Raising Puppies The North Georgia Golden Retriever Way

Our English Golden Retriever puppies are born in our home and we are there the entire time to support the mama. Puppies are well socialized with the sounds of everyday living, including active and boisterous children! They spend their days with the family. Whether it's on the kitchen floor or outside they are constantly exposed to a variety of textures (grass, concrete, tile), smells (cats, horses, goats, other dogs, and whatever's cooking in our ever kitchen), and of course touch with lots and lots of cuddling. Throughout their day, they are safely introduced to the outside world, playing and exploring, and most importantly, learning to trust the many hands who gently handle them.

A puppy’s greatest learning window is very short - from birth to 16 weeks – and we recognize the responsibility of exposing our puppies to the world so that they grow into confident, trusting intelligent and relaxed dogs. Our puppy rearing protocol is driven by intentionality: each week, we manipulate their environment and activities to correspond with their development at that time. Puppies develop at warp speed.

There is a balance between protecting puppies and exposing puppies, and we strive to achieve a perfect balance. There is the old adage that it takes a village to raise a child, and we believe the same is true of puppies. We are grateful for our family members who help us expose our puppies to a vast array of people. There are two ideal windows during which puppies should be held by a variety of people, and our house is busy during those two windows!

All of this takes lots of TIME. And it requires true "hand rearing"; that is, puppies are raised in our home. Not only does this allow the puppies to consider the sights and sounds of a family normal, but it enables us to have a constant evaluation of the puppies.