Litters
"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face." Ben Williams
No litter plans at present and for the foreseeable future.
HAVE YOU REALLY THOUGHT ABOUT THE COMMITMENT OF OWNING A DOG? Please see Owning a Golden Retriever and think carefully before making coming to a decision.
When planing a litter we look for temperament, type and ability. We only breed from parents who have clear eye certificates and good hip scores.
We do not do brother to sister, mother to son, father to daughter or grandparent to grandchild matings.
We try our best to breed sound and healthy puppies, but it's impossible to guarantee that there won't be the occasional problem, just as in human babies. Cross-breeds do suffer from many health and temperament issues that can also be associated with some pedigree dogs. Generally with pedigree dogs, you know what you are going to get in regards to health and temperament.
Most Golden Retriever breeders have the recommended health tests conducted on their dogs before breeding which ensure only the best specimens are bred from, cross-breeds do not have such stringent testing.
But as with any living animal there is always a risk of some problem occurring at sometime in it's life time. The emphasis is not only on breeders to breed healthy specimens but on the puppy buyers to find reliable and honest breeders to buy puppies from. This does require puppy purchases to do their home work on the required health tests for their chosen breed. Like in any industry there is always the cowboys to avoid.
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From birth onwards..
During the time that the puppies are with us we socialise them and provide them with as much mental and physical stimulation as suitable to make them into confident and happy adult dogs. We only let puppies go to people who can give them excellent home, to do this we will keep puppies for as long as we have to until the perfect person comes along.
The puppies are raised in the centre of the home and accustomed to all household noises. Puppies are designated a large area of the house to use as their playpen. This contains a varied assortment of items which focus on stimulating a puppy to encourage mental development. These include items which have different textures and sounds. The playpen includes swings, see-sores and toys suspended from above. There are also toys with different textures and noises, ramps, tunnels, rugs, balls, bones, and boxes in the play area of the pen. The other part of the pen is divided between the sleep and toilet area, to aid in future toilet training. The puppies are raised within the family and spend many hours outside the playpen with the big dogs and the family in the house or garden.
We also encourage early socialisation by introducing the puppies to other breeds of dog, cars and even baths. We believe that it is important for a puppy to learn to communicate with dogs and humans successfully to live a happily co-existing life, therefore we spend many hours with the puppies handling and playing with them. The puppies have bi-weekly grooming sessions which include nail clipping and brushing. They are also occasionally isolated to prepare them for separation and being on their own.
Before the puppies leave us they will have been introduced to a lead and collar and we will have done our best to encourage good house training. They will also have begun learning a few basic commands and will have undergone a Puppy Aptitude Test to help evaluate each puppy's future personality.
When you take a puppy from us you must be prepared to sign a contract agreeing to the said things, so we know we have done our best to send the puppy to the best home possible.
The following pages are a guide to bringing up a puppy once they have left us.
Taking your puppy home for the first time
CURRENT LITTER
We have no litter plans in the next few years.
PREVIOUS LITTER
The Apple Litter
Feedback from the Apple litter owners:
Chilli is very loving and can take off face cream with two to three licks in the most affectionate manner.
(Lexi) is a delight to have as part of our family.
(Bailey) is loving his walks, although it takes an eternity to get anywhere because he attracts so much attention from his admirers! I think he might be the best known dog in the village at the moment.
Charlie is an absolute darling he has been so good and him and Toby get on great.
Murphy is an absolute delight.
Remus has adapted and settled wonderfully into home life with us, and is a joy!
Fergus is wonderful, cheeky, happy and confident- all that we'd hoped for!