SUMMER 2025 PUPPIES - Ruby had puppies on Sunday 6/1/2025. They will be 8 weeks old on July 27th - they will be ready to go to their forever homes around that time (depending on their last vet visit).

Puppies are $1500 each and we ask for a $50 deposit for buyers to officially hold a puppy. Puppy placement is a collaborative process between us and people who have given us a deposit to hold a puppy.  At around 6 weeks old, we do a puppy aptitude test. We also spend a ton of time with our pups (they live in our house with us, after all :). By 6-7 weeks, we know each puppies' developing personality. When people give us a deposit on a puppy, it is typically with a specific color and gender in mind. We keep careful notes on this AND we give candid feedback to our buyers about puppy personality to match families with the dog that is a good fit for them and their goals. While this is most likely going to be the color and gender our buyers want, we ask that people are open to our feedback about puppy personality - we look forwad to working with you!

Ruby had a litter of six puppies on Sunday 6/1/2025. There are two black females,  one yellow male, and three yellow females. We try our best to post photos each week so you can see how the puppies are growing and changing!

June 2025 - Week 8 Photos and Updates will be minor because you folks will be picking up your pups!! We would LOVE to take a photo of each family with their pups on pickup day to post here (with you permission, of course).

June 2025 - Week 7 Photos and Update 

Seven weeks, folks. These puppies are an absolute BLAST!!!! Pretty much all of them have new names (from their new families), and we love this year's batch of new names!! The biggest update for his week is the Puppy Aptitude Test. Everyone did as we expected, though we had some pups who shined a bit more than others. Our good friend, Henry, helps us with this test and we are so grateful for his time!! Most of the pups were very interactive with Henry, did well with random loud noise (with some even going to scope out the 'thing' that made the loud noise - a bucket with rocks in it tossed onto the ground), were not afraid of the big blue umbrella that was opened near them, and did some retrieving and following.  We've compiled the aptitude test results into a Google Sheet - the link is below. Remember, puppies cannot 'pass' or 'fail' this test!! It is just more data about individual puppies' personalities that we can share with their new families.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JwCMILluxSD57gOm2PkXq37mLHibamH63B9FDNfG0MQ/edit?usp=sharing 

We are doing 2-3 walks with the pups each day. For those of you who have been on our farm, it is around the upper field where all the farm buildings, animal pens and driveway are. It is an almost 1/4 mile loop. When you bring your puppy home, remember that they have some stamina built up! No 1+ mile walks please (that's a bit too much at one time for a pup right away), but a couple of good 1/4 mile walks a day will help keep your puppy a bit tired (a tired puppy is a good puppy). That will help them be a little less destructive in their new spaces.  They need quite a bit of encouragement along their walks - lots of squatting down and clapping, calling for them, loving on them so they know they are doing a good job. We also highly recommend crate-training for nights. They'll need to be brought out a couple times at night for the first week or two, slowly decreasing to no midnight bathroom runs. Make sure their kennel/crate space isn't too big or they may think they can take care of peeing and pooping in one corner and hang in the other.

We are already working commands into our interaction with them. We use 'find a spot' for when they pee or poop. We praise them when we say 'come' and they come!!! We've used 'sit' a little bit, but this is tough with the group.

PUPPY PICK UP - yes, we actually need to start scheduling puppy pickup!! They have their 8-week appointments on Tuesday July 29th at 9 am. We should be home and settled from that around 11 am. We can accomodate two-three people picking up puppies Tuesday late morning through evening.  Then we can schedule day by day after that. Reach out to me via text so we can get a time scheduled for you to pick up your pup! We ask for cash for remaining balance at puppy pickup. If this is a significant burden, please reach out to me :).

Lastly, a shout out to Ollie from our 2024 litter, and his owner Anne - they have been following along with this year's updates and WE LOVE THAT!!

