Puppy Orientation

Puppy Orientation

5605 NE 179th Street

Vancouver, WA 98686

360-980-1926

Okay… let’s get this started! There might be a test on the day of puppy pick up so PLEASE take the time to read this. This will take you 10 minutes to read verses sitting here in a group setting for a minimum of an hour.

Everything you need to know in order to take your puppy home!

First off here is the link to the “Family Page” https://www.moonlitacres.com/family-page This document has tons of information in it just for our Moonlit Acres Families. We will have a folder for you at the time of pickup that will include; your puppy's vet report, microchip information, pet insurance, grooming information, pedigree, registration certificate, litter records and much more.

Puppy Immunity: Puppies get their immunity from their mama. They received their first vaccination a few days before their 8-week birthday. The vaccine schedule has the dates outlined including what they will already have had and the vaccines that they will need.

Vaccines can be really dangerous. Vets have a tendency to want to load your pups up on shots. You must advocate for your puppy; you are the only one that can. Please do your research before going to the vet. There is a tab on the Family Page that will share some information regarding vaccinations. You are your puppies advocate. Please be informed. Please review the tab on the page labeled as vacation information.

We give the puppies a DAP shot just before their 8 week birthday. They will need 2 additional DAP shots, one at 12 weeks and one right around 16 weeks. Your vets will also talk to you about Lepto, Rabies, the flu shot and oral flea meds and heartworm and so on and so on. Please space the shots out so that they receive their last DAP shot at 16 weeks or your vet will suggest doing another one. See the Family Page for vaccine recommendations.

If you over vaccinate your puppy and give multiple shots… #1 it will void your warranty on the puppy. #2 You can cause brain damage. About 2 years ago we had a family that over vaccinated their puppy and it caused brain damage. They ended up bringing the puppy back to me when she was about 18 weeks old. She had such bad brain damage from the vaccines and oral flea meds that she was so aggressive no one could get near her. We had to put her down. It was so incredibly sad. Vaccines should be spread out over time. They should be spaced at least 2 weeks apart.

Parvo is not something you ever want to experience! I highly recommend that you take your shoes off in your home if you do not already at least until the puppies are 18 weeks of age. Take your shoes off and put your shoes UP so that the puppies cannot chew on them. Your shoes are covered with bacteria and infectious things that could kill your puppy. The most dangerous time for your puppy is 8-16 weeks of age.

When you take your puppy to the vet for your new well baby check-up please do not let your puppy walk into the vet’s office. Your puppies feet should not be touching the ground anywhere except your home and your backyard until it is 16 weeks of age. The vet’s office is the worst place to put your puppy down. When I go into the vet’s office, I take a disposable pee pad with me and put the pee pad on the vet’s exam table and put my pup on that. Same thing with their puppy scales. I do not let my pups touch anything when in there. Sick pups/dogs go to the vet. You don't need to take anything home with you that you didn’t take in there.

If your puppy gets Parvo, he/she has about a 50/50 chance of survival and you will be facing $4000-7000 in vet bills trying to fight it. If your puppy gets Distemper, he/she only has a 10% chance of survival. Parvo is VERY easily contracted. It only takes some fly landing on a pile of poo and flying over to your dogs water bowl and landing in it. Or you walking through Petco and step somewhere that hasn’t been cleaned properly and you can bring it home to your pup. If you have an older dog that is already vaccinated, please stop taking them in high traffic places until your puppy is fully vaccinated. Your older dog may have immunity, but they can carry the virus and bring it back to your home and share it with the puppy.

We had a family last spring that contracted Parvo just before their pups 12-week birthday. They spent thousands of dollars trying to save the puppy. They were successful but it was taxing on all.

So, if you get a puppy from us and you decide you need to take your puppy through Pike Street Market the week after you pick up from us please do not #moonlitacreslabradoodles on Instagram or I may lose my mind. It happens more often than I would like to admit.

If you are driving back up to the Seattle area or a to other areas, please do NOT stop at any rest stops to let your puppy go out to go potty. Please bring a couple of pee pads for the ride home. If you can get the Costco potty pads those are the ones they are used to. You can place a pee pad on the floorboard, and they will use it if needed.

