For the well-being of our puppies and their mothers, we have a few visitation restrictions.
Puppy Visitation With Puppies Under 2 Weeks of Age
First of all, we don’t allow any visitors while we have mothers in whelp or any puppies in our home under two weeks of age. At this age, our mothers are with their puppies 24/7 except for short potty breaks. Also, we are exhausted from round the clock care.
Puppy Visitation With Puppies Under 5 Weeks 2 Days of Age
Families may come visit us and our moms and dads once all puppies in our home are over 2 weeks. However, we don’t allow visitors (other than employees and friends and family) with the puppies themselves until they are over 5 weeks 2 days of age.
Puppy Visitation With Puppies Over 5 Weeks 2 Days
After puppies are 5 weeks 2 days of age, puppy owners may come multiple times if they like. In fact, we would love multiple visits from puppy owners after 5 weeks 2 days. We also invite friends and extended family to socialize our puppies. Opportunities for our puppies to have socialization beyond our own family is important.
Our puppies are visited with frequently by friends, family, and employees from the start. However, with these people there are a lot of controls in place such as no grabbing, letting puppies sleep when they are sleepy, and having an understanding of what stresses young puppies too much and what does not. You’d be surprised at the number of people who cannot ascertain when a puppy needs to be left alone. We’ve had guests who’d pick very young puppies up and down over and over far beyond when a puppy was ready to go to sleep (and young puppies need a LOT of sleep). In addition, children are often far too rough with very young puppies.
By 5 weeks, puppies are ready to be acclimated to all types of people. However, we ask families to wait two more days. At 5 weeks 2 days, puppies are finished with another stressful time: doggy door training. Doggy door training goes from 4 weeks 5 days to 5 weeks 2 days.
Puppy Visitation If You’re Coming For Puppy Selection
If you are wanting to visit us for the purpose of picking out your puppy, we strongly suggest coming when puppies are at least 6 weeks of age. Prior to 6 weeks, puppies are still changing dramatically. If you come too early, you very likely will get wrong impressions of some of the puppies. Read our page on How Our Puppies are Matched to Families for more information.
People sometimes ask to drop in and see our dogs. We love visiting with people. However, in order to protect our family time, we’ve decided to only invite those who have taken the first steps toward reserving a puppy from us and been approved.
