If you are buying an Australian Shepherd puppy in France, decide from documents, not from the advert. Ask for the MDR1, eye and hip results of both parents before you visit, and ask for the sales documents the seller is legally required to hand over. If the seller cannot or will not produce them, you have your answer, and you have saved yourself a deposit.
I breed White Swiss Shepherds in Vermont, not Aussies, and I sell in the United States, so I have no stake in the French market. What I do have is a filing cabinet. Every litter I have raised is in it: the test results, the vet notes, the weights, the names of the families. That cabinet is the reason I can tell you what a serious seller looks like, in any country. A French guide that works the same way, from proof rather than promises, is Élevage Aussie, an independent editorial resource on buying an Australian Shepherd puppy in France. I read it the way I read another breeder’s records: looking for what is checked and what is written down.
What documents should come with the puppy?
In France, the sale of a puppy comes with paperwork, and the paperwork is not a formality. The seller must provide an identification document for the dog (a passport or an identification certificate with the chip or tattoo number), a certificate of good health issued by a veterinarian within a short window before the sale, and the vaccination record showing what was given and when. For a dog registered in a studbook, there is also the pedigree or the registration document, and the seller must state the dog’s breed and registration status accurately.
Ask for a written sales contract, not a receipt on a phone. It should name the dog, the chip number, the date of birth, the parents, the price, and any condition attached to the sale. If the seller talks about a “reservation fee” with no contract, that is not a reservation, that is cash.
One more document matters to me: the test results of the parents. Not a screenshot of a database entry, the actual certificate, with the laboratory name, the date, and the dog’s registered name. A breeder who keeps records will send these without being asked twice. A breeder who does not will send you a photo of the mother looking at the camera.
How do you tell a family breeder from a puppy mill?
The difference is not the number of dogs. It is who does the work and who can answer questions.
A family breeder knows each dog by name and can tell you what that dog is like on a bad day. They will let you see where the dogs live, and they will not move the meeting to a parking lot. They will tell you which puppy they would keep and why. They will have a waiting list and will not have three litters available right now, in every colour.
A large operation shows you a clean room and a person who handles the paperwork. The mother is “not available”. The father is “a champion from a kennel you would not know”. The puppies are all the same age, all available, and the price drops if you take two.
Signals that should stop you: no health testing on the parents, a price that is far below the local average, a seller who will not give you the registered name of the mother, a seller who insists the puppy must leave before eight weeks, and a seller who cannot tell you what the puppies have been wormed with or when.
I once turned away a family with cash in hand because they wanted to take a puppy at six weeks. They were offended. The puppy stayed until nine weeks. That is the whole test: who is inconvenienced when the answer is no.
What do MDR1, eye and hip results actually tell you?
MDR1 is a gene mutation. In Australian Shepherds it is common enough that testing is standard, and it affects how a dog handles certain drugs, including some common antiparasitics and anaesthetics. A dog can be clear, carrier, or affected. Two carriers can produce affected puppies. If neither parent has been tested, you are guessing, and the guess can cost you a vet bill later.
Eye checks in the breed look for inherited conditions such as collie eye anomaly and progressive retinal atrophy. These are examined by a veterinary ophthalmologist, and the result is dated, because eyes change. A clear result from five years ago is not the same as a clear result from last year.
Hip results are scored. In France the usual scheme is the one run under the national canine body, and the score is a pair of letters or numbers depending on the system used. What matters is not one number, it is the combination: the parents’ scores, the scores of the dogs behind them, and whether the breeder can explain why they bred that pair.
Read the certificates yourself. A result you have not seen is a result you do not have.
Is the price you are quoted the real price?
Usually not, and the gap is where people get hurt.
A price that is far below the market for a registered Australian Shepherd in France is not a bargain, it is a signal. It often means no registration, no testing, or a dog imported without papers. A price that is far above the market is also a signal, and it usually comes with words like “rare” or “exceptional lines” and no documents to match.
Ask what the price includes: identification, first vaccinations, worming, the health certificate, and whether the pedigree is included or charged separately. Ask whether the deposit is refundable and under what conditions. Ask for the price in writing in the contract.
And be careful with the labels. “Mini Aussie”, “toy” and “pocket” are not recognised breed varieties. The Australian Shepherd is one breed with one standard. A seller using those words is either misinformed or selling you something else, and neither is a good start.
What should the first thirty days look like?
The first thirty days are not about the puppy settling in. They are about you building a record.
Book a vet visit within the first week, not because something is wrong, but because you want a baseline and a second opinion on the documents you were given. Take the puppy’s weight every week and write it down. Keep the vaccination record and the health certificate in one folder, and add every vet note to it. If the seller gave you a feeding schedule, follow it and note what the puppy actually eats.
Contact the breeder in the first month, even if only to send a photo and a weight. A breeder who answers is a breeder who kept records. A breeder who does not answer has told you something too.
If a health problem appears in those first weeks, the contract and the certificates are what you will rely on. This is why I keep asking you to get them before the puppy comes home, not after.
The habit that matters more than any single test
None of this is complicated. It is just tedious, and tedious is what separates a seller who has done the work from one who has not.
Ask for the papers. Read them. Write down what you were told and compare it with what the documents say. If the two do not match, walk away, whatever the puppy looks like. I have made genetic mistakes in my own program, and I know exactly how they happened: I trusted a conversation instead of a certificate. Do not repeat my mistake. The families who get this right are not the ones who found the perfect litter. They are the ones who asked for the file and read it before they fell in love.