Last Updated: 10/17/16

Mercy and Rocky had 8 beautiful puppies!!!! They were born August 15th, 2016.  Mama is doing great and is being very attentive to her little ones. We are so in love already…

What do their first few days look like?

The first 36-48 hours are critical when working with puppies.  With the competition they deal with nursing alongside their brothers and sisters, not everyone gets their fill.  Jake and I check on them constantly to check their hydration levels and make sure they are latching.  If they don’t seem to be getting their fair share of mama’s milk, we supplement a feeding with goats milk.  In the first couple of days we also give them color collars and weigh them so all of us can keep track of their progress.  We give them lots of love and monitor their body temperature with lots of snuggles.

In their first few days they have not opened their eyes yet and can’t walk.  They crawl around quite impressively, however, and can get to mama’s milk.  They also don’t bark or cry yet and instead make a sweet chirping noise. All of their time is spend eating or sleeping with Mercy.  We take Mercy for short walks but she is always pulling us back to her babies in no time.  She is such a good mama!

Here are individual photos of each of them from their first day!

We are over the moon with these cuties!!!  I know it may seem crazy to think about having to choose just one but don’t worry…we’ll get there later! For now, just enjoy these little ones and soak up their adorableness!

“Is there anything I can do now?!”

Yes! This is a great time to start getting things ready for your puppy.  If it has been a while since you’ve had a puppy I recommend reading our check list about the basics you’ll need for your puppy: New Puppy Check List.

If you would like to look at additional resources, check out the resource page on our website.

8/19/16: The puppies are continuing to grow! Here they are nursing with Mercy and trying to stay cool in this hot weather! Normally, they are over a rug to help them stay warm but these past few days they have been on the hardwood to stay cool.

8/23/16: The puppies are now one full week old! They still have their eyes closed but are starting to move around a lot more. It was hard to get still pictures of most of them because they were moving so much! They are still spending all their time with Mercy and getting lots of sleep and eating.  They have grown so much!

Here are their individual pictures and weights this week:

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8/29/16: The puppies are now 2 weeks old!!

New this week: they have started to open their eyes and are getting a lot more mobile, though they aren’t walking quite yet.  We will also cut their nails so they are used to it. This makes grooming them when they are bigger much easier for you and the groomer. They continue to spend all their time sleeping and eating mama’s milk.  They no longer need to have goat milk supplementation as they are each big enough to get their share.

Here are this weeks individual photos and weights:

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Next week we will start the puppy match up process! Therefore, this week what I would like is for everyone to watch the videos and look at the pictures and pull out 3-4 of your favorite puppies.

Here is how it will go: Between now and then Jake and I will perform a temperament test on each of the puppies. Please read that blog post so you know what tests we are doing and you can think about the kind of temperament you are looking for in a puppy.

Keep in mind that with Golden Doodles there will not be any extremes and you are going to find more similarities between each of the puppies than differences.  In addition, your puppy’s personality will be a combination of it’s nature and your nurture.  So having a good training foundation is key.  You can read through our Biggest Mistakes Made When Housebreaking to help you avoid pitfalls.

After we have done the temperament test with each of the puppies, we will look through all the applications and pick our top 2-3 puppies for what you were looking for.  Then we call the first people on our list.  Together we talk about the puppies that stood out to them and the puppies that stood out to us for them.  After going over the test results and talking it through they will pick which one they want.  Once they are matched up, we will repeat the process with the second people on our list and so on until everyone is matched up.

Often people are concerned with getting matched up with the “right puppy.”  My advice is always to not worry about it! The process always feel very natural and organic.  And remember–they are all super cute and it is hard to go wrong! The only problem I run into is when people have their mind set on ONE puppy and that puppy gets chosen.  To avoid that, please keep an open mind and open heart to all of the puppies and narrow down your favorites to 3-4.

Here are videos of them playing outside! We took them out two at a time so you can get a good look at how adorable they are:

Here are individual pictures:

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9/26/16: Match up week has finally arrived!! I will be giving everyone a call this week when I am ready to match them up so be on the look out for my call! This process can take a while so please be patient if you don’t hear from me for a few days.  Also, please keep in mind there are other families waiting for their puppy match up after you! If you are not signed up for Puppy K this is the time to order your vitamins and food so it can be there when your puppy comes home!

Here are individuals of each of the puppies and their temperament test results. Please review the test in order to see what behaviors the puppies exhibited to earn the results they got.  Keep in mind, this is a guideline for you to use–not the final say on their personalities. As the shy personalities get comfortable/older you may see them not as shy.  The independent behaviors may also decrease as a puppy bonds with their family.  Basically, please see this as a helpful tool but do not put too much into it. We have spent the last 6 weeks with them and can tell you they are all sweethearts! We would love to keep any (or all–hehe!) of them!!

Black

1. stroke-shy
2. cradle-shy/responsive
3. sound-independent
4. collar-shy
5. outside-responsive
6. food-responsive

Blue

1. stroke-responsive
2. cradle-shy/responsive
3. sound-independent/shy
4. collar-shy
5. outside-responsive
6. food-responsive

Red

1. stroke-responsive
2. cradle-responsive
3. sound-responsive
4. collar-shy
5. outside-shy/responsive
6. food-responsive

Pink

1. stroke-responsive
2. cradle-responsive
3. sound-responsive
4. collar-shy
5. outside-responsive
6. food-responsive

Yellow

1. stroke-shy
2. cradle-shy/responsive
3. sound-independent
4. collar-shy
5. outside-responsive
6. food-responsive

Green

1. stroke-responsive
2. cradle-independent/responsive
3. sound-responsive/shy
4. collar-responsive
5. outside-responsive
6. food-responsive

Gold

1. stroke-responsive
2. cradle-responsive
3. sound-shy/responsive
4. collar-responsive
5. outside-responsive
6. food-responsive

Purple

1. stroke-shy
2. cradle-responsive
3. sound-independent
4. collar-shy
5. outside-shy/responsive
6. food-responsive

Also happening this week–they are getting their first round of shots! Their second round will need to be set up with your vet.  They need to happen between 10-12 weeks old.  If you are going to a smaller operation or a busy one you can schedule that appointment now.  *Important–your puppy should not be out in public until they get their second round of shots!! I know you will want to show them off so I always aim for the 10 week mark!

Talk to you soon!

10/10/16: I was so happy with how the puppy matchup process went! It was so nice getting to meet some of the families yesterday! Pick-up day is always bitter sweet for us.  I love getting to meet the families and see them with their new puppy.  But, it sure is hard to let them go! We are excited for this next week of puppy k–we will communicate via e-mail!

To all our puppy families, thank you for sharing in this journey with us!

We wish you all the best!

Sincerely,

Jake, Allie and Wyatt

P.S. Here are some of our favorite pictures from Puppy K!