Why adopt from volunteer goldens?

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  You will find numerous breeders as you begin your search for a new furry friend to add to your family. Why choose us? All of our dogs have lineage back to Europe which makes them pure European Goldens. All of our dogs have parents with clean genetics so our dogs also have clean genetics. We test our dog’s hips using PennHip, which is the cutting edge technology to determine the chance of a dog having hip dysplasia in the future. We only breed dogs that are above breed standard. Once our dogs reach 2 years old we have their Eyes and Heart checked by the OFA standards. Our dogs are our pets. Our three children are out playing with the dogs daily and our oldest works on basic obedience and additional fun training skills with the adult dogs. 

  When it comes to our puppies they are birthed in our home with Maria acting as the midwife. She doesn’t leave the mom’s side until all puppies are born and nursing comfortably. Then she will spend the next day right beside the whelping area ensuring all puppies are safe and mom is not anxious. We don’t leave mom alone for about a week depending on how she is responding to having puppies. Yes, this includes during the night. We lose a lot of sleep during that first week, but it is all to ensure a healthy mom. At this stage in the whelping process mom gets all our attention. We don’t handle the pups much until they are around 2 ½ weeks old. 

  Once the puppies are 3 days old we begin early neurological stimulation (ENS). This is a series of 5 exercises we do to the puppy from day 3 through day 16. This helps to increase their brain and heart development by putting them in a minor amount of stress that they can quickly learn to recover from. Our 3 children enjoy doing the ENS activities with the puppies. During the ENS we also weigh the puppies daily to make sure every puppy is gaining weight properly. If we notice a puppy is not gaining weight, we will hang out by the whelping pen to make sure that puppy gets a spot at the milk bar. 

  Once the puppy’s eyes open we enter a whole new phase of fun. We slowly begin adding toys to the whelping area for the puppies to explore. During this week we also move the puppies to a huge area we set up in our home. This area has a sleeping spot, playing spot, and a potty spot. Yes, we litter train our dogs. This helps them to learn there is a proper place to do their business, so they are house broken much faster. During the next couple of weeks we begin adding more experiences for the puppy to build those brains. We add new textures for them to explore and we make positive connections to different “scary” things. We eat meals in a crate to learn to love the crate. We eat meals in the bathtub to love taking baths. We eat meals in the car to know the car is a great place to be. We also will begin car rides to get comfortable with the movement and seeing things go by fast in the windows. We don’t ever force a puppy to experience a new thing like a new texture, toy to climb on, or even playing in the sprinkler. We allow the puppy to explore at their own pace. This allows them to make these all positive experiences. We also are constantly playing random sounds around the house. (The house is already noisy with 3 children being homeschooled and playing the piano.) We play sounds of babies crying, fireworks being shot, doorbells, etc. These are all things that could upset a puppy in a new home and we want our puppies to be prepared for anything they encounter.