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:
We are on a six month breeding cycle. We breed in the Spring for Summer puppies and then again in the Fall for Winter puppies. Once the Summer puppies are born, usually within a week we will begin calling everyone we have gathered on our waiting list to begin filling all the slots for the litters we are planning in the Winter. Likewise, once the Winter puppies are born, we then call everyone on our waiting list at that time to begin filling the summer litter slots. People can call at any time to be added to either waiting list at no cost. Once we call you, 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. We take eight deposits on each litter. The higher you are on the waiting list, the sooner you will be contacted with litter availabilities and the better the pick of the litter you will have. 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.
Beginning with our Summer, 2017 litters our plan is to make our Summer round of litters available to our client base in New England, New York and New Jersey, and our Winter round of litters available to our client base in Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia.
We do not decide when any of our female dogs goes into her heat cycle – they do. Usually the lead female is followed closely by the other females. Once a dam goes into heat, she is fertile for 10-15 days.
From the date of the first breeding to the expected delivery date is nine weeks, but the delivery could take place 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.
Beginning in Summer 2017, when the puppies are five weeks old we will 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.
