Want to know how to choose your Golden Cavalier puppy? We’re glad you asked and thought it might be time for a review of our reservation process and puppy timeline.

Choose your Golden Cavalier puppy day is eagerly anticipated, and usually happens the Saturday after the pups are eight weeks old. Our aim is to ensure that every pup born and available has a forever home. How do we do this? By creating a reservation list.

The Reservation List. What is it?

If you reserve a table at a restaurant, you are reserving the opportunity to have a table available when you arrive. Our reservation list works the same way.

It’s important to know that there are families already on the reservation lists who will choose their puppy by order of deposit. Our goal was to make it so that on Choose Your Puppy day, every pup will find his or her forever family.

The Reserve a Puppy Process Part I

Steps one through three are the key steps to reserve a space on a litter list. By completing these three steps, you are officially on a litter list. What are the first three steps?

1. Interview form; 2) buyer’s agreement; and 3) submit your deposit to reserve your space on an litter list to choose your puppy when the time comes. Please note, that deposits are transferable between litters.

   Special note: You don’t have to wait till step four to choose your litter, if you already have an idea. Just be sure to either let us know in the comments section of the interview form, the buyer’s agreement, or in an email.

The Reserve a Puppy Process Part II

The second half of the Reserve Your Puppy process is a bit more related to what happens once the pups are born. These are steps 5 – 8. In step 5, you can choose to add our ‘4-Week Foundational Training’ program, puppy accessories like collars, leashes, and after bath spray, a Snuggle Puppy (TM), or a soft-sided travel carrier for airline travel.

In Step 6, your puppy balance is generally due 2 weeks before puppy go home date. However, we can make other arrangements, if needed. Just ask, and we’ll do our best to accommodate. We have spent years accepting checks, cash, PayPal, or Venmo, and are currently adding a credit card option.

In Step 7, you have the option to choose to pick up from the farm, meet the families behind Golden Cavaliers, or to have your pup delivered to your door by one of our trusted third-party transport options.

Puppy Timeline

Between the steps listed in the Reserve Your Puppy Process, puppies are born or mother dogs (dams) go into heat.

Here’s what you can expect once you’ve reserved your space to choose a puppy.

PupNouncement.
When puppies are born, we send an email to everyone on the reservation list. The information includes the parents names, the date of birth of the puppies, how many puppies in the litter, how many females and how many males, and what to expect in the coming weeks.

Puppies First 3 Weeks

When the puppies are one week old, families on our reservation list are sent pictures of the entire litter together; boys on one side, girls on the other.
Pups don’t change too much in the first few weeks, so we often skip pictures in week 2, and send between weeks 2 and 4, a Getting Ready for Your Puppy email, to help you prepare for Week 8 and your pup’s gotcha day
It’s highly likely that the litter picture of Week 3 will look like Week 1 because the only major change in a pup’s first weeks of life is that their eyes open.

What Happens in Weeks 4 – 6

Week 4– Puppies are microchipped and named, and will be identifiable in their color-coded collars. This week you’ll begin getting individual pictures of each pup and your first videos. Pups are moving a bit more. If you have opted for a girl, you’ll receive pictures of just the girls, and a video of just the girls. Same again, if you have opted for a boy.
Week 5 – There will likely not be pictures or videos this week, though from time to time, we have been known to send surprise pictures and videos. This is a good time to schedule your Puppy Prep Session mentioned in your Getting Ready for Your Puppy email.
Week 6 – Personalities begin to show in week 6, and we do our best to offer broad strokes notes of what we’re seeing. You’ll also receive individual pictures and videos this week. Balances are due. However,

• • If you need more time or have a special request, please ask. We do our best to accommodate your needs to ensure our pups find good homes.

If you are coming to the farm, we can work out special arrangements for day of payment, for example.

Two Weeks Away or So from Go Home Day

Week 7 – Final puppy pictures and videos are sent before the big day to meet and pick your puppy.
Week 8 – Puppies are 8 weeks old and allowed to leave the farm by Ohio state law. By this date, you’ll not only have received pictures, videos, and emails, but will have had a Puppy Prep session, and know how to choose your Golden Cavalier puppy when the big day arrives.
                We highly recommend a visit to the farm, if possible, to choose your puppy as puppies can go home the same day they’re chosen. But we know that’s not always possible, and offer a video call option.
We may also be able to make arrangements to visit the farm early, but you will not be able to make your official selection until Choose Your Puppy day which can be done via video call or email.

Bringin’ it Home

We hope this post more clearly explains our process of how to choose your Golden Cavalier puppy.
It’s been six years since we wrote something similar, though that article had more to do with What is a Golden Cavalier and not necessarily about the process to reserve one.

Got questions? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page.

Fancy a weekend trip to the Ohio countryside? You’re welcome to visit us on Saturday, April 12^th. We’ll have pups available to choose from then from both Oranges’ and Dorito’s litters. Please send us an email or by our contact form, if interested.