04/04/2025
"But I want to pick my own puppy!"
or
"I am not placing a deposit on a puppy if I don't know which puppy I am getting!"
Believe it or not, these are very common responses when talking to potential new families about our process. We do not let you pick a puppy out before temperament testing at 7 weeks, and we help pair you with the best fit. There are many reasons we temperament test our puppies, and our process of pairing puppies to families can vary slightly. The main reason being: we have trainers and families alike, coming to us looking for very specific needs and traits in a dog. This is not a first come, first serve, pick your flavor of the day type of process.
We truly believe temperament testing is as important as all our breed standard health testing, as important as raising puppies with ENS and ESI, and as important as proving your dogs. Temperament testing is a crucial step in understanding the potential of each puppy; we are assessing each individual personality, we can try to predict future behavioral traits, it gives us an idea of a puppy's response to different situations and stimuli, it shows us who might be more outgoing, a little more reserved, or shy. And this is imperative to pair puppies to their new homes. We also know our puppies better than anyone, we are with them, learning about them, getting to know them, from day ONE. Quirks, drive, vocal, or quiet, we know each puppy. We also have an expectation based on parents and pedigree.
When I say this isn't first come first serve, this means I do not technically pair puppies to families based on who placed a deposit first. There is an order we work through due to the nature of our focus; service and therapy dogs (aside from conformation/performance homes). But on any account, we keep every family in mind when looking at pairing the best fit (or giving you options on which ones best fit your lifestyle/preferences).
We never take more deposits than puppies on the ground, and typically take less to account for the possibility of us keeping any back for our own program.
🐾 We hold a place for puppies we plan on keeping for our own program. Or those with the best conformation/performance potential, will be placed with other breeders who have placed a deposit.
🐕🦺🦮Whether a trainer, service dog center, or police department, they will always be the first to review temperament testing, along with a short bio about each individual puppy since birth. And outside of any of our keeper puppies or ones for conformation/performance homes, they will get first pick.
🐕🦺After trainers, come individuals who have interest in training on their own for something specific. We give input on which puppies would best fit what they're wanting.
🐾 Once any trainers, SD centers, and keepers/performance home puppies are established, we THEN move on the pairing puppies with families in the order deposits were taken. Keep in mind- every family has different wants and needs!!! This does not mean the "last" puppy or the "last" family gets some weird, unwanted puppy! Some families are strictly looking for a hunting dog, some a couch potato, some want something in between, not to mention color and gender. We make sure to pair YOU with the BEST fit 🖤
This is all to make sure the family looking for a hunting buddy doesn't pick the couch potato, or the family wanting to raise a puppy with their own babies doesn't get a hyper high drive dog, or the SD trainer doesn't end up with a shy puppy who would rather be at home with it's people. This is how dogs can become unwanted, untrained, and end up back with me trying to find a new home. Because I am here for the LIFE of every dog I produce, I want to place them in the absolute best home for them and for YOU! I pour my heart and soul into these little lives, I want them to be in the absolute perfect home ❤️
Welcome to Desert Creek Labradors! Where we strive to produce the dual purpose labrador and conform to the AKC breed standard.
