Things to know
Finding the right puppy for your family can be a bit of work. To make things nice and easy, we want you to be clear on what you can expect from us. Please take the time to read through this page and get to know what all goes into being a Golden State Doodle puppy.
Pricing & Payment
$3,000+tax
If you are interested in one of our upcoming litters we ask that you fill out an application. As much as we would love to give everyone a puppy, we only have so many each litter. We will look through the applications to choose the best families for our puppies. Once a pregnancy is confirmed, we will choose 5 families from the applications to place a $500 deposit on a puppy (most of our litters have 5+ puppies. Additional deposits will be accepted after puppies are delivered). The remaining payment is due on puppy-go-home-day. We accept Zelle, Paypal, and Venmo.
Each week we will post videos and pictures on Instagram so families can see the puppies interact, play, and grow. At 6 weeks old we will have puppy-pick-out-day. This is when we allow families to come to our home to choose their puppy. If you can not meet us in person, we can do FaceTime, but we highly recommend meeting the puppies face to face. Finally, at 8 weeks, puppies are ready to go to their new homes!
Mother Nature is in charge of all of our planned breedings. As a result, sometimes the timing of a heat cycle or expected litter doesn’t always work out exactly as planned. Golden State Doodles reserves the right to use a different stud than originally planned to improve the quality of a litter. It may even be necessary at times to replace an upcoming litter with an entirely different pairing due to Mother Nature in regards to timing. In the event we replace a stud or a future pairing, we will make every effort to ensure the same colors and sizes expected for the litter, however, this may not always be possible. We accept 5 families per litter and reserve the first right to retain breeding quality puppies for our breeding program from any of our planned litters. All of our puppies are $3,000+tax.
What’s Included
A two-year genetic health guarantee.
All vaccinations up to date. They receive their first round at 7 weeks, second at 10 weeks, third at 13 weeks, and sometimes fourth at 16 weeks depending on what your veterinarian recommends.
De-wormed at least 4 times.
A puppy starter package. This includes a bag of our preferred food, a mama/litter-scented blanket, a couple of toys, treats, and a copy of the contract and puppy info.
Puppies will be started on basic potty training and crate training.
Health Testing
Our parent dogs receive extensive genetic and OFA testing as well as coat and color testing. Puppies will be examined by our vet prior to going home and families will receive certification that they are healthy and free from any evidence of infectious disease or abnormalities. Puppies will be up to date on vaccinations and treatment for internal parasites and they come with a written two-year health guarantee.
Adult Weight
We do our best to estimate size, but genetics affects size in ways that are not in our control. Our puppies sometimes end up smaller or bigger than the estimated range.
Puppy Culture
At Golden State Doodles, we incorporate the Puppy Culture Program. We believe this program helps produce healthier, easier to train, and well adjusted dogs. Below is a description of Puppy Culture.
What is Puppy Culture?
Puppy Culture is a program developed by Jane Killion, a professional dog trainer and breeder. It is a comprehensive, organized program for breeders to follow during the first weeks of a puppy’s life.
The first 12 weeks of a puppy’s life are incredibly important. This is an almost magical time when a breeder has the power to change the outcome of a puppy’s life by what we choose to teach him. By doing just the right things at just the right time, we can give your puppy the best start possible.
Prenatal Period:
Making sure that your puppy’s genetic material is excellent is only the beginning. The physical and emotional health of the mother will affect the health of her puppies. Since research has shown that puppies born to mothers that receive prenatal massage are more docile and enjoy being touched, we spoil our mothers with lots of affection and belly massages. A puppy’s predisposition to form deep and meaningful relationships begins even before they are born.
Neonatal Period: 0-14 days
Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) begins on day 3 and continues through day 16. Research shows that tiny struggles and stresses in appropriate small doses are actually good for puppies and will help them grow into strong, healthy well-adjusted adults. Benefits include greater tolerance to stress, greater resistance to disease, faster adrenal system, stronger heart rate and stronger heartbeat. This is a gift that a breeder can only give their puppies once during the window of 3-16 days.
Transitional Period: 14-21 days
Behavioral markers are used to identify the beginning and end of each developmental period because every puppy is different and these timelines are simply guidelines. The transitional period begins when the puppy’s eyes open and ends when they first startle upon hearing sounds.
Critical Socialization Period: 3-12 weeks
Most people think of socialization as exposing their puppies to as many new experiences as possible while the puppy is young. While this is part of the process, it’s not enough. Our goal is to raise dogs that have the emotional intelligence to connect with you. Emotional intelligence can be taught to young puppies and one of the goals of the Puppy Culture Program is to teach breeders how to do this. There are 7 key things that will nurture the emotional intelligence of a puppy.
Communication – giving a puppy his own voice (Communication Trinity – (power up the clicker, box game, manding), attention/distraction protocols)
Emotional stability – the ability to recover easily from fear as well as stress (startle recovery, barrier challenges, Volhard Aptitude Test at day 49))
Habituation – familiarity with the maximum number of things (Puppy Parties, sound protocols, habituation soundtracks and noises, meeting different people, dogs, other animals)
Enrichment – the view that novelty and challenges are opportunities for enrichment rather than things to be feared or avoided (novelty items, Adventure Box, off-premises socialization)
Health – physical wellness and motor skills that will allow the puppy to develop in a neurologically and physically sound way (daily weight checks, grooming, vaccinations, deworming, proper nutrition, vet health checks)
Skills – learned behaviors that allow him to function in human society (recall, manding, simple commands, litterbox training, crate training, leash walking, resource guarding, bite inhibition)
Love – the desire to seek out the company of both dogs and humans as emotionally positive experiences (shaping emotional responses, Happy and Calm CER (Conditioned Emotional Responses), daily cuddles with humans and mom).
Weeks 10-12: Per Puppy Culture protocol, puppies go home with their families. This gives them two weeks in that critical socialization period to adjust to their new family’s lifestyle and be introduced to new people and experiences.
This is definitely an incredible amount of work, but it is 100% worth it! When you adopt your puppy, you will be just as thankful as we are for this program!
Think you’re ready to get on the waitlist for one of our upcoming litters?
It may be time to fill out our puppy application: