After seeing a Shake A Paw ad in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jeff Crabtree, drove more than 25 miles to the pet shop to look for a puppy for his wife's birthday. One of the Shake A Paw owners assured them the puppy did not come from a puppy mill but from a breeder in Minnesota. Store owners deny they obtain puppies from puppy mills. They insist that puppy mills are only in the Amish country of Pennsylvania and not in the Midwest. Shake a Paw puppies live in crates on the floor.
Employees encourage potential buyers to play with the puppies.
Physical contact with these puppies can be a health hazard to humans. In fact, potential and actual customers have been exposed to sarcoptic mange. Shortly after Jeff's wife, Ann Margaret Hinrichsen, received the dog, Penny, at her birthday dinner, Penny began coughing violently. Ann Margaret took Penny to the veterinarian at 8 a.m. the next morning. The veterinarian thought the puppy had a respiratory infection.