Lions Den from an owners prospective

[Capone420]

So I'm somewhat new to this forum and in my browsing I came across an old thread about breeders (specifically lions den) and thought I'd share my experience with the fila community.

I'll start off with this, Capone is my fila he was born May 10th 2012. I bought him from lions den in so cal around 4th of July, he's from an Aquiles litter although I forget the moms name at the moment.

From first impressions I really liked Luis and them at lions den, they seemed friendly and like they truly cared about the dogs. A few days after getting my dog home though my opinion would change. Within the first week he was in the doggy hospital fighting for his life. What was wrong I still have no idea but I do know that his blood cell count was so low that he needed an emergency transfusion before they could do anything else. Over $2000 later the little guy pulled threw, I had been in contact with them during the period and the best advice they could me was to drive them the dog and they'd drive it to there person vet in Mexico. I would still be responsible for the bills but they said if he passed away with their vet they'd replace him. If not, I was on my own.

Needless to say, I refused their offer and nursed him back to health at home with the help of our vet and one overnight stay in the hospital. There was no way in hell I was letting this puppy die & I had the sickest feeling in my stomach that if I had taken him back to them I'd never see him again.

Thank God I did what I did and Capone is hear with me today, laying right by my side at the moment.

The reason I'm sharing my story is because I read thru other peoples stories and came across one very similar except his puppy died. It's just wrong. I don't know what was wrong with my dog but I know for a fact that if I didn't rush him to the vet and spend every penny I had saving him that he would have been dead too. These people are repeatedly selling sick dogs. I held back telling this for a long time because part of me is thankful to them because I have Capone and he is a wonderful dog but no person and no puppy should have to go thru that. If you are buying a fila puppy, do your research and talk to people on here(most of which know much more about breeders than I do.) I love my dog more than anything and I am thankful everyday to have him but I just want people to be able to make informed decisions before you buy a dog, knowledge is power.

 

[angelbears]

Thank you for sharing! I have never had any dealings with Lions Den. However, I have read way too many stories like this for it to be bad luck. I feel sorry for anyone that buys a dog from them but even more so for the poor pups that are coming out of there.

 

[fila4me]

I thank you for posting your story.

sadly, I too have heard many similar stories regarding this "kennel". they just add to the numerous reasons to
stay away from them. when you pump out puppies, the puppies ultimately suffer along with the unsuspecting
and trusting new owners.

so glad Capone had you for his new owner!!

 

[DDSK]

I was looking at there web site and reading a bunch of there testimonials, of course they are all good.
It would be refreshing if people who offer up testimonials had contacts so you could call or e-mail and ask questions.
Anyone can pretty much say or print anything on their web sites.

 

[tojvan]

I bought my pup from lions den, the original breeder was granada kennels. He was out of sharkaun of lionsden (sire) and black magic ll of granada( dam). Lions den took the pup as payment and i bought it from them. My experience was very positive i talked to luis couple of times mainly for bargaining after that was done i dealt with his wife who was very nice and cooperarive. I remember her getting sick because of tonsil infection and asking me for a couple of days extra to ship the pup; i refused and said I'd appreciate if she followed through with our terms. The pup arrived on the day it was suppose to and i was grateful for that. I was suppose to call her which i forgot cause of all the excitement so she called me a couple of hours later and urged me to take him to my vet ASAP to insure he has a clean bill of health which he did and has been till now. He is 14 months as of today many of you have already seen pictures of him on my thread.

 

[aceoutdoor]

Capone420 THANK YOU for doing the right thing and posting here. Screwy Lewy is a Piece Of Shit. He among many others have no business in our breed and are contributing to its downfall in the states. Unfortunately mostly newbies fall victim to people like him, but don't feel bad, it happens. Live and learn. Glad you saw the little guy thru it and gave him a good home.


Tojvan your dog's sire was not from him and his dam was not from Granada. Owners and breeders can be 2 different things.

 

[Bh-k9]

Tojvan your dogs dad was bred by lone wolf
Dam from itaboca I believe

I've dealt with Mr Lewis several times, in person over the phone, via email. I like the guy he is very opinionated, rude, disrespectful, and grumpy.. My type of guy. I went to his house a few times and he has ALOT of dogs, more dogs then I think is morally o.k... But.... Out of all 20 plus 150lb dogs he has they are ALL in great weight and in great shape. This guy knows more about this breed then the majority of people on this board hands down like him love him are hate him he is very knowledgeable about the Breed. He has some old cafib blood dogs which he lies and denies but he has them that have the best temp I've ever seen, he has dogs that if he wasn't such a jerk would win at any show. He has that old school mind set that new school people that think dogs are humans couldn't understand. With a breeder like Luie you gain there respect, and trust before you purchase a dog. You go to there house, work the dogs, and grand parents before you purchase a pup. You pick your pup up in person.

