Behind the NorCal Shiba One-Year Health Guarantee

Every Shiba placed by NorCal Shiba ships with a one-year written health guarantee. It covers congenital and hereditary conditions that surface within 12 months of homecoming, tied to a full pre-placement veterinary screening. Every dog gets a physical exam, dental assessment, bloodwork if adult, vaccinations, microchip, and parasite screen before placement. The guarantee is included in the $2,300 to $2,950 adoption fee.

What is the NorCal Shiba one-year health guarantee?

Every Shiba we place ships with a written, contract-backed health guarantee that runs 12 months from the date of homecoming. The guarantee is anchored to a documented pre-placement veterinary screening performed by Dr. Daniel R., our partner vet since 2020, so the family knows exactly what was checked, what was found, and what was cleared. Dr. Daniel runs an independent East Bay practice and bills us at a slight discount for intake exams because he believes in the model. He does not work for us. If he says a dog is not ready for placement, the dog is not ready.

The guarantee is not marketing copy. It sits in the Adoption Agreement you sign at homecoming. If a covered condition surfaces in year one, we act on it. Either we take the dog back and refund the adoption fee in full, or we contribute meaningfully toward the diagnostic and treatment cost while the dog stays with your family. That decision belongs to the adopter and gets made case by case in writing.

The guarantee is included in the $2,300 to $2,950 adoption fee. There is no upcharge, no separate tier, and no "premium screening" upsell. The screening we do on the intake dog is the screening every dog gets.

What does the pre-placement veterinary screening actually check?

The pre-placement exam is the most thorough single thing we do on any incoming dog. It runs through a defined checklist rather than a spot-check, and it produces the file we hand to every adopting family at homecoming.

• Full physical. Eyes, ears, teeth, gums, skin, coat, joints, muscle tone, abdominal palpation, lymph nodes, anal glands. Dr. Daniel checks for breed-common issues (luxating patella, allergies, glaucoma, entropion, dental disease in older dogs) and for anything that shows up on any dog (heart murmurs, lumps, joint pain).
• 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 medically required before placement, we do it before placement. The cost is built into the fee.
• Bloodwork. Every Shiba over 12 months gets a CBC and chemistry panel. That includes kidney function, liver function, thyroid (mandatory over age five), blood cell counts, and any markers of underlying disease that would not show on a physical.
• Heartworm and parasite testing. Blood test for heartworm, stool sample for intestinal parasites. Treated if needed before placement.
• Vaccinations. Brought current to AAHA standards. Most adult intakes come to us with partial or unknown vaccine history. Dr. Daniel brings everything up to date.
• Microchip. Every dog leaves with a chip registered to the adopting family on day one of homecoming, not a placeholder registration in our name.
• Behavioral note. Not a formal evaluation. A written note from the foster and from Dr. Daniel on how the dog has behaved in real household conditions, including any quirks or flags. It sits in the file we hand you.

The full screening typically costs us $400 to $900 per dog depending on age and findings. That cost sits inside the adoption fee. For the fuller accounting of what the fee funds, our California cost breakdown shows every line item.

What does the guarantee cover?

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

• Hip and elbow dysplasia. A known Shiba risk, though less common than in larger breeds.
• Patellar luxation. More common in Shibas and one of the conditions we screen most carefully for during the physical.
• Eye conditions with a genetic basis: progressive retinal atrophy, juvenile cataracts, glaucoma, entropion, distichiasis.
• Heart conditions present at the time of adoption that were missed on the screen.
• Chronic diagnosed allergies (not seasonal flares).
• Any condition Dr. Daniel missed on the initial exam that was demonstrably present at the time of placement.

When a covered condition triggers, the family has options in writing: return the dog to us with a full refund of the adoption fee, or keep the dog with meaningful NorCal Shiba financial support toward the diagnosis and treatment. The exact figures are documented in the Adoption Agreement so nobody is guessing later.

Across 250+ placements since 2019, we have honored the guarantee in a small but meaningful number of cases. Most were patellar issues that surfaced in the first six months. A handful were eye conditions. One was a heart murmur that worsened after placement. In every case the family had options and we paid what we promised.

What does the guarantee not cover?

This is the part that matters more than the covered list, and we want it explicit in writing.

