Our Practices & Program
We understand that health and temperament are of the utmost importance to potential families, and we want you to know that it is to us too! We want ensure our puppies go home having been given the best possible start to life.
In order to do so we provide them with the greatest environment while they are with us their first 8 weeks.
Every decision we make from the time we get our future breeders as puppies to when our own puppies go home, is given careful thought.
What else makes us unique?
-Starting at 17 days old, we begin exposing puppies to whelping box items. At 3 weeks old we begin sound exposure as well. Then as puppies grow, we move into daily curriculum and exposure of a variety of items (ie. textures, sounds, wobble/balance, crates, toys, stuffed animals, balls, stroller rides, car rides, doggy door exposure, overhead, and last week includes obstacle courses). In addition to all of the exposure, when puppies are around 52 days old, we do recorded temperament evaluations on every puppy (Pictures & link included at bottom of this page).
- We are a mother, daughter, grandchildren team. We all share a love of dogs and we each have a part in raising our sweet babies.
-We do not do puppy picks based on color or gender (more information below).
-While we do ask for your preferences in our application process, we encourage all of our clients to keep an open to get the most out of the process.
-We really do believe that temperament is so important,
and that color & gender preferences are a bonus if the personality is a good fit.
You can see our current breeding dogs on the Future Litters page.
Health & Wellness and the Best Start to Life
Prior to giving birth, all moms are supported with great diet and supplements to keep them as healthy as possible as they prepare for birth. All of our dogs/puppies are on Life's Abundance dog food, Nuvet daily vitamin, and our mommas receive additional supplements during heat cycles & pregnancy.
Once babies are born, each puppy and momma are cared for around the clock. Babies are weighed each day for the first two weeks and we keep a close monitor to make sure they are doing well. Mom is given all the proper nutrition needed to support her growing puppies.
Prior to puppies going home, all puppies are seen by a vet for a wellness exam, given vaccinations, and microchipped.
Health Testing
All of our breeding dogs go through temperament & health testing in order to be a part of our program. We use a variety of health tests to ensure our breeding dogs meet our standards. Embark genetics, OFA (hips, elbows, heart, and eyes) & PennHip are all health tests that we use for our dogs. PennHip is another form of testing specifically for hips. In some breeds or sizes we may determine that we need to add additional health testing (patellas, thyroid, etc). We always follow the breed and size related guidelines.
Emma has: Clear Embark genetics, Pass PennHIP hips (better than breed average), Pass OFA Elbows, Pass OFA heart, & Pass OFA eyes.
Phoebe has: Clear Embark genetics, Pass PennHIP hips (better than breed average), Pass OFA Elbows, Pass OFA heart, & Pass OFA eyes.
Joey: Clear Embark genetics (1 copy DM), Good OFA hips, Pass OFA elbows, & Pass OFA heart, & Pass OFA eyes, thyroid checked.
Chandler has: Clear Embark genetics, Pass PennHIP hips (better than breed average), Pass OFA elbows, Pass OFA heart, & Pass OFA eyes.
Monica Zeppelin has: Clear Embark genetics, Pass OFA heart, & Pass OFA eyes. We are waiting results for PennHIP hips (better than breed average) & OFA elbows. We should have results by Mid-end June 2022.
Gunther has: Embark clear, Pass PennHIP hips (better than breed average), Pass OFA elbows, Pass OFA heart & eyes.
Emily has: Embark clear, Pass PennHIP (better than breed average), Pass OFA elbows, & Pass OFA eyes and heart.
Ross Winslow: Pending Health Testing
Janice Piper: Pending Health Testing
Charlie: Pending Health Testing
Health Warranty/Guarantee
All puppies go home with a 2 year genetic & congenital health guarantee.
The details of this health guarantee can be found on our "Applications, Contract, & Pricing" page.
BAB (Badass Breeder) Certified Comprehensive Breeder
What does this mean?
- This means we have gone through an extensive application process & met all requirements to be a Certified Comprehensive Badass Breeder. We have shown we are committed to our program and demonstrated knowledge and implementation of the Badass Program as well as the Badass Breeder Temperament Evaluation process.
- We honor the BAB Oath.
- Health is a priority to us so we have high standards of care and priority for health testing for all of our dogs.
- We honor our puppies by giving them a voice. This is why we do temperament evaluations and why no puppy is ever selected prior to temperament evaluations. Even when we keep on of our own puppies for our program, we wait until temperament evaluations are complete to select our puppy.
- Educating our clients and community about what we do.
Below are some examples of our curriculum & the link will include a video to one of our temperament evaluations. https://youtu.be/eeK5kefecWc?feature=shared
