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Joyful Golden Retrievers
Purchase Details from planning to bringing you puppy home!
Questionnaire/Applications
Joyful Golden Retrievers is taking reservations for summer/fall 2025 litters and early 2026. Waitlists do fill up fast so please be prepared to have around a 6 to 9 month wait until your puppy will be born.
In order to be considered, please fill out our questionnaire and return it via email to joy@joyfulpuppy.com. After we have received your questionnaire/application, we then can set up a phone conversation to answer any questions you may have regarding our program, timing, costs and expectations. We will see if our puppy will be a good fit for you and your family.
The link to the questionnaire is at the bottom of this page!
Contracts & Costs
Joyful Golden Retrievers requires a $500 non-refundable deposit. After the questionnaire is filled out, we will set a time to chat or meet in person. Then you will make the decision to be added to our waitlist. At that time, you will fill out your deposit contract and make your deposit and we know that you are serious about owning a Joyful Golden. The non-refundable deposit make sure our waitlist is only serious buyers and eliminates fluctuating wait times for serious buyers. Taking on a puppy is a serious decision and we want only life long owners for our puppies. If we CANNOT get you a puppy within one calendar year of your contract, we are happy to refund your deposit and help you find a puppy from one of our other reputable breeders we work with.
Final payment is due at puppy pick up time.
Contracts come via DocuSign.
Payments can be made via: Venmo, Zelle, Cash or Paypal.
Expectations
Joyful Golden Retrievers is a small hobby breeder that is dedicated to responsible breeding practices. If our dogs do not pass health testing, they will not be bred. Not all moms will get pregnant every time they are bred. Not all litters will be large. We want to set expectations that you may have to wait for you puppy. We hope to deliver you a puppy within 6-9 months, but the reality is that many things can go right...and many things can go wrong. Please know that your wait will be worth it! You WILL get a happy and healthy puppy! Our advice is to get on our waitlist as soon as you can!
Timelines
Our adult dogs will be part of our breeding program after their second birthday. If they pass all their health test testing to include: OFA hips, elbows, advanced cardiac, eye exam and have a clear genetic panel...then they will enter our breeding program.
Once a female goes into heat after her second birthday, we test her progesterone levels starting around day 7. Once the levels rise to our desired numbers, usually about 10-14 days after her heat cycle starts, we then will breed her to one of our studs. We do two breedings, each a day apart. Then we wait!
Four weeks after her breeding, we will go to our veterinarian and do an ultrasound. The ultrasound is to confirm that the female is pregnant. We can get a glimpse of a litter size but nothing is for sure.
Eight weeks after we breed her, we then go back to the veterinarian to have an x-ray. The x-ray is to count how many puppies she will be delivering. At this appointment we make decisions to ensure we have the safety and health of mom and puppies first and foremost. Ideally, I want to deliver the puppies at home and moms do too. But if litters are too small or too large, we may opt to schedule a c-section.
From time of breeding to delivery, it is generally 9 weeks.
Your puppy from birth to 8 weeks
Once your puppy is born, we will reach out within 48 hours to let you know if we have a puppy for you! Then the fun begins. Your puppy will be handled and exposed to a large array of experiences, sounds, temperatures, sights, and people prior to pick up all detailed within our puppy culture protocol to ensure you have a puppy ready to conquer the world!
- Starting at day three, we begin Puppy Culture Training/Early Neurological Stimulation.
- Weeks 2, 4, 6 & 8: deworming
- Week 4: family visit to meet the puppies
- Week 6: veterinarian visit, microchipping and 1st vaccination
- Week 6: family visit to choose your puppy
- Week 8: puppy pick-up!
Visits and puppy choosing
Joyful Golden Retrievers wants to be a part of your family from the beginning. We want our puppies with families who will keep in touch and visit time to time.
We do allow visits to our home after a questionnaire/application has been filled out and we have had a conversations and know you are serious about a Joyful puppy.
Once your puppy is born we allow two visits before pick up. The first visit is around 4 weeks. This visit allows you to see the puppies and get to know them. The second visit is after the litter's 6-week visit with our veterinarian. This is intentional as we want to make sure we have a clean bill of health on each puppy before they would be placed. At the 6-week visit, we start the puppy choosing process.
Puppy choosing will go down our list in order of deposits received. We periodically hold puppies back to enter our breeding program and those puppies would be considered before anyone on our waitlist. We will also help you with puppy choosing based on puppy's temperament and your family make-up and need.
Puppies go home at 8 weeks of age.
Pick-up Day Expectations
This is the day you have been waiting for! You are ready to pick -up your puppy...we will make sure you are prepared!
Joyful Golden Retrievers will give you a suggested shopping list, a training guide to help with crate training and potty training and we will be your biggest cheerleaders! We will have answered all your questions at your two visits!
Prior to pick-up, you will get your final contract via DocuSign. The contract will need to be signed prior to your arrival and I will have a copy for you in your go home bag. You will also be required to register your puppy's microchip through AKC Reunite. The cost of this is around $30 for a lifetime membership. Final payment is due at or before pick-up via Venmo, Zelle, Cash or Paypal.
Pick ups are generally quick and fun! We will go through all your paperwork and send you home with unique information about your puppy to include weekly weights, worming schedule, vaccination record and our veterinarian's report on your puppy.