• Injury. A dog that breaks a leg jumping off a couch is not a covered condition.
• Acute environmental illness. A vaccinated adult dog that picks up parvo from a contaminated park (extremely unlikely but possible) is not covered.
• Conditions that develop after year one. The guarantee is a one-year instrument. Older-onset conditions are outside it.
• Dental cleanings beyond the pre-placement one. Ongoing dental care is a normal ownership cost.
• Preventive care. Vaccines, parasite prevention, and wellness exams are the adopter's responsibility after homecoming.
• Behavioral issues. Even severe behavioral issues are not medical. Behavior is covered separately by the take-back guarantee and by our behavioral evaluation service, which runs $199 virtual or $349 in-home.
• Errors in the dog's estimated age. Many incoming Shibas arrive with rough age estimates. If a dog we listed as five turns out to be seven, that is not a health condition. Dr. Daniel ages every intake based on teeth, eyes, and overall condition. Estimates usually land within a year.

We are explicit about the not-covered list because a guarantee that quietly hides its edges is worse than no guarantee. You should know exactly what you are getting and what you are not.

Why one year and not longer?

Two reasons. The first is medical. 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 to changes. Twelve months is when the screening either holds up or does not. A two-year guarantee would not meaningfully increase catches.

The second is honesty. A two-year or three-year guarantee at our current fee structure would either inflate the adoption fee significantly or leave us promising something we could not deliver responsibly. One year is what we can stand behind for every dog, every time. We would rather offer a smaller, real guarantee than a larger, marketing-driven one.

After the 12-month window, we transition to lifetime adopter support. That is not a monetary guarantee. It is a real relationship. We continue to answer questions, help you find specialists, connect you with our trainer and boarding network, and take the dog back at any age for any reason if you cannot keep them. The Lifetime Placement Promise is the $295 one-time add-on that formalizes the take-back into your paperwork, and it is a separate instrument from the health guarantee.

What should you do before homecoming to protect your Shiba?

Three practical things.

Get pet insurance in the first week. The health guarantee covers a specific set of conditions. Pet insurance covers the ones it does not: injury, illness after year one, and sometimes behavior training under expanded plans. The best time to enroll is the day after homecoming, before any condition can be classified as pre-existing. Healthy Paws, Trupanion, ASPCA Pet Health Insurance, Lemonade Pet, and Pets Best are all reasonable starting points. NorCal Shiba has no affiliate relationship with any of them.

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, please open a chart" visit. That way the vet has baseline notes before anything goes wrong, and the dog builds a positive first association with the office.

Save the pre-placement screening file. We hand off the full veterinary file at homecoming. Keep it. Your local vet will want it for the first appointment. If a question triggers the guarantee later, your vet's notes and ours should line up cleanly.

What happens if a covered condition surfaces?

The order of operations is simple.

1. You text or email us as soon as your vet raises the concern.
2. We ask for documentation from the diagnosing vet: exam notes, test results, and any imaging.
3. We consult with Dr. Daniel on whether the condition is consistent with what was present at the time of placement.
4. If the condition is covered, the guarantee triggers. We work with you on the specific option (return and refund, or keep and support) documented in the Adoption Agreement.

Most cases we have processed were resolved inside two weeks of the diagnosis. Nobody has been left in a paperwork limbo. If a case is genuinely on the edge, we default to helping the family and the dog rather than defending the boundary. That is the point of running a guarantee at all.

How does the health guarantee fit alongside the Lifetime Placement Promise?

They are two separate instruments that solve two different problems, and they work best together.

• The one-year health guarantee protects the family financially in the medical window right after homecoming. Congenital or hereditary conditions that surface in year one trigger the guarantee.
• The Lifetime Placement Promise ($295 one-time add-on at adoption) protects the dog for life. It formalizes the take-back guarantee into the adopter's paperwork, so if life changes at any point (job loss, medical crisis, a new baby with allergies, an older adopter passing), the dog has a documented path back to NorCal Shiba.

Across 250+ placements since 2019, the take-back has been used at roughly a 4% rate over the years. The health guarantee has triggered in a smaller share. Together they are the reason we describe adoption at NorCal Shiba as a bridge rather than a sale. For the mechanics of the take-back and the Promise, the Lifetime Placement Promise page has the written terms.