§1 Eligibility
A return may be requested within fourteen (14) days of the delivery date recorded on the order. After this period a dog is considered fully acclimatised to its household, and further changes of placement are handled under §6 (Atelier Re-Housing) rather than as a return.
Returns are accepted only for dogs whose Care Covenant has been signed and returned to Client Services. Dogs for which the Care Covenant signature is not yet on file must remain with the purchaser until the signature is received.
- The dog was delivered within the last 14 days.
- The Lineage Certificate is intact and unaltered.
- The Charm Set, where opened, has not been worn outside the home.
- No third-party veterinary procedure has been undertaken without prior notice to the Concierge.
§2 Condition on Return
The dog must be returned in a state consistent with normal household acclimatisation. Coat, curl uniformity, lineage markers and temperament are assessed against the original release record (see Quality Inspection on the order page).
Minor variation is expected and does not affect eligibility. Material deviation — that is, deviation outside the published tolerance bands — is documented at re-inspection and may affect the refund issued under §7.
§3 Initiating a Return
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01
Speak to your Concierge
All returns begin with a conversation. Your Concierge will discuss the cause of the request and, where appropriate, propose coat re-shaping or — by exception — an attended household visit before a return is opened. Calls are recorded for the protection of both parties and archived against a Client Services reference; transcripts are available on request.
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02
Authorisation
If a return remains appropriate, a Return Authorisation Number (RAN) is issued and attached to the order. The dog is then scheduled for collection by a gene dogs white-glove courier within four working days.
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03
Collection
Dogs travel only in climate-controlled cabins, accompanied at all times. Drop-off at third-party carriers is not permitted under any circumstance.
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04
Re-inspection
Upon arrival at the Atelier the dog enters a re-inspection window of up to seven (7) working days. The outcome determines refund eligibility (§7) and any onward arrangement under §6.
§4 Coat Tolerance
The most frequent cause of return is the perception that a dog's coat is less uniform than expected. The following provisions are intended to set that expectation transparently.
Each line is released within a published coat tolerance band, measured under standard atelier conditions. For the Toy Poodle — Brown the band is:
- Tolerance band
- Curl index 5.0 – 6.5
- Average across the line
- Curl index 5.7
- Studio reference
- Curl index 6.8 (controlled studio conditions, not representative of domestic use)
Coat uniformity is naturally affected by ambient humidity, grooming interval, rest, and the dog's age in weeks. A reading below the band, sustained over a 14-day observation window and corroborated by the Concierge, constitutes a covered concern. A reading within the band — even if it is below the studio reference — is a matter of expectation rather than condition and is not, on its own, grounds for a full refund.
We acknowledge that the coat visible in studio photography is not the coat visible in the home. The studio is an environment of light, climate, and stillness that no household can reproduce. We state this here so that the gap does not need to be discovered.
§5 Re-Inspection & Restocking
A restocking fee of £ 420.00 applies to all returns. This covers re-inspection, temperament re-baseline, dermal hygiene, and Charm Set substitution where the original set cannot be re-issued. The fee is fixed and does not vary by line or by reason for return.
Where the re-inspection identifies the dog to be within the published tolerance band, the restocking fee is deducted from the refund and the remaining balance is processed under §7. Where the re-inspection identifies the dog to be outside the band, the restocking fee is waived and the full purchase price is refunded.
§6 Atelier Re-Housing
A dog is a living work. It is not destroyed at the end of a return. The following describes what happens to it.
Dogs returned in good condition are entered into the Atelier Re-Housing programme. Four onward arrangements are possible:
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Re-Listing resale
The dog is re-listed through gene dogs Re-Listing (§9) at a price reflecting its prior placement. The original Lineage Certificate is annotated, not replaced.
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Atelier residency
Dogs for which a new purchaser is not identified within ninety (90) days reside at the Paris Atelier under the long-term care of the House. They are not re-engineered, not represented as new stock, and remain on the lineage record.
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Private placement
In a small number of cases, dogs are placed privately with members of the Atelier staff or with partner households, at no charge. Such placements are recorded and audited annually.
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Onward transfer · partner facilities
Where Re-Listing, residency, and private placement are each unsuitable — for reasons of condition, capacity, or household withdrawal — the dog is transferred to a partner facility for continuing care. The House retains visibility on the dog's status for ninety (90) days post-transfer. After this period, the partner facility's record becomes the controlling record. The House does not publish the list of partner facilities, to protect the privacy of subsequent recipients.
The House does not euthanise dogs returned under this policy, and does not authorise any third party named in §6.1 — §6.3 to do so. This commitment is documented in the Care Covenant and audited annually by an external veterinary panel.
The House does not warrant the practices of partner facilities under §6.4 beyond the date of transfer. The audit panel notes this gap each year; see §5 of the Ethics Statement and the Annual Veterinary Audit footnote.
§7 Refunds
Refunds are issued to the original payment method within ten (10) working days of the completion of re-inspection. The composition of a refund is as follows:
- Dog purchase price
- Refundable, subject to §5
- Charm Set
- Non-refundable (see §8)
- White-glove delivery fee
- Non-refundable
- Care Covenant pack
- Not applicable (included)
§8 Non-Returnable Components
The following are not eligible for return or refund under any circumstance:
- The Charm Set (collar, enamel tags, leash), once unboxed.
- Bespoke or commissioned dogs, including monogrammed lineage certificates.
- Dogs whose Genome ID has been altered, obscured, or transferred.
- Dogs resold or rehomed outside the gene dogs Re-Listing channel.
§9 Re-Listing Resale
Dogs may not be resold on the open market. The Bonded Lineage Programme requires that any change of placement after the original sale takes place through gene dogs Re-Listing. This is how the House continues to know where each dog is, how it is cared for, and to whom it belongs.
Resale through Re-Listing does not extinguish the original purchaser's record on the Lineage Certificate. It annotates it.
§10 Care Covenant
Every purchaser signs the Care Covenant at the point of delivery. The Covenant sets out the minimum standard of care expected of a dog's household, the role of the Concierge, the frequency of veterinary review, and the conditions under which the House may exercise its right of recall.
A return is one expression of the Covenant. A re-housing under §6 is another. Both are contemplated by the Covenant and neither carries fault.
§11 Definitions
- Dog
- A single living work issued under a numbered line. Each dog has a unique Genome ID and Lineage Certificate.
- Curl index
- The atelier's measure of coat curl uniformity, recorded under standard conditions. Tolerance bands are published per line.
- Charm Set
- The non-living accessories accompanying a dog: collar, two enamel tags, leash. Issued and finished at the Atelier.
- Lineage Certificate
- The bonded document recording the dog's release, all subsequent placements, and any Atelier re-housing.
- Concierge
- A named member of Client Services assigned to each purchaser for the lifetime of the dog.
- Re-Listing
- The House's controlled secondary channel through which dogs are re-placed.