There is something about the new life that draws people. We get many requests from families that want to come to visit our puppies, and that isn’t surprising. Who doesn’t want to touch and hold and smell a newborn puppy?

 

We understand this desire completely, but in the interest of the safety of our puppies, we have a visitation policy in place to protect the little lives that are in our care.

 

Our visiting policy allows families with a deposit to visit that particular litter once the puppies are 8 weeks and have had two sets of vaccines. We do not allow visits from those who are shopping around. 

 

Safety of the Puppies

1. Immature immune systems. Puppies are not protected against diseases that can be brought in by shoes or clothing. Many breeders have lost entire litters of puppies due to the disease being brought into the breeder’s home. You don’t have to touch a puppy to transfer disease to them. Your shoes and clothing can bring it in and leave it on the floor or furniture, only to be transferred to the paws of the mama dog, who then transfers it to her babies. The opportunity for young pups to pick up infectious diseases is increased with all new contacts. We have no idea how many other kennels, shelters, or rescues you have been to prior to coming to our home. Parvo kills whole litters within 48 hours. It is a very slow and painful death that we do not wish to risk.  

 

Dams are extremely protective of their babies.

2. When strangers enter the home, even if mama is in another part of the house, she hears their voices and kicks into a highly emotionally charged state. This stress causes her body to create cortisol, which enters her milk. When the puppies consume the milk the cortisol then causes them to become stressed as well. A stressed puppy is more likely to succumb to illness and fail to thrive.

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Stressed mother dogs will panic.

3. They jump up and away from their puppies to assess what they think is a threat, and many times unintentionally step on or crush a puppy. The mere sound of a stranger’s voice in another room will cause them to panic and can result in an injured puppy, or even death. Many dogs may not appreciate having people around their newborn puppies, but it's not the dog's fault.  Right before giving birth, progesterone levels suddenly drop, while at the same time the levels of prolactin rise. This hormonal change is responsible for stimulating nesting and protective maternal behaviors. Mothers are reluctant to leave the puppies to go eat, drink, and eliminate. This behavior makes perfect sense since newborn puppies are born deaf and blind and are completely vulnerable, helpless creatures. People visiting and crowding over mom and pups will invade the dog's need for space and privacy and only cause unnecessary stress during this delicate time. This is why we are sure to make the whelping area is quiet, secure, and free of human traffic. Stress can cause many issues for mothers caring for newborns. Even to the point of interfering with the mother dog's ability to produce milk for the puppies

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 The puppies are reserved by purchasing families.

4. Would you want to have a puppy reserved and know that a lot of other families were being allowed to come and hold or play with them and put them at risk? We’d like to raise and socialize our puppies in such a way that their risk of disease and/or injury/theft is as low as possible so that we can deliver healthy puppies to the families who are waiting for them.

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Schedules, Personal Safety

5. We have a normal life that includes jobs/business, children and their activities, home and property needs, church, and other responsibilities in addition to caring for our puppies and dogs. Our daily lives are very busy and accommodating the many requests we receive from strangers to come by and visit just isn’t possible. This is why visiting is reserved only for those who have deposits on a particular litter and only after puppies are 8 weeks of age and the risk of illness or injury greatly decreased.

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Because we are reputable breeders that prove our breeding stock most of our weekends are spent at dog events. Most dog events are from Fri-Sunday. The very few that we get at home if we do not have training drop-offs/pick-ups or puppies going home are spent as a family. During the week we are working as we train dogs full-time. 

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Unfortunately, we get a LOT of inquiries from people who have no real intention of ever purchasing a puppy, curiosity seekers, those just wanting a ‘puppy fix’, or those acting on impulse and it takes up a lot of our valuable time so we must streamline. Raising a litter is very time and energy consuming and we have to prioritize where we spend our time and efforts. We have also had "visitors" come back and steal from us. So we prefer to get to know who is coming to our home. 

 

 Inviting perfect strangers into our home is a risk.

6. We enjoy meeting the families who have reserved a puppy, once the puppies are old enough to safely be visited. It’s a totally different situation to receive an email from a random stranger who is passing through asking to come by and see our dogs. Not only is this a risk to personal safety, but it would also compromise our home environment, which we appreciate and love and want to protect. Our home is not a storefront open to strangers. It is a home, it is our safe place. We realize many families want reassurance that we are what we say we are. There are many ways for this to happen before you are able to come personally visit the litter you are receiving a puppy from. We have many references on our website & send out puppy videos/photos along with offering in-person pick-up for those actually buying a puppy. 

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Current dog meeting puppy

 

Our puppies are not an experiment to see if your current dog will be okay with a new puppy. It is a huge risk to the safety of moms and puppies. Our mother dogs do not want strange dogs meeting their babies. We do not allow any other dogs or animals on the premises. PLEASE leave your other animals at home, as they will not be allowed onto our property for a visit. Healthy and recently vaccinated dogs can still track in, shed and transmit disease to young puppies. If you’re unsure if your dog will like a new puppy, experiment well beforehand at a dog daycare facility or have a friend's dog visit your home WELL before you plan to bring in a new puppy. This is not something to wait and find out at the breeder’s house last minute.

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Meeting the breed

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Our job is breed preservation. It's not our job to determine if the breed is right for you. You know your lifestyle best and what you are looking for in a dog. Our dogs/home is not a place to determine if you like a breed. You should be doing thorough research well before you ever decide to meet a particular breed to bring one into your home. If you need to meet the breed attend a local dog event or ask if we will be at one. We do not have time to entertain your research on our time but would be happy to talk to you at an event while we are waiting around for our turn in a PUBLIC setting. 

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Hopefully, our policy is one you will view as being responsible and a reflection of being a quality breeder who cares about our puppies and our purchasing families.

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What you can do

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Visit our FB page and testimonials page and read over our website to get to know us better.

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Meet us at an upcoming event we may be attending with our dogs in a public setting.

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Policies

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Visits are done once puppies are 8 weeks of age and have had two sets of shots. 

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Visits are done only for those on our waitlist for the particular litter you are on for.

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Visits are limited to 1-hour between families to go over questions you may have.

 

Visits are scheduled by appointment only. 

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I ask that visitors do not visit us after visiting with another breeder, rescue, or shelter within 30 days prior.  No dog parks, vets, or pet stores within 10 days prior to your visit. 

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