The first couple of months offer the most transitions of learning how to live with a puppy. Making sure the kids are picking up their toys, shoes are picked up, socks…. No puppy in public touching the ground… etc. It’s the time when the most amount of accidents happen. We HIGHLY recommend pet insurance. We do ask that everyone initiate your free month of insurance by using this link here on the family page labeled “Free Pet Insurance”.

You don’t have to keep it if you do not want it. But the first 30 days is on Trupanion. And this just offers an extra layer of protection taking a new puppy home. Trupanion offers a free 30-day coverage for your puppy as long as you initiate the insurance within 24 hours of having the puppy. You can cover the puppy 24 hours before or after you take the puppy home. The code for the insurance is on the link that I’ve provided for you above, code: BR1MA22219.

There are several good insurance companies out there. This just offers you a free trial. I ask that EVERYONE activates the insurance before puppy pick up. Please bring with you a screenshot showing that your puppy is covered. You can cancel when you want but I like to know they are covered when they leave. Things can go wrong and with puppies when they go wrong, they go wrong really fast.

Signs of a sick puppy:

Diarrhea – Parvo has a smell that will hurt your nose. If your pups poop ever STINKS run to the vet
Blood in the stools
Vomiting
Not eating or drinking
White gums… gums should always be pink
A grumpy puppy
Lethargic puppy

Microchip:

We microchip all of our puppies prior to them going home. We use microchips from the AKC. Once we know which puppy you are getting, we will document the microchip number in the contract and sign the contract. Once I enter the microchip number and sign the contract, DocuSign will email both of us a PDF copy of the contract that is fully executed. We are trying to get to a 100% microchip registration rate. If we have puppy allocation completed prior to puppies going home then we are requiring that each family take just a moment and register your puppies chip. In only takes about 2 minutes. There is a link on the family page that will take you to the AKC Reunite website. It’s SUPER EASY!

Socialization:

Socializing your new baby is super important. Taking your puppy for car rides is super important. Try to create new situations for your puppy to encounter each day. The rule with a doodle is you need to introduce it to 100 people in the next 90 days. California recently had an outbreak of Distemper. One of our puppies went to the vet for their well-baby checkup. They had a case of Distemper in their office that day. Two weeks later their puppy died of Distemper. If your puppy gets distemper, there is only a 10% chance of survival and it is a HORRIBLE death. When you take your puppy to the vet please keep them in your arms do not let them set your baby on the ground or on the exam table without a pee pad or blanket being laid down.

If you want a calm puppy please make sure your interactions with the puppy are super calm. When you pet your puppy do not get in your puppies face and baby talk it or ruffle it’s head up and tell him/her how cute they are. Be calm, pet your puppy slowly and calmly. Do not allow your puppy to jump up on you as a puppy unless you want your puppy to jump up on you as an adult. If you have children, please do not allow the puppy to chew on your children. It will set you up for something you will quickly find yourself trying to correct. Do not get on the floor and rough house with your puppy it will overstimulate their brain and cause an excitable puppy that is hard to calm down. It will teach your puppy to be a train wreak.

Front door- right now if the doorbell rings the puppies have no reaction. 6 months from now unless you take measures most likely you will end up with a doorbell alert dog. Train the people that are coming to your home. If they walk in your front door and start baby talking to your puppy with a high pitched girl voice and amping your puppy up with excitement it will teach your puppy that the door bell and people coming to your home are exciting and they will start to be a barker, they will jump on people for attention they will quickly learn really bad habits that you will want to break. It’s so much easier to raise a puppy the way you want them to be from the start rather than trying to fix something later.

