About our Program
Raising our Pups
Our passion is to produce the best puppies possible! To accomplish this we focus on health, nutrition, and socialization. It is very important to us that the parents are the perfect fit for our family and our program. We take a lot of time and research before they come to join the family and once they are here they are our babies! For our full information on this see "Health and Conformation".
All of our moms have access to Purina ProPlan food and fresh water all the time. Once a day we give them homemade food configured just for their needs and prenatal vitamins for the duration of the pregnancy and nursing. We make sure to keep their teeth cleaned and coat well taken care of (sometimes using Shapley’s Original M-T-G Oil for their coat after the puppies come)
When it's time for the puppies to come we make sure to help mom through the whole whelping process. Having our whelping kit ready and available for us to aid mom and puppies when needed.
Once the puppies are here we do a full exam, help clean them up, weigh them, and make sure they get precious time nursing with mom. The puppies and mom go to see our vet at 6/7 weeks old (first shots/exam), and 9 weeks old (second round of shots/exam) if they are still with us. They get wormed every 2 weeks. We introduce them to softer puppy food around 6 weeks old and we make sure they still have time nursing with mom till around 7/8 weeks of age. The soonest they can go to their new homes is 8 weeks of age.
Between the ages of 0-4 months it's the most impressionable time for the puppies. Everything they are introduced to in this time will teach them what is safe and good. Cavaliers are naturally sweet and good with everyone. Yet, we have seen some cavaliers that don't know how to handle some of life's situations because no one took the time to work with them early on. Because of this we strongly believe in Early Neurological Stimulation or ENS (https://breedingbetterdogs.com/article/early-neurological-stimulation). Every day we do a health check, weigh them, have cuddle time, and do the ENS process. We are a pet and kid friendly home. We take them on car rides, meet new friends, and expose them to new sounds/smells often. We also introduce them to litter box training around 5 weeks of age. All of this in efforts to send home a very healthy and well socialized puppy!
Health and Conformation
Heath and Conformation is essential for a good breeding program. This is our process:
First, we check all pedigrees thoroughly. Looking at past OFAs, healthy lines, proven champions, and compatible mates.
Second, we do a full panel DNA test (through Embark) on all of our adults to check for any genetic diseases. We choose our pairings after these results. (Just to give a short explanation, you need 2 copies of the disease gene to run the chance of the puppy getting sick or being effected.
A dog can either be
A= clear,
B= single carrier (1 copy of the gene), or
C= at risk/effected (2 copies of the gene).
Parents can only give 1 copy of each gene to their offspring. By knowing all this information we can safely figure out how to pair our adults and make healthy adorable puppies for you! If you would like to talk about this more just send me a message! There is also more information about this under our blog section.
A puppy that is clear or a carrier will make anyone a great pet! A puppy that is at risk/effected can eventually get sick. This can be very heart breaking and costly for the new family, so we avoid this at all cost. The most common 4 genetic diseases for Cavaliers is Dry Eye/Curly Coat (DE/CC), Episodic Falling Syndrome (EFS), Muscualr Dystrophy (MD), and Degenerative Myelopahty (DM).
Third, all of our adults have their own OFA's and evaluations done. We get yearly heart checks as a precaution. Heart murmurs can be a problem for cavaliers so prevention is very important!
Finally, we check the conformation of all of our adults. We breed as closely to the original confirmation as possible. We look for a good over all shape and size in our adults. Believe it or not, the way your cavalier looks can tell us a lot about the health of the dog.
There is no way to make everything perfect, and life does happen. So we do our best to give them the best start in life! We give a year health guarantee against any deaths caused by genetic issues to back this up. Our goal is to send the best possible puppy home! One that can come and be a great part of the family for a long time!
Announcement for 2024
We do not have any puppies available at this time.
Please contact us for more information. I respond faster to text or emails.
Updated 6/30/2024