Old schoolers are made different, they are a dying breed to many that can't die fast enough. To me it's like dog training not every dog can be trained using the same method.. You find what makes them tick and redirect that to what you need them to do. You don't conduct business over the phone are email you go speak to the person face to face and come to an agreement with a hand shake and a frown.

if someone sells 15 dogs a month, 180 dogs a year and has been doing that for 30 plus years your going to get at least 5% of unhappy customers. The only thing I don't like and hate about ol screwy is that since his health is getting bad he starting to produce weaker temp dogs because they are easier for his wife and son to handle.

 

[tojvan]

Capone420 THANK YOU for doing the right thing and posting here. Screwy Lewy is a Piece Of Shit. He among many others have no business in our breed and are contributing to its downfall in the states. Unfortunately mostly newbies fall victim to people like him, but don't feel bad, it happens. Live and learn. Glad you saw the little guy thru it and gave him a good home.


Tojvan your dog's sire was not from him and his dam was not from Granada. Owners and breeders can be 2 different things.

Lol my bad you are right sharkaun was bred by lone wolf filas and black magic I'm not sure off. I got lucky lol

 

[aceoutdoor]

They were both from LW. You are just a lucky guy bro.

 

[angelbears]

Being an Asshole is fine. Ripping off people by selling sick dogs and then not standing behind his health guarantee isn't. There isn't a kennel out there that hasn't sold a sick dog at some point, it is how they handle it that counts.

 

[Capone420]

Tojvan your dogs dad was bred by lone wolf
Dam from itaboca I believe

I've dealt with Mr Lewis several times, in person over the phone, via email. I like the guy he is very opinionated, rude, disrespectful, and grumpy.. My type of guy. I went to his house a few times and he has ALOT of dogs, more dogs then I think is morally o.k... But.... Out of all 20 plus 150lb dogs he has they are ALL in great weight and in great shape. This guy knows more about this breed then the majority of people on this board hands down like him love him are hate him he is very knowledgeable about the Breed. He has some old cafib blood dogs which he lies and denies but he has them that have the best temp I've ever seen, he has dogs that if he wasn't such a jerk would win at any show. He has that old school mind set that new school people that think dogs are humans couldn't understand. With a breeder like Luie you gain there respect, and trust before you purchase a dog. You go to there house, work the dogs, and grand parents before you purchase a pup. You pick your pup up in person.

Old schoolers are made different, they are a dying breed to many that can't die fast enough. To me it's like dog training not every dog can be trained using the same method.. You find what makes them tick and redirect that to what you need them to do. You don't conduct business over the phone are email you go speak to the person face to face and come to an agreement with a hand shake and a frown.

if someone sells 15 dogs a month, 180 dogs a year and has been doing that for 30 plus years your going to get at least 5% of unhappy customers. The only thing I don't like and hate about ol screwy is that since his health is getting bad he starting to produce weaker temp dogs because they are easier for his wife and son to handle.

Let me clarify, I've been to his "ranch" twice, was never allowed to see any adult dogs other than the he keeps inside the house in a crate (butch) & two dobermans. I hand picked my dog from the puppies he brought out, we were never at anytime allowed to see the parents or see any adult dogs for that matter. We bought two dogs from him, mine which got very sick and my friends which has had 2 leg surgeries and is only 1 month older than mine. I also recently had my dogs hips tested and they told me I should be considering preventative surgery because they are not healthy enough to consider breeding with him. I have the X-rays on my computer showing they are obviously not a show/breeding quality. I too liked Luis and his family but to me it is how u deal with things like this that make or break you as a breeder. I personally would never do business with them again, and I feel it is my duty to share my experience with others so they can make an informed decision. I'm glad to hear uve had good experience with him but from my perspective they didn't care about the well being of MY dog, which I had just given them $2000 for.

 

[fila4me]

hahahahaha, Lone Wolf is another piece of shit kennel!!

in it for the money and produces dogs riddled with health issues. Tojvan you got lucky.

 

[tojvan]

Fila isn't even that popular of a breed and we already have more f**ked up breeders than one can count. CBKC has it's own share but CAFIB has breders like itanhandu as well who trick foreigners into investing and then take over their property leaving then high and dry.

 

[Bh-k9]

I'm not going to defend another kennel but I will say that

Mrs Britt, Louie, and his wife Julie have all offered me free advice on behavior, temp and taught me a lot about blood lines when I was getting into filas a few years back.