When we have people visiting our house, we put our dogs in a down position and ask them to stay. We invite the people into our home, and we ask our visitors to not talk or acknowledge our puppies/dogs for about 10-15 minutes. After the puppies have acclimated to having someone coming into “their” home the puppies will be in a calm state of mind and will be ready to visit with your guest as long as your guest will be respectful of your puppy house rules and not amp them up

Puppy Classes: When your puppy reaches 4 months of age, we do offer obedience classes that we coordinate with a local trainer. I know lots of you are coming from the Seattle area but don't let that scare you off. You will find a tab on the Family Page that will have information regarding the training that we offer. I can’t recommend this training enough. It will set you up for life. The classes are taught by Man’s Best Friend here in Battle Ground, WA. There are 9 classes in total. At this time, they charge $675 for the 9-class series. By the end of the 9 classes if you are doing your homework your puppy should be able to pass the CGC exam. By the end of the 9 classes your puppy will:

Walk nicely on a leash
Come when called
Stay in a down position for up to an hour at a time with you out of site.

The “here” command is most likely the most important command you will ever need with your puppy. It can save your puppies life. Please watch the video on the training link above and watch Annika practicing her “here” command with my granddaughters. When you are doing the “here” command at home ALWAYS use meat as a training treat. We have found that ground up tiny bits of hamburger work GREAT. Hot dogs work great too just be sure how many you allow them to have. TINY little bits work best. You don't want them having a full meal while learning the here command you want to always leave them wanting more. When working with the puppies for the “HERE” command please do not use their name…. just use the command “Here”. We just added a video of a puppy from Gabby’s litter. He was 8-9 weeks in the video I believe and he has the Here command down pat. 95% of our puppies will play hide and go seek with my grandkids doing the HERE command at 8 weeks of age. So, this is something all of your puppies will have.

Baxter & Bella:

Online puppy training. We partnered with Baxter & Bella. Baxter & Bella is an online puppy training company. If you are being added to this litter right when the litter is being born, you have 8 weeks to get ready for your new addition! Baxter & Bella can help with potty training, socialization, kennel training and much more. Baxter & Bella are completely online classes. They have videos, PDF’s and you can schedule private video lessons and or telephone calls with a lifetime membership. This is a fabulous resource to have. The content they have on their website is immense. We feel this is a great investment in your puppy. Use code MLA for 25% OFF Lifetime Membership $178.50 with a discount code (reg. $238). Check out the tab on the Family Page for Baxter and Bella Training We’ve had numerous families sign up for this and they are loving it! This is a great tool for the kids as well. Several of our home-schooling families are picking this system up for their kids. It’s a great way to teach puppy ownership/responsibility.

Food:

We primarily use two different kibbles. Find the name of your babies mom and click on that link. If your babies mom is being fed a kibble that is chicken free that is an indication that you puppy should not have chicken or any kind of poultry at this time. If you are going to attempt to include poultry do it after you pup is about 18 months or older. The puppies will need to be fed 3 times a day for the next 60 days. After that time, you can go to 2 times a day.

If you are getting a mini puppy you puppy will most likely eat ¼ cup per meal. Be sure to soak the kibble in hot water and soak your vitamins and joint supplements at this time to soften them up. Kibble should soak for 15 minutes prior to feeding it to your puppy. Mediums will usually eat ½ c per meal maybe a little less. We will review the quantity at the time of puppy pick up.

Nu-Vet does also have the vitamins in a powder format which is what we use when they are puppies. The puppies should be getting one Nu-Vet wafer and one Nu-Joint wafer per day. Please break them up and soak them or run them through the food processor for a couple of seconds mixed with hot water and then use the hot water to pour over their food. Please be sure to order the Nu-Vet Powder and the Nu-Joint prior to puppy pick up. Please use the tab on our Family page to place your order. Please confirm with us once you’ve done so. We really do not want these babies going home without it.

Be sure to soak their food for about 15-20 minutes. Kibble should NEVER be used as a training treat. It can be a choking hazard. We had a 9-week-old 26-pound Golden Retriever choke and die on a kibble that the family was using for a training treat.

As an adult your puppy will most likely eat between ½ - 1 cup of food 2 times per day. Doodles are rarely overweight. I would recommend moving their meals from 3 times a day to twice a day somewhere around 4-5 months of age. Feel it out and see what feels right for your puppy.

