrible choices - prohibitively expensive diagnostics ($5000), the results of which would tell us that either he had a tumor, in which case he would have to be euthanized; or, a disc surgery that would cost over $10, 000, and have a 50% success rate; we made the heart wrenching decision that we had to put our beloved dog to sleep.
Do not purchase a dog from this breeder!
At the time that we bought gus, in february of 2014, we saw no google reviews. We had met a stunningly beautiful dog on the main street of our small city, and stopped the owners to learn more about her. She was just a year old, and her owners couldn't say enough about her - they had purchased her from majestic view. I immediately went home to learn more about naids, and explore the majestic view website. As seems to have been the experience of many others, karen was initially polite to me. We live on the east coast and did not visit the kennel. We chose gus on karen's recommendation, and arranged to meet a man she hired who transported dogs for her from michigan to new jersey. We excitedly picked gus up at a rest stop on the turnpike, and began our trip home.
His health problems began almost immediately. Like many others in this forum, our first visit to our vet revealed that gus had giardia. Karen told us he should be on a raw diet, as that was what she fed her dogs. Gus suffered with chronic diarrhea the first 18 month of his life. When we reached out to karen for help and advise, she was rude, disparaging, and honestly crazy. She turned all of the issues we asked for help with into criticism of our failings as dog owners, informing us that we lacked "dog savoy" and were not letting gus be the "dog he wanted to be". She informed us that he should be living outside all of the time. (?!?!?) she was a nightmare to interact with, who clearly did not care in the least about gus once she had our cash. When I asked for a more detailed description of his genetic makeup, and passingly said that people thought he looked like a beautiful wolf, she flipped out.
Gus was diagnosed with glaucoma at age four. We were told he would ultimately loose both of his eyes to the disease. Over the course of a year, we were able to transition him to blindness through the vigilant use of prescription eye drops, administered three times a day. Three days before his death, he had to have a $3400 surgery to remove his no longer functioning eye. We were told it was only a matter of time before he would require the same surgery for the other eye.
I have had dogs my entire life. I have never dealt with such significant health issues, and have certainly never met a more unresponsive, irresponsible breeder.
I would not wish this experience on any family. To nurture and love an animal, have them become a treasured part of your family, invest thousands of dollars into their health and well-being, only to loose them at such a young age, is heartbreaking. Stay away from majestic view. There are responsible, kind breeders out there - karen markel is not one of them.