I can only use Hamilton as an example.. bless his sweet heart ... when I purchased Hamilton for about five times Gillis' price... I was provided documentation that Hamilton was vWD clear but was given no test results... I also was NOT allowed to breed him... had to pay another $1500.00 for breeding rights if I wanted them and I do not breed dogs....he had a complete puppy check from my cats' vet and was NOT tested for vWD by the vet.... he had his ears done before I picked him up... he was NOT to have had his ears done so I immediately had the vet remove the bracing etc to let his ears (which had been cut VERY long) flop so he was a cropped and flopped...the vet used this as the reason NOT to verify the vWD percentage.... when he removed the final sutures that did not go away .. Hamilton had a bit of a bleeding problem... I had vWD done... he was at a 22% and I was told he would not have any problems unless he got sick but they would not recommend that he be bred to another carrier..NO PROBLEM I am NOT A BREEDER.. when Hamilton started showing symptoms (he seemed to "forget" things he knew how to do... he would go into the another areas away from me so I had to call him to help me- I thought he had a headache), June (17monhs of age) I was told he was fine ... that I was a "nervous Nellie" BUT I knew something was wrong ..(Hamilton's trainer was shocked that he had forgotten a command.. but he had and we retrained it) when the @#$% hit the fan, Oct 29 2006....emergecny vet here then transferred to Richmond critical care vet center (1 1/2 hours way- saw him everyday ...because he would not eat for anyone else)  his vWD was above 50% and he was hemorraging .. AND THE ER VET AGREED  .. HE SEEMED TO HAVE A HEADACHE AND WAS HAVING SEIZURES FROM THE cancer that had spread to his brain,; needed continuous transfusion and clotting factor for over 12 hours ... finally he stopped bleeding from the incision of the biopsy... by the time he died ..he was bleeding from his eyes and nose and ears ... slow ooze constantly and his vWD was at 89% .... as you can see as he got sicker his vWD was increasing because he was "using up" his good clotting factor leaving him with only vWD gene produced clotting factor ... (at least that is almost the exact email that the Critical Care vet sent to me to explain why nothing I could do was going to save him)- tried chemo for two weeks with no improvement. ... and that is  WHY A QUALITY BREEDER became more important to me than the color of my Dobie ..although I did not think I could bear to have a Red so quickly after Hamilton. So others will know, Hamilton came from the Despa Dobie line which I knew to be a lymphoma line.. did not know about the vWD... and specifically stated to Hamilton's breeder, that I did not want a dog that was in anyway related to a Despa Dobie, she had promised a copy of the pedigree when I drove the three hours to pick him up on a VERY snowy day.... "come get him or I will sell him to someone else and not refund your deposit type attitude and statements)- there was no pedigree when I got there- Linda Birch, BIRLIN Dobies in Goochland Va, assured me that Hamilton was not a Despa Dobie, the bitch WAS a  Despa Dobie (Gloucester VA) and until I got Hamilton's pedigree from AKC I did not know he was from a Despa.... I would never have bought him....because of the health problems from Despa and the number of Despa Dobies that came into Doberman Rescue... the breeder.. LINDA BIRCH ... could have cared less when Hamilton got sick.. she pointed out he was 22months old so there was no REFUND... I explained that I wanted her to know so she could notify the littermates YEAH RIGHT!!!! .... her husband is a law professor at TC Williams Law School- University of Richmond.. so ... loooooooong story short... this is why I chose NOT to sue the !@#$%t ...but rather chose to tell Hamilton's story with her name on EVERY Dobie puppy site I could .... have had several people email me for more information .... tell it like it is ....BOTTOM LINE ... your dog.. or people with hemophilia.. . have 100% worth of clotting genes... for ALL DOBERMANs a certain percentage of  clotting factor that they produce is defective because all Dobermans have vWD factor .. ALL...... vWD factor means it does NOT trigger a clot formation at the wound site when a trigger for clotting occurs .... a small wound and a low per centage of vWD gene: they can handle the amount of bleeding without any obvious  problem but if they have a MAJOR assault .. surgery on the abdomen for example ... they are going to use up the good clotting factor and produce NEW clotting factor at a decreased rate of good clotting factor ... and the vWD is NOT being used to clot so its percentage is growing ....because nothing is using it up because it does not "fit" in the clotting cascade..so even less clotting factor is being created than normally would be created because the "clotting cascade system" detects clotting factor but it is vWD factor ... so the spiral of increasing vWD continues anti and the bleeding is everywhere. Many of you have used Miracle Grow ... you put it in a bottle on the end of a hose and it starts out bright green... then the more water you run through it the paler it gets .. .this is the same thing ... imagine that the green stuff id good clotting factor and the water is the vWD factor .. .the more you drain the green stuff.. the more water you have .... till all you have is water .....When Hamilton died, he was having a transfusion every day and we were changing out his sleeping pad daily... AND  THIS IS HOW I KNOW DOBIES SHOW NO PAIN... he would still Dobie wiggle when every he woke up ... he slept a great deal of the time.... and his eyes would beg for hugs.. which he got ...when he went in for his transfusion on 11/22/06 he was so weak, he did not make it and it was time to let him go. We brought him home and let the cats say good bye and buried in a place of Honor as all good Dobie should be... and then I found LISA .. and we got GIllis ....and only when I tell the story do I cry but before Gillis I cried daily over my poor Hamilton and how he suffered due to a breeder who does not care about the breed. SSSSSSSoooooooooooo ooo... this had been a LONG story and I apologize BUT this is WHY A GOOD BREEDER SHOULD BE WELL CARED FOR BECAUSE THE PAIN BROUGHT BY A BAD BREEDER LIVES FOREVER IN THE HEART OF THE OWNER WHO LOST A WONDERFUL DOG who should NEVER have been bred! Gillis cannot understand why Mommy is crying ... bless his sweet heart... Thank you again LISA for this wonderful dog....

Frances of Hampton, VA