I haven't had any bad dealings with them that we didn't come to an agreement on. If a buy a dog and the dog has health issues that were not seen when I took the dog to the vet after I first got him are her then I simply say hello I'm on my way with the pup I bought I expect to get another pup are you take it to the vet and get it healthy and ill pick it up after its finished. If they were to ever say no, then we would have a serious serious problem.

Myself I would do what ever is right to make a customer happy and insure the well being of a pup I sold. Louie is not that type of person at all. Knowing this o deal with him differently.

How is your pup and friends pup doing now? What was wrong with the leg? What breeding was it off aquiles x ?

 

[angelbears]

Damn, how many dogs did he have to replace or get well for you?

 

[aceoutdoor]

The owners of Lone Wolf are good people. I have never heard of anyone getting a sick puppy from them and she cares for her pups very well. They have a couple dogs with great bloodlines, and many dogs that I don't care for. But there is no comparison to them and that snake Luis. I would stay away from anyone that has anything to do with Lions Den.

 

[Capone420]

I'm not going to defend another kennel but I will say that

Mrs Britt, Louie, and his wife Julie have all offered me free advice on behavior, temp and taught me a lot about blood lines when I was getting into filas a few years back.

I haven't had any bad dealings with them that we didn't come to an agreement on. If a buy a dog and the dog has health issues that were not seen when I took the dog to the vet after I first got him are her then I simply say hello I'm on my way with the pup I bought I expect to get another pup are you take it to the vet and get it healthy and ill pick it up after its finished. If they were to ever say no, then we would have a serious serious problem.

Myself I would do what ever is right to make a customer happy and insure the well being of a pup I sold. Louie is not that type of person at all. Knowing this o deal with him differently.

How is your pup and friends pup doing now? What was wrong with the leg? What breeding was it off aquiles x ?

My dog is doing great, my friends is still having leg issues, a ligament I believe near the ankle area in his rear leg. One went and he had surgery done, then the other had problems from him overcompensating. $6000+ although he says he'd get another dog from them because he loves the dog and doesn't mind the cost although he feels terrible for the dog. Very young to be having those type of problems, especially for a basically indoor dog.

To be honest I don't remember the moms name, we we're suppose to be receiving paperwork from Luis n them at lions den but after the vet incident we never heard back from them again. Probably should have followed up more with them but honestly felt like it was more hassle than its worth. Was very disappointed when I had the hip test done tho. I will look for the X-rays and post them.

 

[tojvan]

My dog is doing great, my friends is still having leg issues, a ligament I believe near the ankle area in his rear leg. One went and he had surgery done, then the other had problems from him overcompensating. $6000+ although he says he'd get another dog from them because he loves the dog and doesn't mind the cost although he feels terrible for the dog. Very young to be having those type of problems, especially for a basically indoor dog.

To be honest I don't remember the moms name, we we're suppose to be receiving paperwork from Luis n them at lions den but after the vet incident we never heard back from them again. Probably should have followed up more with them but honestly felt like it was more hassle than its worth. Was very disappointed when I had the hip test done tho. I will look for the X-rays and post them.

Does your friend have hard wood floors inside his house? If your dog has no problem running around then in my opinion you should avoid the surgery, the vet might be trying to milk you. My fila is a clutz he's tripped fallen and injured himself on more occasions than I could remember, especially on hardwood floor. In fact just recently thanks to him, my shepherd, him and I fell down 11 stairs cause he thought it would be fun to lean back on me so that he could lick my face while climbing stairs.
While playing with me he hyper extended his ankle and it eventually got so bad that he wasn't able to put it down and he had hurt his front let as a puppy. It was extremely difficult for any of the joints to recover since he had such a high pain tolerance and frankly didn't give a shit. glucosamine tablets didn't do much and finally I decided to buy RECOVERY SA EXTRA STRENGTH from PURICA DIRECT. I had known about it for some time but didn't buy it since I had heard that dogs refused to eat it because of it's disgusting taste. But I was backed up against the wall and didn't have much choice so ended up buying the 1kg powder for $88. It was the best decision I made within a month he had made drastic recovery he runs and everything without any issue. It's some really potent stuff and in terms of recovery nothing on the market is even close. I encourage you and your friend to do your research and buy it. Don't buy the regular get the extra strength one since it has hyaluronic acid. Recovery as extra strength Is excellent for recovery from surgeries and avoiding surgeries. It strengthens the tissue and the cells themselves to minimize damage and accelerates recovery. My fila doesn't mind the taste at all and licks the bowl clean, must be the blood hound side since they eat anything.