Behind Our Health Guarantee: What Dr. Daniel Screens For

Author: Eric Lee, Operations Manager Published: 2026-05-21 Category: Health & Vet Word count target: 1200-1500

The short version

Every Shiba that comes through NorCal Shiba is screened by Dr. Daniel R. before they are placed. The screening covers physical exam, dental, bloodwork on adults, a full panel of vaccinations, microchip placement or update, parasite check and treatment if needed, and a behavioral note. The dog ships to its new family with a one-year written health guarantee that covers congenital and hereditary conditions that present in the first 12 months. This piece walks through exactly what the screening includes, what the guarantee covers, what it does not, and why we built it this way.

Who Dr. Daniel R. is

Dr. Daniel R. has been our partner vet since 2020. He runs a small practice in the East Bay and has personally examined the majority of Shibas we have placed. He does not work for us. He bills us at a slightly discounted rate for the screening exams because he believes in the model, but he is otherwise independent. If he tells us a dog is not ready for placement, the dog is not ready for placement. We do not override him.

This independence matters. Many rescue operations use whichever vet happens to be cheapest. We pay a real rate to Dr. Daniel for a thorough exam because the cost shows up at the back end (lower returns, fewer medical surprises for families) and because we want our adopters to know that the dog they are bringing home has been seen by a Shiba-informed vet, not a stamp.

What the screening actually checks

The pre-placement exam is the most thorough single thing we do. It includes the following.

Full physical. Eyes, ears, teeth, gums, skin, coat, joints, muscle tone, abdominal palpation, lymph nodes, anal glands. Dr. Daniel checks for the things that are common in the breed (luxating patella, allergies, eye conditions like glaucoma and entropion, dental disease in older dogs) and the things that are common in any dog (heart murmurs, lumps, joint issues).

Dental assessment. Shibas are prone to tartar buildup and gum disease, especially after age five. Every adult Shiba gets a dental assessment. If a cleaning is needed before placement, we do it before placement. The cost is built into the fee.

Bloodwork. Every Shiba over 12 months old gets a CBC and chemistry panel. We are checking for kidney function, liver function, thyroid (we test for thyroid in any dog over five), blood cell counts, and any markers of underlying disease that would not show up on a physical.

Heartworm and parasite testing. Every dog is tested for heartworm and a stool sample is screened for intestinal parasites. Treated if needed before placement.

Vaccinations. Brought current to AAHA standards. Most adult Shibas come to us with partial records or unknown vaccine history. Dr. Daniel brings them up to date.

Microchip. Every dog leaves with a microchip registered to the adopting family on day one of homecoming.

Behavioral note. Not a formal evaluation. A note from Dr. Daniel and the foster on how the dog has behaved in the foster home, any quirks, any flags. This sits in the file we hand the adopting family.

The full screening typically runs us $400 to $900 per dog depending on age and findings. That cost is absorbed by the adoption fee. See our fee breakdown post for how that math works.

What the one-year guarantee covers

The written health guarantee covers congenital and hereditary conditions that present within 12 months of homecoming. Specifically:

• Hip and elbow dysplasia (a known Shiba risk, though not as common as in larger breeds)
• Patellar luxation (more common in Shibas)
• Eye conditions: progressive retinal atrophy, juvenile cataracts, glaucoma when it has a genetic basis, entropion, distichiasis
• Heart conditions present at adoption that were missed on the screen
• Allergies that present as a chronic and diagnosed condition (not seasonal flares)
• Any condition Dr. Daniel missed on the initial exam that was present at the time of placement

If a covered condition presents in year one, we will either refund the adoption fee in full and take the dog back, or contribute meaningfully toward the diagnostic and treatment cost while the dog stays in your home, at the family's discretion. The exact terms are written into the adoption contract.

What the guarantee does not cover

This is the part that matters more than the covered list.

The guarantee does not cover injury (a dog that breaks a leg jumping off a couch). It does not cover acute illness from environmental exposure (a dog that gets parvo from a contaminated park, though this is extremely unlikely in vaccinated adults). It does not cover conditions that develop after year one. It does not cover dental cleanings beyond the pre-placement one. It does not cover behavioral issues, even severe ones, because behavior is not a medical category and is covered separately in the take-back guarantee. It does not cover preventive care.

