Our Values
We are committed to saving one shelter dog for every pup we breed and sell.
Some dogs need more help than others to meet their challenges. We love to offer foster support for litters that would otherwise tax the shelter’s resources, training for traumatized dogs to prepare them for a forever home, and sponsorship for dogs going through life saving heartworm treatment. For more information, see our Shelter Support pages.
We are committed to pampering our moms and dads.
Each mom and dad is a family dog…or rather, a family member. While Roxy belongs to us personally, all other moms belong to guardian homes where they can receive the individual love, connection and care all dogs deserve. All guardian homes are carefully screened to ensure that these needs can be met in a safe and loving environment. All moms are limited to three litters unless the vet determines that less or even none is more suitable.
All guardian dogs visit us regularly to maintain a trusting and loving relationship with us so that their stay with us during whelping and weaning is a positive experience for them. While in our care, the moms receive all the attention and care that Roxy and her sister Elliot receive on a daily basis: routine vet visits and grooming, healthy foods, a clean environment, pets and massages, hikes, sniff walks, play time at home, in our back yard, at our favorite nearby field and occasionally pool time, socializing, brain stimulating activities, and lots of snuggles. All communication from us is through positive reinforcement. While our hearts have been taken over by Roxy and Elliot, as far as we’re concerned, any dog under our roof is treated as our family member.
And all of our dads belong to other families that share our values, such as papa Chuck Norris from CC Family Doodles.
We are committed to healthy breeding standards for the health and wellbeing of our dogs and pups.
To help reduce the prevalence of early onset arthritis, hip dysplasia and other hereditary diseases, all of our dams are tested for PennHip as well as genetic testing and compatibility with sires. We do not condone line breeding. All of our participating dogs and pups are loved and cared for following the strict principles as outlined below. Our goal is that our moms, dads, pups, guardian families and adopting families have a positive, enriching experience.
We are committed to the health of our dogs, both adult & pup.
All of foods and shampoos are vet approved for both moms and pups. All cleaning products for the puppy spaces, equipment, linens, toys and accessories are hypoallergenic and meet animal safety standards. Each dog and puppy is groomed regularly, including nails and ears and ach puppy space is cleaned at least daily. All puppy linens are changed once daily when newborns to umpteen million times as they get older (basically, our washer and dryer are always happily humming).
Each dog and pup in our care follows vet prescribed schedules for check-ups, vaccines, deworming and testing. And if anything seems awry, we are quick to consult with our vet for our belief is it’s always better to be safe than sorry. We conduct daily weigh-ins for our pups from birth to adoption, and for our moms throughout their nursing experience. We take temperatures twice daily of all pups to make sure that their core body temperature is healthy, and we take the mom’s temperature daily for the first few weeks after birth to be on the look out for infection. All nursing moms are checked daily for mastitis.
We are committed to raising confident pups that trust the world around them, the people and dogs they meet, and their own abilities.
We provide age appropriate training daily, no exceptions, and this training changes shape as the pups grow. During their early days, we focus on ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation) to help them adjust to different environmental inputs and spatial positioning, handling them frequently but always alert to their comfort level, and trimming their nails from day 3. By the time they’re two weeks, their world is expanding as their eyes and ears open, and they become more mobile. At this stage we begin introducing basic commands, new people and different substrates, sounds, toys, spaces, water play and puppy mush. Starting at three weeks, we are exploring the outdoors, meeting safe dogs, riding in the car, learning clicker work, and entering Puppy Kindergarten. This is a favorite of ours! It’s a space separate from their whelping bed where they are encouraged to climb, explore and investigate, and where new items are first introduced, such as training crates, climbing structures, tunnel and new toys. This space continues to grow in size and maturity as they do. For more information on our training program, see How Our Pups Are Raised, and Parents Treated.
And most importantly, we love on these little guys both as a litter and to each pup individually the entire time that they’re in our care. Again, while they live here, they are seen as our own family members and they’re treated as such.