Puppy Pick Party!
The past couple months, we have been nurturing and raising twenty six puppies in our program! We had Belle’s litter of medium Bernedoodle puppies, Winnie’s litter of mini Goldendoodle puppies, and Klaire’s litter of mini Berendoodle puppies. It has been quite the adventure watching these fabulous puppies grow and blossom. This weekend was quite the milestone in these litters. We did puppy picks for Belle’s bernedoodle puppies and Winnie’s goldendoodle puppies. I keep saying this, but this is such a joy-filled time, when we get to share what we know about the puppies with their new families to help them make the best puppy pick possible for their family. While it can be a surprisingly full day - or weekend in this iteration - we leave with full hearts and a renewed love for this journey we’re on with Bernedoodle and Goldendoodle puppies!
The first day of puppy selection was for Winnie’s mini goldendoodle litter. While she had nine beautiful mini goldendoodle puppies, two of them already had homes. We are keeping Rabbit as a hopeful mini goldendoodle mama for our High Desert Family Doodle pack. Eeyore is also joining another program; he’ll be a stud for Wonderland Goldendoodles in Eugene; one of the other couple GANA breeders in Oregon. So we had seven different zoom calls on Sunday, working down Winnie’s mini Goldendoodle waitlist. Almost all of Winnie’s puppies are going to stay within Oregon, although one of them will be calling California home!
As we went from call to call, it was amazing to see how this mini Goldendoodle litter felt like a perfect fit for the people on the list. From first pick to last pick, it felt like everyone was able to get one of the puppies they felt drawn to! Many of them already had names picked out too! Some of the names are Carter, Auggie, Leila, Juno, and Cody! There was a couple point when I got teary-eyed as I saw the joy in the families for the mini Goldendoodle puppy they’d get to bring home shortly.
We saw much of the same today as we did Belle’s Bernedoodle litter selection! We were actually able to have the three top puppy picks done in person the day before, so we had the rest of the litter selection today. The process felt orchestrated, as people were able to select particular bernedoodle puppies that they thought surely wouldn’t be available by the time it was their pick.
One source of incredible joy was being part of a few parents surprising their kids with puppies on their puppy selection call! It was purely electric, and such a privilege to be part of such a special moment in a family! This is one of many times that reminds me of how special this work is, and such a beautiful blessing to be a part of it.
So as we get ready to send Winnie and Belle’s litter home over the next couple weeks, we are focusing our efforts on crate training/exposure, socialization, potty-training, and manding training. The past couple days have felt like a true inflection point in their training, as both the puppies are learning at light speed. We also have Klaire’s puppy selection coming up later this week, and those mini bernedoodle puppies will be going home shortly as well!
In short, it was such a fun weekend to be a part of so much happiness, frivolity, learning, and joy.
We’re excited to see what the road has in store!
Thank you for journeying with us,
Erin and Jay
