Ethically and Responsibly Bred, Health Tested Golden Retrievers for ALL
Est 2019 - Boise, Idaho
Our Puppies Come with Training!
We keep our puppies until 10 weeks of age in order to work on early training, exposure to new environments, people, adult dogs, and most importantly: SOCIALIZATION
Keeping pups for an extra two week is TONS of work but SO worth it!
This allows us to really pour our energy and experience raising puppies into the pups we breed. The first three months of a puppies life is CRUCIAL! This is called the socialization window, in the first 12 weeks of life puppies brains are rapidly growing and soaking up as much information as possible. The way they perceive the world around them in shaped and solidified within these 12 weeks!
What is Socialization?
Many people seem to think that the term Socialization means to introduce puppies to as many new people and dogs as possible! This is WRONG!
Socialization really means neutrality, more than introducing your puppy to new people and other dogs, it's more about exposure to new environments, places, sounds, textures, experiences, and lastly new people and other dogs.
The Basics of Socialization
Below is a summarization of the article, "The Basics of Socialization," published by Purdue University written by Candace Croney, Andy Pietraniec and Traci Shreyer
"Socialization is the process of introducing and adjusting a dog or puppy to its surroundings in a safe and gentle manner. Low-stress, short, gradual exposures is the recommended way to socialize a dog or puppy. When socializing, the experience must be positive – neutral is not good enough! Some things that dogs need to be socialized to are noises, textures, animals including dogs, objects, experiences, and people. The optimal time to socialize a dog is as a puppy. During this sensitive period their brain is primed and ready to learn what is safe and what is unsafe rapidly and with long lasting effects. The time period of 3-12 weeks of age for a dog is known as the socialization phase. Primary socialization takes place between 3-5 weeks and it is the most influential stage in a puppy’s life relative to social behavior patterns and learning. At this age, puppies show a willingness to approach and interact with people, which should be rewarded, to help prevent fearfulness of humans as the puppy grows up. At this stage puppies also learn many important behaviors from littermates and the dam, such as social cues, fear learning, bite inhibition, social hierarchies, and urination/defecation preferences. Puppies that are removed from their litters before 8 weeks of age may show deficits in these important areas."
Pre-Trained Puppies!
By keeping puppies until 10 weeks of age, rather than 8, we are able to give them a solid head start on both socialization and training!
Early Socialization:
We do our best to set our pups up for success! Starting at 6 weeks, we take the entire litter of pups on socialization trips to new environments at least once a week! From new houses filled with new people, smells, sights and sounds, to public places such as parks, large stores, and outdoor settings. Safety if our biggest concern when taking puppies out and about! They only travel to the homes of trusted family members who prepared clean and sanitized areas for puppies to explore. They are introduced to our adult mature dogs who help teach their manners and proper dog to dog socialization. When we take them out in public they are always secured in a crate and are NEVER allowed to touch the ground or interact with strange dogs or humans. The entire point of taking them to new environments is to allow them to observe their surrounds from a calm and neutral state in order to create positive associations with new places. Public trips look like a stroller/ crated cart ride through a busy park or a large noisy department store like Lowes or Home Depot. And bonus, they also get to experience plenty of crated car rides!
Early Training:
We also work on early basic training during the extra time they spend with us! In addition to exposure of new places, we introduce early commands and concepts such as :
Sit
Down
Recall Noise/ Command
Potty Training
Dog Door Use
Manding: sitting when they want something rather than jumping or vocalizing
Leash Walking utilizing leash pressure and Heel position
Crate Training: the goal is to have all puppies sleeping in individual crates through the night by the time they leave us.
Although their success when they go to their new homes is dependent upon your effort to continue and reinforce the training we have begun, we will effectively provide a solid head start to your new puppy!
In addition to the early basic training we provide for all of our puppies, we also offer three different additional board and train options for your puppy with us as well as with a trusted professional trainer who can provide one on one training and more in-depth socialization for your puppy.