It also does not cover us being wrong about the dog's age. Many incoming Shibas come to us with rough age estimates. If a dog we listed as five turns out to be seven, that is not a health condition. We try to be accurate. Dr. Daniel ages every dog based on teeth, eyes, and overall condition. The estimate is usually within a year.

Why year one

We picked 12 months for two reasons. The first is that most congenital and hereditary conditions present within the first year of stable home life, when the dog is in a routine and the family is paying attention. The second is that 12 months is what we can responsibly stand behind. A two-year guarantee would either inflate the adoption fee significantly or leave us promising something we cannot deliver. One year is honest.

After year one, we transition to lifetime support, which is not a money guarantee but is real. We continue to answer questions, help find specialists when needed, connect families with our trainer and our boarding network, and take the dog back at any age for any reason if you cannot keep them. See the adoption process piece for the full picture on lifetime support and take-back.

What to know before homecoming

A few practical notes.

Get pet insurance before year one ends. The health guarantee covers a specific set of things. A pet insurance policy covers the things that are not covered by the guarantee (injury, illness after year one, behavioral training in some plans). The best time to get coverage is the day after homecoming, before any condition shows up that could be classified as preexisting. Healthy Paws, Trupanion, and ASPCA Pet Health Insurance are the three we see most often in our network. We do not have an affiliate relationship with any of them. The ASPCA insurance page is a reasonable starting point.

Find a vet before you need one. Take your new Shiba in for a "meet the vet" visit in the first two weeks. Not a sick visit. A "this is our dog, build a record" visit. This way the vet has baseline notes before anything goes wrong, and your dog has a positive association with the office.

Save Dr. Daniel's records. We hand off the screening file to every adopter at homecoming. Keep it. Your local vet will want it for the first appointment.

What happens if something does come up

If a covered condition is diagnosed in year one, the order of operations is simple. You text or email us. We ask for documentation from the diagnosing vet. We talk to Dr. Daniel about whether the condition is consistent with what was present at placement. If it is, the guarantee triggers and we work with you on next steps. Most cases we have seen are resolved within two weeks of the diagnosis.

We have honored the guarantee 14 times in 250+ placements. Most of those were patellar issues that surfaced in the first six months. Two were eye conditions. One was a heart murmur that worsened. In every case the family had options and we paid what we promised.

The point of the guarantee

The guarantee is not insurance and it is not a marketing line. It is a way of standing behind the screening work that Dr. Daniel does. If we missed something, we own it. If something develops that we could not have seen, we still help. The family does not eat the cost alone.

This is what we mean when we say NorCal Shiba is a bridge, not a transaction. A breeder selling you a puppy with a one-year limited guarantee is doing the minimum. We are trying to do the maximum the model can sustain. After you read our 6-step adoption process, this is the piece of the back end most adopters tell us they did not fully understand until they needed it.

How the guarantee fits our bigger promise

The one-year written health guarantee is one piece of a larger commitment, and it helps to see where it sits. The guarantee covers the medical window right after homecoming. Around it sits our Lifetime Placement Promise, a standing commitment that any Shiba we place can come back to us at any age, for any reason, if a family cannot keep them. Across 250+ Shibas placed since 2019, our take-back rate has held around 4%, and every one of those dogs had a way home.

That structure is deliberate. The health guarantee protects the family financially in year one. The Lifetime Placement Promise protects the dog for life. Together they are why we describe a NorCal Shiba adoption as a bridge, not a sale. For the mechanics of that lifelong commitment, our Lifetime Placement Promise page lays out how it works.

What to read next

To see where the guarantee fits in the whole adoption journey, read our 6-step adoption process and our breakdown of what a Shiba Inu costs in California. For the commitment that outlasts year one, see the Lifetime Placement Promise, and when you are ready to begin, our rehoming page is the place to start.

Eric Lee runs operations at NorCal Shiba and works with Dr. Daniel R. on every incoming dog's screening file.