FAQ

Please Read and Consider PRIOR to Considering a Puppy Reservation:

There is a common misconception that golden retrievers are perfect and require little training.  While we believe goldens are the perfect breed for individual companionship, families, therapy and service work,  this in no way suggests that golden pups don’t require a lot of work or will arrive “perfect”.  Training is an absolutely necessary part of integrating a puppy into your life and preventing problems.  Puppies have normal puppy behaviours that are far from perfect.  Early and consistent training prevents these normal puppy behaviours from becoming problematic.  Training a puppy is a long process and it’s impossible to implement a quick fix, unless you’re going to compromise your pup’s trust, temperament and emotional well being.  We want our puppies to join families who are invested in the long-haul, not wanting a quick fix when issues arise.  

We have developed a very comprehensive resource package for our reserved puppy families.  This digital package is provided as soon as a puppy is confirmed, so there is ample time to prepare for puppy’s homecoming and upbringing.   

Our enhanced imprinting program is fantastic and builds confident pups who are normalized with the world around them, and we set up each puppy family optimally.   However, this doesn’t mean you have less work to do, or that we’ve done the training in place of your work. Raising a puppy is hard work, it’s tiring, and completely time consuming. And creating your “perfect golden” involves more than accomplishing sleeping happily in the crate and peeing outside consistently.  You will want to create a puppy who doesn’t jump up people, doesn’t steal food off your counters, doesn’t nip when something is taken from them, doesn’t pull the leash when you walk,  doesn’t guard it’s food dish, tolerates children, people and other dogs of all ages, etc etc.  And this needs to start the day the puppy arrives home.  Your days and nights are going to change completely.  It gets easier as time goes on, but this is still a living being and not something you can take the batteries out of and turn off or put away when you want time to yourself.  

Some pups have easier personalities and intelligence, which makes training easier and more straightforward, but all of them require training and life-long consistency.  Sometimes normal puppy behaviour is difficult to fix, and you will need a different approach.  If/when this happens it might be necessary to step up your own knowledge or work with a trainer to help out.   Just like children, they all learn differently and it’s our jobs to work with them so they learn with strategies and a pace necessary for them.  On the topic of children … your puppy can never be left alone with a young child, EVER.  Puppies and children are unpredictable and move fast.  Please consider this if you have young children and ask yourself if you have the time to devote to constant supervision and positive attention to your very important children + a puppy in your life.  Raising a puppy is as much work, or harder than raising a toddler.  Do you have the time and patience and raise both at the same time?

The assessments we do while the puppies are with us tell us the puppy’s learning style and personality at the age of 7 weeks old. This enables us to give each family an accurate idea of how best to work with the puppy – like a blueprint or instruction manual – but not a decision on who is best for which family or what the puppy will develop into.  We use these assessments primarily to help choose the pups who will join service training programs, and each pet family has access to the puppy’s report cards. The intention is for our pet families to use the report cards for how best to work with their puppies, but these report cards are not a crystal ball to tell us who the pup will grow to be. Once pups leave our home, we no longer have daily physical influence on the pups and their lives are no longer in our control and therefore impossible to predict what your puppy will grow into. We give them an optimal beginning, but you are your puppy’s destiny.  

Are you REALLY ready for…

• frequent interruptions to your day (going outside for potty breaks every 10-15 mins when puppy is awake)
• constant supervision of the puppy during awake times
• some long/sleepless nights initially
• listening to crying/barking while puppy is crate training
• several short sessions of formal training EVERY day, plus being creative with implementing training into regular play and routines.
• willingness to take puppy for car rides when you’re going on short outings
• willingness to take puppy with you on weekend trips or a reliable person to puppy sit
• willingness to be ok with being “tied down” to a puppy
• lots of time to devote to puppy raising
• what are distractions in your home that will increase the stress of puppy training? (A few to consider are young children, home business, work at home)
• physical ability to get up and down ALOT, get down on floor to play, move quickly for potty breaks
• ability to get outside easily for potty breaks (ie. do you have other pets or young children who can’t be left alone inside, or do you live on the 10th floor of an apartment building)
• weather- are you ok with standing in the rain, dark, hot sun, snow, etc multiple times a day/night for potty time
• are you realistic that even if you have children/teenagers, chances are it’ll be the parents in the house doing the bulk of the work?
• do you have upcoming surgeries or procedures that could interfere with you being able to raise the puppy?
• willingness to play outdoors, no matter the weather
• willingness to go for daily walks and train, regardless of how busy/tired you are
• are there other pets in the home and is their temperament and behaviour conducive to a puppy?