When puppies are transitioning to their new homes the first three days are the most challenging and their appetite sometimes will just not be what it normally is. Be patient and give it some time. They must keep hydrated and get some food in. So, just watch it. Call me if they just don’t eat. They are fed the Nu-Vet Vitamins in powder form over the top of their food and they LOVE it! I really think the families that get the Nu-Vet in the powder form have less issues with the puppies not wanting to eat when they go to their new homes. The food will taste the same this way.

Be sure to order your dog food and supplements in time so you have them on hand when you are ready to take your puppy home:

There is a link with a code on the Family Page Nu-Vet Wafers and Nu-Joint supplements.

To make sure you are feeding the correct food to your puppy please check out the Food link on the Family Page.

As mentioned earlier our puppies are raised on one of two different foods.

I love the way our babies develop on Life’s Abundance. Their bone development has been awesome, and their coats are super! I do not recommend changing the food unless you run into a problem. Life’s Abundance is a highly dense food and the dogs do not usually eat as much when using this food as other brands. Healthy nutrition is critical for puppies. One week of the wrong kibble for a puppy is the same as 3 months for a toddler. Puppies grow super-fast and making sure they are getting the nutrients needed is very important.

When they can not be on chicken as a primary protein source we have found Purina Pro Plan Sport Lamb and Rice, is a great option. I would not switch your puppies food unless you run into an allergy situation.

Potty Training:

Please visit the link on the Family Page for additional ideas regarding potty training. We will also include in the go home packet a spreadsheet that shows your puppy is currently being fed at 7 am, 12pm & 5 PM. We recommend cutting water off at 7 PM. When you are getting ready for bed…take your puppy out to go potty one more time. When you are taking the puppy out of the crate first thing in the morning. Please carry your puppy outside. If you expect the puppy to hold his/her bladder all the way to the outside you will be in for a big disappointment. Their bladders are really little, and they just know that they don’t want to go potty in their sleeping area. Doodles are usually super easy to potty train. We do offer Potty Bells here. They are FABULOUS!! They make potty training so much easier! At the beginning of COVID part of our staff moved in with us while we are in lockdown… they were goofing around and made this puppy video with one of our Golden babies… Make sure you have the volume turned up. There is a video on the Family Page called Potty Bells. I love potty bells. They are a great tool to use!

The first three days of crate training can be taxing at best. They are going to be the most challenging. The last few litters that we’ve had go home have all had great reports when it comes to sleeping in the crate at night. We start kennel training with the babies at 4 weeks of age. They usually start out with one nap, mid morning. Then as they get older they take two naps per day in the kennel. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. As they approach 8 weeks of age we take them back down to one nap in the afternoon in the kennel after they’ve had play time, lunch and time to take care of business. So, they are used to being kenneled. However, they have not been kenneled overnight, yet.

I would highly recommend continuing to have naps in the kennel when possible. It will expedite the potty-training process. I would take your puppy potty right before bedtime. Put the kennel in an area where your puppy can see you especially at bedtime. I always take the kennel to my room at night. These puppies have gone from having a mom and siblings…. To siblings and now to having you. You and your family are now his/her pack. Doodles were designed originally to be service dogs. Which in turns means these are not outdoor dogs that raise themselves most of the time. These are dogs that will become your 4th child. They have a STRONG need to be with their people. They will do best if they are with their people the majority of the time.

With that being said, I totally recommend kenneling your puppy for at least one nap per day and you leave the house. You must teach your puppy while it’s young that it’s okay for them to be home alone. If this is done in a positive way it will help prevent separation anxiety. Teaching your puppy that it’s okay to be alone for a bit is really important for a mentally well-adjusted puppy.

We have these mat’s that are available in our mini store that you can put in the kennels. They are called Licky Mats. They are awesome! You can smear a little peanut butter, Greek yogurt or a little of the wet food and it will help keep their brain occupied and focused on something besides the fact that you just left them. Licky Mats also have a component that will clean the bacteria off of their tongue which will help prevent tooth decay.

