I purchased a dog from Don Van Dermyden of Royalty Akitas ( or Royaltyakitas on Don’s business cards) on 4/4/09 and I put that same dog to sleep on 8/19/10 because she tore BOTH back leg ACL and needed TPLO surgery at a cost of $10, 000 for both legs (I live near San Francisco, California were everything is expensive). My Dog was only a year and a half when I put her to sleep and I probably spent around $4, 000 between buying her, vet costs, getting custom made braces for both her back legs from OrthoPets. Please know that this was my 4th Akita over a 20 year period. The female was very sweet, but, ended up being abnormally large, she was 100 lbs by 11 months old. I took her off puppy food early and fed her IAMS food but less than I had fed my past akitas due to her size. . The surgical specialist who confirmed it was a torn ACL indicated this is NOT common for a dog that was 15 months old, Usually you see tears in dogs age 5 and up. I’m posting this because I think potential Akita buyers should be aware that Don Dermyden’s Akitas can be very LARGE and this increases the risk of leg problems. I contacted Don very upset about this and he hinted it was my fault based on what I fed my dog and offered to SELL me another dog at half price. A good breeder would have offered to replace the dog for FREE, but, Don Dermyden is all about making money. Don asked for all my vet information, which I emailed him including pictures, but, I never heard from him again, not even to say, “Sorry about your loss.” He runs a very clean, upscale puppy mill in my opinion and I regret supporting this over breeding practice. Don does construction work, so, his place looks great. I put a review on Puppy Finder explaining that I had to put my dog down and Puppy Finder removed it less than 12 hrs later. I sent Puppy Finder paperwork at their request proving I purchased the dog, my vet records, and emails I had sent to Don, but, they would not reactivate the review. And after looking up Puppy Finder complaints online, it appears they remove most or all negative complaints because Puppy Finder makes money from the breeders. The ironic part of this is I explained to Don, when I first contacted him, in February of 2009 that I spent about $6, 000 fixing my second akitas back legs for medial/patella luxation and I didn’t want to go through that again. Impressed by his clean facility and because Don stressed the good health of his dogs, that is why I purchased a puppy from him. He’s a good sales man who lived on ten acres in California when I got my dog and now he has moved to 20 acres in California… one of the most expensive states…. Hmmm. Over the past 7 months I’ve noticed Don has a new litter EVERY MONTH sometimes TWO litters in a month on Puppy Finder. I didn’t realize he bred that much. At $1, 200 to $1, 600 a dog, and if an average litter size is 5 to 8 dogs… that is a lot of money in one year. Don Van Dermyden of Royalty Akitas is over breeding and I hope people reconsider supporting this behavior.