Occasionally, we will place a potential breeding prospect with a guardian home family.  This allows us to monitor the dog from birth to age 2 and decide if they are a good candidate for our breeding program.  For more information and to apply to our guardian program click here

No.  Special consideration must be taken in selecting a breeding quality dog.  Out of any given litter there may be one or two dogs that possess the proper structure, temperament, health, coat genetics along with many other factors that must be considered before the dog is bred.  We will consider selling breeding rights to approved programs. Click here to message us for more info.

This is a tricky question.  When pairing two dogs of different breeds it is a guesstimate at best in predicting adult size.  We’ve had pets in previous litters stay as small as 45 pounds and reach upwards of 90 pounds. We realize this is a huge swing which is why we do a full DNA panel on each of our pups so we can give you a predicted estimated adult weight based on their DNA profile; we usually see accuracy within a 10 pound (+ or -) range.

Your new family member comes with a laundry list of “stuff” including the following:

• First set of puppy shots
• Microchip
• De-worming every 2 weeks starting at 2 weeks old
• Embark DNA panel
• Sample of food
• Blanket with momma and littermates scent
• Binder with helpful information and milestones
• A custom tote that includes lots of extras, while this list changes a bit with each litter, previous litters goody bags have included:

-Bandana

-Toys

-Leash

-Collar

-Food and Water Dish

-Clicker for training

-training material

Starting at 3 days old we begin puppies on early neurological stimulation.  A video explaining what that is can be found here. We follow that up by implementing the Puppy Culture and Baxter and Bella Puppy School protocols for early training success.  We begin potty box training at 3 weeks of age (as soon as eyes and ears are open and they’re scooting around on all 4s.) We introduce the crate at this time as well and allow puppies to free range in and out of the crate at their leisure.  We do start overnight crate training at 7 weeks to ease the transition from our home to yours.

We desensitize puppies to a host of different sounds and items… as many as we can think of in their first 8 weeks of life.  Safe socialization starts at 3 weeks and we introduce puppies to as many different types of people as possible to socialize them as best we can.  Volhard testing for personality traits is done at 7 weeks old.

We find it very important to properly place our puppies based on the lifestyle of the families adopting them.  It is not possible to know a puppies personality earlier than 7 weeks of age. After we’ve done our Volhard testing we can better assess which puppies would be best for your family and your families lifestyle. We would hate to place a very energetic puppy in a home that is less active, we would also hate to place a lazy puppy with a sporting family.  We also need to “stack” our puppies for structural soundness at 8 weeks old. 8 week structure is the most similar to the adult body structure of the dog. We take this time to evaluate the puppy’s structure so we can decide if a dog is breeding quality or not.

Puppies learn canine manners from their mothers and littermates.  Things like bite inhibition, how to submit, how to deal with separation and not develop separation anxiety and other canine manners.  These are things that cannot be taught by their human families.  While many litters are weened before they are ready to go home at 8 weeks the canine socialization they learn from their mother and littermates is essential to their growth and development.  A pup that is separated too soon can develop reactivity issues, aggression, fearfullness, and anxiety.  They can lack bite inhibition and social skills.

We like to think it’s the little things that make our program stand out from the rest.  We feed momma beef liver to boost her iron levels during whelping. We save the water that the liver is boiled in to give to the puppies in their “puppy mush”.  Momma gets LOTS of extra calcium during whelping and while she is nursing. We play classical music, thunderstorm sounds, ocean sounds etc. through our sound machine. This helps desensitize the puppy to sounds as well as getting them used to sleeping through just about anything.  We diffuse lavender oil in the puppy room to create a calm environment. Read more about essential oils and dogs here.  We do full DNA panels on every single puppy so we can give you a better idea of their adult size as well as their shedding coefficient. All of our puppies are raised in our personal home; never in outbuildings or barns.  Dogs are family not livestock.