Every one of our puppies will go home with a “Go Home Bag”. In the go home bag, you will find a Moonlit Acres collar. (We are in Mexico as I’m editing this document. Just today I had a phone call from animal control in Vancouver. Someone’s puppy had gotten outside. They didn’t notice and I got a phone call in Mexico that someone’s puppy had been found) They called me because of the collar on the puppy. They described the puppy to me and location of where the puppy was and I was able to get the puppy back with it’s family in under five minutes. They didn’t even know their puppy was missing yet. Also in the go home bags you will find a blanket that has been snuggled with by mom, a sample pack of the Nu-Vet Wafers – 3-day supply, a seat belt to buckle your puppy into once they are a little older. I have grandkids that ride in the car with me. I use seat belts not to protect the dogs but to protect my grandkids. I’m not sure that there is really a “safe” seat belt for a dog. But what these seat belts will do is keep your dog from thrashing around the car and killing your babies. We will also be sending a sample container of ear hair removal home with you. This stuff is amazing! So, let’s talk about grooming….

Australian Labradoodles get lots of ear hair. By the time the puppy is 3 months old you will want to start taking the ear hair out. PLEASE do not allow your groomer to take the ear hair out. You will love your puppy they will have no feelings one way or another about your puppy. I feel it is super important that as the owner of your puppy that you know how to painlessly remove the hair from your puppies ears. In the bags you find small trial size containers of ear hair removal powder. All you need to do when they are around 3 months of age is wait till evening when they are snuggling with you on the couch and about to fall asleep. Put a little bit of the ear powder in their ear. Push it down so it reaches the skin. Let it sit for 60 seconds. And then start pulling the hair out a little bit at a time. You will most likely need to reapply a couple of times and repeat the process. Removing the hair in this fashion is super easy and not nearly as painful as letting your groomer do it. None of the groomers I have ever been to, use ear powder because it is expensive. We will be adding a video on ear hair removal soon.

My daughter is the guardian mom for our girl, River. She took River to her long-time groomer a few months ago. River came back and had blood splatter on her sides. We looked in her ears and they had raw spots in her ears. When we called the groomers to see what had happened. They were upset that River wasn’t holding still for her ear hair removal… when they were using a Dremel in her ear to grab hold of the hair and yank it out!! River ended up with an infection that needed antibiotics to treat. And she had an unneeded nasty experience at the groomers. Needless to say, that groomer is out of business and we never went back. We do have large bottles of the ear hair removal product here that is available for purchase. You cannot find this stuff in the stores. I would like to add that this is a chemical and cause burning. Please do not leave this powder in the puppy’s ears. Apply heavily, tap it down to the skin, wait 90 seconds, pull the unwanted hair, clean the ear with wet wipes and ear cleaner.

Additionally, I always put a tag on my dogs when my dogs go to the groomers. The tag says do not FLUSH my ears. Dog groomers are not vet techs and they really have no business flushing your dogs ears. Every time one of my dogs ears get flushed by a groomer, they get an ear infection. So, I just put a stop to the whole process before it ever gets started.

You should find a groomer now and book an appointment for when your pup is about 17 weeks old and fully vaccinated. Finding a good groomer is tougher than you might think. Most groomers will do fine on their bodies but will botch their ears. The ear hair on the outside of the ear is only supposed to go to the leather. Anything past the leather of the ear lobe and it should be chopped off!

Be sure to take you ALAA grooming card that we are including in your go home bags. I laminated mine and put an address label on it. Every time I go to a new groomer, I take it with me. Chances are you will have to train the groomer. There is a video on the ALAA website if you want to watch it. Please check out our grooming page. It has the ALAA grooming card and several before and after photos. If you find a great groomer that knows how to make your puppy look like an Australian Labradoodle, please be sure to share your groomers information with us. We are trying to setup a link on our page that has a network of great doodle groomers. Haven’t gotten that far… but there is a link on the family page that will give you some grooming tips.

