Icewind Farm

We visited Icewind today with our «Opal» to pay for her. When we received Opal 2 months ago Karen would not accept payment because she had a slight heart murmur. She let us have her because she knew our kids would be disappointed if we couldn’t bring her home. Karen arranged a follow up with a local Veterinary cardiologist at no charge. After a few weeks the murmur resolved. Opal has thrived in our home, and the overall experience of adopting a golden retriever from Icewind TLC has been top notch. I would recommend Icewind TLC to anyone looking for a great dog and a great adoption experience.

I purchased a Shiba Inu back in 2008 from this breeder. Anya could not care less who she is selling the dog to, as long as she gets paid. Like others have said, you HAVE to purchase food/​vitamins, and other nonsense before they release the dog to you. This breeder is more concerned about how many dollars they collect rather than who the people they are going to. This is more of a BUSINESS than a BREEDER. Make sure you understand that before committing. Personally, I would have rather dealt with a breeder, someone who cares more about the welfare of the dogs, than someone who is money hungry.

After reading some reviews on here I have to chime-​in and say that we purchased a 6-​month old female golden from here 4 years ago. We’ve had 2 prior dogs before (from other breeders), including a golden, and our current dog from this breeder is by far the best tempered dog we’ve ever owned.
We’ve not had any health issues to date, and have recommended this breeder to a friend who was looking for an older dog (they ended up purchasing our current dog’s mother). This, I also take to be a good sign, as they likely don’t overbreed from the same mother. I believe our friends have not had any issues either.
Knock-​wood, we are very happy with our Golden, and would consider them again.

Sorry although my experience was a good one I can’t say the same when I went back with a friend of mine 3 years later. I only wish I knew earlier. I did my research after the fact and to my surprise how many displeased clients there were and to see it was a puppy mill. Despite what I had thought in the past this place is and had always been run by a child. The so called owner «Karen» is never to be seen. There doesn’t seem to be any mistreatment of the dogs but it is in every sense a puppy mill and the caretaker (owner) Anya is less than pleasant to deal with. Their sole intent is to turn a profit. Please read other reviews and DO your research. You have to question why there are so many bad reviews? You have been warned.

We got our puppy from Icewind Farm back in August of 2010 and couldn’t possibly imagine a better experience. We got a beautiful red Shiba who we had to take to obedience class, but he is the best dog anyone could ever ask for. He is so kind and gentle with everyone including with new people and loves to play with other dogs. The prices might be a little high, but my dog is a 10 out of 10 in the looks department and yout couldn’t possibly get a dog with better temperment in this breed elsewhere. I keep bugging my wife because I want to get another one.

My husband and I did a bit of research before getting a little furbaby but my husband was a bit too impatient to wait for a rodel shiba so we went with icewind. We read some negative reviews about icewind possibly being a puppymill but when we visited the place, we couldn’t really tell since Anya was pretty nice.
I give this place 3 stars because two things had put me off about icewind.
First, I found it incredibly ridiculous how they made it mandatory to buy the vitamins and the bag of iams puppy food and OVERCHARGED. I forgot how much for the vitamins but I know they charged $ 60 for the bag of iams puppy food which is doubled the normal price. I don’t understand why we were forced to buy it if we could simply go off to petco to buy the same bag for way cheaper. When we got home, we didn’t even give our shiba the iams because we wanted to give him buffalo blue which is better. It just seemed like they are trying to profit as much as they can out of a transaction. They have all these rules to make it seem like they care about their puppies, but in reality… they don’t. For example, the rule about taking your puppy to a vet within 72 hours or giving your puppy the NuVet vitamins for 3 more months. Not once, did icewind tried to contact us about an update. Why make these rules up if you don’t even care?
Second, as breeders, I would expect them to understand that people are coming from all over the country. I felt that Anya was not flexible with her time and was not willing to let us get our puppy a day earlier because she doesn’t see buyers after 5pm or something like that. People have to work! My husband and I work so we would not be able to make it in time. The drive to NJ is about 4 hours for us. I think that if a buyer is about to buy a puppy for $ 1400 and thats not including the food, vitamins, or etc., then you should be willing to stay up a little late to let us pick up his/​her puppy. It’s just bad customer service, I guess. My husband had trouble at times trying to contact her. I have read reviews where people said that icewind is all about making money and I have to say, I did get that feeling from my experience.
I am thinking about getting a second shiba and I will not be coming back to icewind.

I purchased a puppy from Ice Wind in 2009, without having done too much research, aside from viewing their website and assuming it was much better than a pet store. We visited the facility, which was clean and calm. We were allowed to play with as many puppies as we wanted and also saw some puppies that had been raised by someone else. These puppies were skittish and scared, whereas the Icewind puppies were extremely friendly and playful. I took that as a good sign.
Obviously, once you’re there and find a puppy that steals your heart, you can’t leave without it. The prices on the website are NOT accurate — we paid close to double what the listed price was, which included the «required» overpriced puppy food and care package or whatever (I am a huge health nut and this food is pretty middle of the road). So the extreme price fluctuation was annoying. I also agree that the girl working there is less than cordial, pushy and has an arrogant attitude. Nice but not; fake nice, if you know what I mean.
Despite the few weird turnoffs and second guessing, my puppy came home with us and was totally great. No problems with the vet, house trained very, very easily (Brooklyn apartment — no yard), got along great with my two cats, crate trained with no problem (he still sleeps in his crate at night in my room and willingly goes in when he knows it is bedtime). He is incredibly friendly with people and other dogs, walks well on a leash, plays nice in the dog park (even though he thinks he’s a big dog), rarely barks, and overall has an amazing personality. He is very smart and communicates well if he needs to go out.
So far, so good. I hope that my shiba doesn’t have any health problems in the future, like some others have had. Fingers crossed!
I’m not sure if I am someone who just got lucky or if most of their puppies are generally «good». I know that people are more inclined to write bad reviews than good, so that could skew things significantly.

First of all, I find it hard to believe that the negative reviews could possibly be true. Initially I had qualms about buying a puppy from Icewind farms based on these reviews, but I am so grateful that I trusted my own instincts and purchased a puppy from them. My shiba inu puppy is an absolute dream. Interaction between myself and IceWind farms was never anything short of professional. Anya always returned our calls and emails, promptly answering any questions we might have. When it came time to choose a puppy, Anya made sure she matched up our needs with the puppy’s disposition. I cannot stress enough what a perfect match she made! Fiona is the most loving dog we could wish for. Healthy as a horse, kind, and friendly to all. We even had her stay at Icewind farms for boarding with Anya while we went on vacation, and once again, we were thrilled with the service. Fiona was well taken care of and seemed to have a wonderful time there while we were away. If you want to buy a puppy from a family who truly love their animals, value their health, and socialize them immediately, go with icewind. I cannot recommend this place enough!

Well my other review was filtered for some reason and Unilocal won’t help. In a nutshell I gave the place 4 stars… I have concerns but overall I was happy. Please view my profile for the full review.