OMG SO CUTE!!!!

Pre pickup 1 week old

Well, the puppies exist! And boy are they cute!!! Boy being the operative word - we ended up seeing only the three boys, which was absolutely fine by me... more than fine, they were soooo gorgeous!!! The breeder was very friendly, and we got on well. She has a good idea of what I want, and knows now how serious this all is for me. We were the first prospective owners to go look at the puppies.

Anyway, I'll just post the photos we took and will make a longer entry later. They really were just gorgeous little things. That is me in all the photos holding the puppy. Click on the photos to get larger images.

This is one of the puppies (they are four weeks old) with their mum Connie. Notice how the puppy's ear is darker than the rest of its coat. A golden retrievers coat darkens after it leaves puppyhood and grows its other coat (it is born with only an undercoat), but while it's a puppy, the ear is meant to be a good indicator of its final adult colour.

All the boys asleep in a pen outside. They have only just left the whelping box apparently and are starting to explore the world but are mostly still just sleeping!

One of the pups with mum Connie saying hi.

A pup!

Puppy.

Looking cute.

Sleeping again.

Anyway, speaking of sleeping, time for me to sleep as I have my last treatment at hospital tomorrow and it has been a long two days driving up there and back. Still can't believe how warm and tiny they were though!! Very exciting.

I'll leave you with a photo I took very near where we spent the night at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains. It is of the rock formation they call the "Three Sisters". If you look at the big version and the base of the left most "sister" you can see some very tiny people crossing a bridge over to it. It gives you an idea of the scale, which is pretty massive.

Visiting the puppies in 4 days!

Pre pickup 3 days old

Well, the day is drawing very near to our first visit to the breeder of our Golden Retriever puppy. All things going well, there will be another two visits - one when they are 7 weeks old to temperament test the male puppies, and assuming there is a suitable pup, another to pick him up a week later. They are nearly 4 weeks old right now (they were born 5th of July), so only starting to develop their personalities and a touch too young for any testing (the youngest recommended temperament testing is at 5 weeks old). However, there should hopefully be some indication of how they will grow up - I am looking for a calm but curious and confident puppy, and we may be starting to see (or not) that at 4 weeks of age.

Whether or not I can see a potential assistance dog among the males, it will give me a good chance to see the breeders setup, how she socialises from a young age, and talk to her about a whole bunch of topics, from feeding, to vaccinations, pet insurance and supplements. I also am going to ask her whether she would mind simply clicking a clicker every time she puts down a dish of food for the puppies (and leaving a clicker with her for that reason), so that it starts the association from a very young age and makes sure he won't come to me scared of the clicker. I'd recommend she starts with it fairly heavily muffled for the first couple of days to ease them into the sound. A pup whose virtually always known that a click means food/reward from nearly all their days of eating solid food is a headstart for me when it comes to training! I hope she is comfortable with the idea, although if upon meeting her she doesn't seem like the sort to be flexible like that I just won't ask. I bet she hasn't done it before with her litters, although I do know some dogs of her breeding have gone far in obedience I somewhat doubt it was done all by clicker.