At the beginning of COVID all groomers shut down. Getting into a groomer was impossible. We were forced to start grooming our own dogs. Which is a lot more difficult than it looks! Makes me much happier to get my Visa out and pay for a good grooming job! So, in COVID times we’ve been forced to learn how to groom. In doing so we found the best product ever! We found a new grooming system that makes having a doodle so much easier! After grooming two mama dogs and one girl that came back to me in season this stuff is the bomb! It’s a three-step system. Shampoo, condition and a finishing spray that you blow dry in. When applied correctly this stuff takes the mats away and leaves your pup feeling silky soft. We are phasing out all of our old grooming products and are now going to use only this. We have it in our online store. If you are going to get some, I would recommend getting the grooming kit. It has everything you will need as far as product goes to maintain your pup in between grooming appointments. We are also now carrying the ear cleaner from the same company. LOVE it!! It is now available on our online store as well and also comes in the grooming kit. The ear cleaner is absolutely the best I’ve ever used. We previously bought ours from Life’s Abundance, but this stuff is much better, smells so much better and is a better price. WIN-WIN!

I had started to second guess us having all the dog products in our living room but when COVID hit, it was very helpful for the families to be able to have one stop shopping. I just want all of you to know that we have everything you will need to take a puppy home. A few of the items that we have:

Grooming Supplies: brushes, small and medium, nail clippers that help prevent you from cutting the nail quick, Qwik stop, shampoo’s, conditioner, finishing spray and ear cleaner. We have setup grooming bags with the essentials in them. Makes it easy you get exactly what you need for your new puppy. This grooming pack takes the guesswork out of it.

There is a link on the Family Page to our online store. We are winding down what we carry at the house. But we do have the Snuggle Puppies! These are the BEST tool you can arm yourself with for night time kennel training!

There is a link to additional information on our website on the Family Page. There is reading material, information on poisonous plants, flea and tick information and much more! There is also a list of recommend books on this tab.

We will be sending contracts and invoices to everyone within the next few weeks. Please review and let me know if you have any questions.

Please wash your hands before you come to our place, we will have hand sanitizer for you to use before you touch the puppies. PLEASE Be careful when standing up holding the puppies. Puppies are wiggly and have been known to leap out of people’s arms.

Final puppy payment can be made in a couple of different ways:

Personal check – must be received by your puppies 6 week birthday.
Zelle – dana@danalogan.com Please be sure to use THIS email address If you make a Zelle payment to Dana@danalogan.com, it will pull up as St. Nick’s Place. This is correct! Please note some banks will limit your daily allowance to be paid out to $250. You are welcome to make multiple payments. Just don’t be surprised. I have two email address please be sure to use the one list above, dana@danalogan.com.
You are welcome to drive by a Chase bank and do a direct deposit. If you are depositing a check you must deposit prior to your puppy reaching 6 weeks of age.
Cash at the time of puppy pickup
Wire Transfer – Let me know if you need to wire instructions

PayPal is not an option for final puppy payment
Checks are fine if they are received by the time the puppy is 6 weeks old. Checks will not be accepted after that time.

Our online store is super easy. You can buy anything you need right online and you can pay for it online using a credit card through our PayPal system or you can place the order and then pay for the order using Zelle. You are welcome to pay for toys, kennels, beds…etc.… via PayPal, check, Zelle or cash. Have fun shopping! Our grandkids are having fun shopping for everyone. PLEASE be sure to add in the notes what litter you are getting a puppy from. THANKS!

One thing we’ve always had our families do is get a dog toy and have everyone in the family snuggle with it. Get everyone’s scent on it. Preferrable a soft toy with arms and or legs. Something that the puppies will play with together. The more they play with a toy the more they smell each of you. You become familiar to them. I really believe that it helps. So, grab a soft DOG toy, and have each person in the family snuggle with it. Send us the toy by the time the puppies are 7 weeks old. PLEASE do not send t-shirts, scarfs, socks or anything but a DOG toy that has fabric on it. If you send something other than a DOG TOY it will be discarded. T-shirts, blankets, scarfs and other such things get drug through things you don’t want to talk about. It’s not sanitary and they usually last for half a day at best.

The best toys are toys that have arms and legs so that the puppies will play with each other with the toys. Send the toy to:

When you send your puppy toy please address the package to your mama dog. As an example

Ruby Logan

5605 NE 179th Street

Vancouver, WA 98686

We look forward to meeting everyone! Be safe and see you soon!

Dana

360-980-1926 www.MoonlitAcres.com