Looking for a puppy? View our upcoming litters >>
Looking for a puppy? View our upcoming litters >>
Our aim at Golden Cavaliers is to not have any remaining puppies after Choose Your Puppy Day. In an effort to ensure every puppy has a committed family before they are born, we use our interviews, buyer’s agreements, and deposits – because a deposit isn’t just a transaction, it’s a good-faith decision that a puppy will have a forever home from the very beginning. But…life happens. So, below are three reasons we might have pups who are a little bit older than 8 or 9 weeks old.
“Life moves pretty fast, sometimes you gotta stop and look around once in a while.”
~ Ferris Bueller in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
He was right, it does move fast. We might be thinking about getting a puppy over the weekend only to discover that we’ve gotten a promotion and need to focus, must relocate, need time to train new hires, moving across town/across the country/to another country, financial timing, situational timing (there are some situations well beyond our control), travel, holidays, weddings, graduations, retirements, etc. And that’s just the humans!
On the puppy side, the most basic is that a dam/mom didn’t have enough puppies or didn’t have puppies at all. Or, perhaps someone placed deposit for a female puppy and the litter was entirely of male puppies (this is a frequent timing/gender constraint), or the dam/mom’s heat cycle is on 8-months rather than 6-months, or someone thinking ahead to timing placed a deposit to be on two lists at once. This helps to fill lists, until a decision is made leaving one list with one less family to choose a puppy.
We touched on this briefly in Reason #1, families preferring a female over a male or vice versa, can leave someone without a forever home at the end of the day.
In a pup’s paws, imagine there are 6 males and 2 females. Everyone wants a female, so two families are set leaving 6 males waiting for a forever home. And the remaining families who want a female move on to another list in the hopes there will be enough females in the next litter.
There are currently six males who are available. What happens to them? We’ll get to that after Reason #3.
We touched on this in Reason #1: Timing. But the difference is that the timing we mention first is somewhat controllable. We can decide what time to do something. We have time to make different decisions. The dogs themselves make the decisions for us by not having any puppies or not enough.
In unforeseen circumstances, these are things we don’t see coming. They blindside us, changing our lives in ways we can’t imagine or fathom. These situations are the ones that sometimes affect available puppies as well. Remember Clark? He was one such puppy. He had an owner. He was in training. Then, in the blink of an eye everything changed, and he had to be patient enough to be ready for his next owner. Even though he stayed with us a little extra while, he found the best family for him, and a bonus for us? The best ambassadors of our business have four legs!
Oftentimes, we might say that the pup picks the person, and that sometimes the pup has patience beyond our own.
But the question remains – what happens to the puppy should any of the above affect them finding a forever family before they’re born and before they can go home at 8 weeks old?
We do a combination of the following: strategic training placement, continue to socialize the dogs – increasing their value add (the more social a dog is, the better it will do in a home!), flexible matching for the right family (puppies continue to grow into their personality as they adapt to their environment, and sometimes a slightly older puppy is just the right thing to ensure a better fit)
In an ideal world, the answer is to place any remaining pups in training. Which is a great idea if we have only 2 or 3 puppies remaining because that’s how many we can handle per our four week training program.
Of course, a trained pup is a great added value! It’s older, wiser, and knows more, right? True!
The ideal would be to immediately place any remaining puppies directly into training. But, we must give priority to families who have chosen to put their pup in training after choosing. Each trainer can only accept 2-3 pups per month, in order to spend quality time with each pup.
So, what happens if we can’t enter a pup into our training program because of full capacity? We do the next best thing. Additional socialization!
While there are a few elements that directly affect the puppy to better prepare them as they wait for their family, we also take the time to revisit interview forms and email exchanges for those we think might be interested or where we think the timing might at last match up.
We post the available puppies and their stories to our website, and of course, we work on social media campaigns to spread the word, too.
Sometimes, the right visit to the website or socials are at just the right time for a family. Other times, we find that things have changed over the last few months or so, since a family opted to move to a later list or updated their timing. And then, the stars align, and two older pups get adopted about the same time!
In a nutshell, as the puppies get additional socialization or head into training, your online team is not resting on its laurels! 🙂
Most people begin their search with a specific picture in mind: a newborn puppy, a future timeline, or a particular season. But as life unfolds, priorities shift. Someone that wasn’t ready three months ago may suddenly be in the perfect position today. A family will reach out saying that they want an older dog who is more calm or past the new puppy stage and the stars will align.
This is where social media becomes especially powerful. A single post, reel, or story can reach someone at exactly the right moment — often when they weren’t actively searching. We make the effort online so that the person who is ready, can find us.
So, we search for families who are open to an older puppy, and try to help them discover us through our website or social channels. And immediately they recognize the value: a puppy with a clearer personality, growing confidence, and a strong foundation. These aren’t people who are “late” — they’re simply ready at a different time.
We create intentional social media campaigns that focus on education, transparency, and connection. We want you to know what our dogs are like so that you can see how they might fit in your home. We also share social media content so that you know you aren’t alone once you have your puppy. Golden Cavaliers is, above all, a community of people who love dogs.
The result is not rushed placements — but thoughtful matches.
Social media may be the first place you learn about us, so we aim to make it not only shine, but also show that regardless of where you might be in your life, we want to help you connect with the right puppy for you. And what better way than through videos, reels, and adorable pictures?
As always, our aim is to thoughtfully connect the right person or family with the right puppy for them. How do we do this? We do it by sharing a puppy’s daily life, personality, and story! Not only do we share, but we also engage with our community. If you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers. Or we know where to find them!
We have been grateful for the number of families that have puppies on our socials who engage with us and with each other, and hope that our social media efforts together result in every puppy finding the best place for them. Brighter homes. Thriving puppies. What else could we ask for regardless of the age of the puppy?
In a perfect world, no one would have anything come up between the decision to join the waitlist and the 8 week mark when their puppy is ready to go home as the newest, fluffiest family member.
In an ideal world, when complications come up, they don’t prevent the puppy from going home. We’ve seen it all at GC — job loss, health complications, sudden moves… And we understand because that’s just how life goes. For us, the pups will always be the number one priority though.
Timing may be unpredictable, but our approach is not. As puppies continue to grow, socialize, or enter training, our online efforts remain active and focused on finding the right home, not just the next home.
Timing is probably the biggest factor in pups remaining after Choose Your Puppy day, and it’s a bit more frequent in winter. Christmas is over. Winter off peak season plans are in play. Summer is still a few months away. And Spring is when things are in bloom; including our mother dogs!
Every puppy’s journey is different. Some find their forever families a little bit later. Not only does the puppy show patience, but it also means that the right pup for your life now just might be a little older than 8 weeks old. Whether a pup is 8 weeks, 9 weeks, 12 weeks, or older, there will always be a bit of puppy in every dog. And sometimes, the puppy who’s been waiting just a little longer turns out to be exactly the one you needed.
