How We Raise Puppies

Boardwalk does NOT take raising a litter of puppies lightly.  From choosing quality parents with proper structure that conform to the breed standard, health testing those parents for genetic diseases, and being active with obedience at our local training club and conformation showing with our parent dogs, we strive to have a great foundation for producing healthy puppies.

 

As much effort as we put into our parent dogs, this is just the beginning of raising a quality litter of puppies the best way possible.  Please look at the topics below for more information on how we raise our puppies.

 

 

 

Properly socializing a puppy within the first few weeks of their life is so very important.  While we have to be careful to protect against parvo or other harmful things to young unvaccinated puppies, we also feel that getting these puppies out and about as much as possible is extremely important to their mental stability.  Each of our puppies is handled from the first week to the last week they are with us.  I groom my dogs in the presence of the pups from week 1 so they here the blower, clipper from early on.  Once they get on their feet, they are up on the grooming table for a gentle introduction to what will be a major part of their lives.  Our puppies are visited by friends and puppy homes so they are used to lots of different sounds and smells.  Our puppies take turns going with us and their mom on car rides on a regular basis once they are old enough to enjoy the ride or at least learn from it. 

 

 

While socialization makes a huge difference in the type of dog that develops, temperaments in a litter can often be very different.  We use outsiders to temperament test our puppies using a tried and true temperament test.  Using this test and our knowledge of the pups from birth, we are able to make educated decisions on what puppy should work best with what family.  This is primarily why we choose pups' homes rather than just letting new owners pick on first come first served basis. 

 

We do various tests on our parent dogs and provide copies of testing to potential puppy owners.  Just contact us to receive copies of testing results.

 

Finding an excellent home for each of our puppies is vital to our breeding program.  Without great homes that will provide our puppies with proper nutrition, love, grooming, etc, then all our work is for nothing.  We are careful to select homes for our puppies, but we do this for the sake of the puppy and the potential home.  We also welcome an interview from potential buyers as this shows they are dedicated to finding a good breeder.  We will ALWAYS take any puppy that we have bred back at any point in his/her life.  In fact, this is a stipulation in our contract between breeder/buyer.