We are Expecting!
Well, soon we will be. 🙂 For now, we are expecting our first litter in Spring 2028 and we are very excited! In the world of dog breeding, a mentor is an experienced and ethical breeder who helps guide you through the many complexities of raising and preserving a breed. This goes far beyond typical business advice—breeding involves living animals, genetics, and a deep sense of responsibility, making mentorship truly invaluable.
For us, that guidance has come from Cinnamon at Hoehema Homestead. Her willingness to share her knowledge, experience, and passion for the Golden Retriever has helped us better understand pedigrees, evaluate structure, and make thoughtful, responsible decisions for our program. She has been a steady source of support through both the exciting moments and the more challenging ones.
Most importantly, her mentorship has reinforced our commitment to ethical breeding, ensuring that every decision we make prioritizes the health, temperament, and future of the dogs we love. This starts with the careful selection of our breeding dogs with temperament, health, structure, and pedigree in mind. All of our dogs undergo thorough health screening, including temperament evaluation, genetic testing, and complete OFA and PennHIP testing before being considered for our breeding program.
Once the puppies are on the way, they will grow and begin to show their individual personality. We will be carefully observing and documenting their progress, placing strong emphasis on early socialization, intentional positive exposure, and detailed record-keeping because we believe these early experiences make a lasting difference in the life of a well-rounded companion. Our program has been developed with careful forethought, all in anticipation of puppies that will become cherished family companions, as well as candidates for therapy or service work.
The processes of helping families find the perfect pup is a thoughtful collaboration—combining your vision of how you want this new edition to fit into your lifestyle with our deep, daily understanding of each puppy, their personalities and potential. Puppy matching is one of the most important parts of our process and plays a key role in long-term success for both the puppy and the family. We will be spending significant time with the litter and in communication with your family to help ensure the best possible match. By cobinding our observations and evaluation tools like the the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test, we are confident that you will go home with the puppy that was meant for you. Our ultimate goal is to help the right puppy find the right home, creating a lifelong bond.
Our family would be honored to be part of your story. We invite you to explore our website, where you will find helpful resources, photos of our dogs and puppies, and more about our facilities. Our property includes more than an acre of grass, gardens, and pathways, bordered by cedar forest, creating an ideal environment for exploration and enrichment. If you would like to learn more about us and our beautiful puppies, reach out. Let’s connect and get your questions answered. It would be our privilege to help guide you through the journey of welcoming your new best friend in to your life.
More About Our Approach to Raising Puppies
To help each puppy reach their full potential, we focus on five essential areas:
- Cleanliness and early potty habits.
- An enriching, stimulating, age-appropriate environment.
- Positive human interaction and social development.
- Early preparation for positive training and household life.
- Puppies receive regular health checks and care.
Each of these elements supports a smooth transition from our home to yours, while helping puppies grow into healthy, well-mannered, confident companions.
Clean, Early Foundations
From the very beginning, we place a strong emphasis on cleanliness and structure. Puppies are introduced early to the concepts that support house training, crate comfort, and good indoor habits. A clean environment not only supports physical health, but also helps puppies develop strong natural instincts for keeping their living space tidy.
We keep our puppy area clean and tidy, maintain a consistent, dry, well-managed environment from birth until they leave our care. Early potty guidance begins around 3 1/2 weeks of age, followed by outdoor potty training as puppies grow.
Enrichment and Confidence
A rich and carefully managed environment helps shape a puppy’s confidence. At Cedar Rock Golden Retrievers, our puppies are gently introduced to a wide variety of everyday sights, sounds, textures, and experiences so they can develop resilience in a calm, supportive setting.
We thoughtfully introduce many age-appropriate challenges that help puppies learn to recover, adapt, and trust their surroundings. This early exposure lays the groundwork for a balanced temperament and greater confidence, preparing them for their anticipated arrival in your home.
Loving Human Interaction
Positive human interaction is one of the most important parts of early puppy development. From day one, our puppies are handled regularly, held often, and cared for with warmth, patience and attention. These early interactions help puppies learn that people are safe, kind, and trustworthy.
As they mature, puppies are introduced to a variety of people and gentle handling experiences. This helps build strong human bonds and prepares them to become affectionate, well-adjusted members of their future families.
Early Training Experiences
On Day 3 we begin Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS), as part of our commitment to responsible early development and lifelong well-being. From there, our puppies are introduced to positive, layered exposure, age-appropriate experiences designed to support confidence and adaptability. Their daily routine includes music and other sounds, car rides, stroller rides, crate training, potty training, water introduction, swimming, and exposure to children, adults and animals, along with other important socialization activities. We consistently work with each puppy, touching each body part and introducing nail care and grooming, so that they will not develop ‘no touch areas’.
We begin introducing foundational positive training exercises at around five weeks of age. This early work includes crate introduction, potty training basics, automatic sit and confidence-building activities that help puppies become more prepared for life in a home environment. Our goal is to make early training a positive and natural experience. By starting patiently and gently, we help puppies develop good habits and a healthy attitude toward learning.
Health and Care
Our puppies receive regular care throughout their early development, including deworming, veterinary oversight, and age-appropriate vaccinations. We take a careful approach to each stage of growth, always keeping the safety and long-term well-being of our puppies in mind.
Ready To Meet You
Our puppies remain with us until abou 8 weeks of age, allowing time for important social development, training, and maturity before they go on to their new homes. At 8 weeks they have received countless hours of learning from their mama, other dogs, littermates and caring humans. Now, they are longing for individual attention and are ready to meet their forever family.