At Powderhill, we are constantly tweaking and evolving the process for planning, breeding, marketing and delivering puppies to our clientele. Here is our current process (Updated February 17, 2017):
We breed puppies throughout the year as our dams come into heat. People can call at any time to be added to any of the upcoming litters' waiting lists. If you wish to reserve a puppy from one of the available litters, you will need to send a deposit check for $500.. within a few days. The deposit is not refundable unless there is no puppy available, however the deposit can be used on any future litter. We take eight deposits on each litter. The first deposit received for a litter has first pick of the litter, the second deposit received gets the second pick, and so on. Note, Powderhill reserves the right to take the first female from any litter in order to continue our breeding operations. If there are not enough puppies in a litter to satisfy the eight people placing deposits, those not getting a puppy are offered their choice of moving up to the next round of litters with a better pick priority, or having their check returned.
Our dams usually become breedable on a six month heat cycle. We do not decide when any of our female dogs goes into their heat cycle – they do, but it's usually every six months. Many times the lead female is followed closely by one or more of the other females, but this is not always the case. The dam is bred 10-15 days after her heat cycle begins..
At Powderhill, both dams and sires are health tested before being added to our breeding program. PHG reserves the right to substitute a different sire if necessary to enhance the potential for a successful litter. From the date of the first tie with the sire to the expected delivery date is nine weeks, but the delivery could take place up to 4-5 days before or after that date.
Once delivered, we prepare the mother and her puppies for their first picture, usually within 2 days, and we post that picture to the home page of our web site: www.powderhillgoldens.com
After they are born we allow the puppies to bond with their mother for a period of three weeks. This allows the mother to concentrate solely on nurturing her pups. The mother is fed frequently and given plenty of quiet time with her babies.
At three weeks of age, we microchip and begin taking weekly pictures of each individual puppy. The microchip will stay with them for the rest of their lives; initially allowing us to assure each owner that they have the right puppy, and later helping those owners to find them if they are ever lost or stolen.
When the puppies are five weeks old we hold a Puppy Pick Saturday where the owners and their families can come to our locations to meet us, meet the litters and select their puppy. The owners of the first pick of the litter must come first, then the owners of the second pick, etc… It’s a great opportunity for pictures and a unique chance to treat your kids to one of life’s great pleasures. Each family is given thirty minutes to select their puppy.
Pictures continue each week reaching an apex on weeks six and seven when we do special pictorials, sometimes including video, that are centered around a specific theme like TV programs of the 80’s, Academy Award nominated films, the Super Bowl, the Olympics, etc…
On week eight, the puppies are ready to go home and each owner determines a specific time to pick up their puppy and take him/her home. Besides a food sample and a bag of pine shavings, we provide a binder that includes the Puppy’s initial health records, instructions for registering the microchip, our written guarantee, care and feeding instructions, a new collar and their choice of a toy.