June 2025 - Week 6 Photos and Update

Six weeks old and two more weeks to go until you all get to bring your new puppies home!!! I (Rachel) was gone from the farmstead for four days over the last week and Todd held down the fort. By fort, I mean FORT - he had this place locked up like Fort Knox making sure these puppies could be outside and safe and not venturing into potentially dangerous places (like underneath the porch). The pup's coordination and movement capabilities have exploded in the past week - they are now able to go up and down stairs, we can let them out of the whelping pen and call them to the front door instead of carrying them out two-by-two, and we've begun our daily walks around the property! They also grew and changed a lot in the four days I was gone (gulp). We continue to bump up the quantity of food we are feeding them, to keep up with their growth rate. They all weigh around 10.5-11.5 pounds as of 7/14/2025 (they got their third round of wormer that day). On Tuesday 7/15/2025, we have our friend coming to help with the puppy aptitude test - so we'll have a few details about that in the Week 7 Update. We are finding we take more videos than photos these days because they are so much more mobile!! Enjoy ;)

Oh,  you'll see one photo of the puppies in a crate - they went for an official truck ride with Todd while I was gone. He piled them into a big crate in the back seat of the truck and after a little whining, they all calmed down and rode great! We try to do this a little bit in these final weeks before they go home with you, so they are used to a vehicle (a little bit anyways). 

June 2025 - Week 5 Photos and Update

Puppies are now 5 weeks old!! And they have teeth - raptor teeth. When all six come at us all rolly-polly and adorable, we get so excited. Then they attack our open ankles and toes and we yelp and screech, but stay put because we love them too much to move away.  They are changing significantly each day now. They are in pretty strong command of their bodies and don't bumble around like drunken bees any more. They play with coordination and intention and sometimes get a bit fiesty with eachother! In the intense heat we've had recently, they get a little whiny and spend a good amount of time laying, bellies flat on the grass. They also LOVE their little puppy pool (green sled with cool water in it). They all go in and out throughout the day when it is hot. You'll see a couple of photos this week whrere the pups are sleeping along the edge of the house behind the mint patch - we think there is cool air coming out from under the house that must feel refreshing! We continue to trim nails each week, move their outdoor pen every day or two, interact with them while they are eating so they are used to humans being close when food is available, and praise them whenever they take care of business outside in our presence (we say 'find a spot', to help them start to associate this phrase with peeing and pooping).

We are starting to do little walks with the pups after the morning and evening feeding. They are getting good at following along across our big lawn space. Webber hangs back a bit - he's a little less adventurous (maybe a bit more lazy?) than the girls! The little black girls have been spicy this week, but that could be from the heat (poor dears). Reba is the most fluffy and seems to be the most sensitive to the heat - her fur is thicker than the rest! Mave is the biggest and beefiest (her legs and paws are ruggggggeeeedddd). Lily is still my favorite - she is sweet and pretty :). We have not observed any major concerning characteristics in anyone so far! All the puppies are great at socializing with new people (and they get lots of opportunities), have not shown signs of fear or weariness with loud noises or startling situations, and are not afraid of water!! Next week we will do the puppy aptitude test - we bring in someone the puppies don't know and they help expose each puppy (separately) to a loud noise (usually rocks in a plastic bottle that gets tossed around), the opening of an umbrella, being held up off the ground, being held on their backs on the ground (to check for struggling),  following the new person around, following a fluffy thing on a string on a stick (checking for prey drive), and overall social attaction. This helps us identify any little individual quirks that might help people make decisions when they pick their pup! 

Some things for you all to be thinking about as we get closer and closer to puppies going home with you. If it has been a while since you've had a puppy, prepare yourself for a very sad puppy on the first 1-3 nights. Often puppies cry their first few nights away from their litter. Sometimes this can be heartbreaking!! After a few days, they get more settled in their new home, start to bond with you as their new people and get more joyful :). Please consider crate training your puppy - this is a great way to help them integrate into their new home. Dogs like cozy places and crates can be made to be very cozy! We DO NOT recommend puppy pee pads for house training - these sends very mixed signals to puppies as they are learning NOT to pee or poop in the house. Be ready to take them outside regularly and A LOT in the first many weeks you have them in your home. If you do not already have a vet for current pets, you should find one. If you already have a vet, it would be great to let them know you are bringing a new puppy home soon! They will help you with scheduling your first vet visit with your pup.

Here are some videos from this week!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZXVW-5CTIb0Q90jyGUlJUx1kheyTE_zj/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n8QWnpuFvxKHgh2oKBgwhty-jWhtjVaM/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RiumwIZnXlOsh4snM4Kom-UXEebajq_M/view?usp=sharing 

June 2025 - Week 4 Photos and Update 

What a blast Week 4 has been with our puppies! I forgot how fun they get after Week 3. We had some of our puppy buyers come and visit early in Week 4 - if you haven't had a chance to come and play yet, get in touch. We would love to have you come and see them. The puppies are fully mobile and getting more active every day. In Week 4, Todd got the outdoor puppy pen set up with a great tarp on top for shade and minor rain protection. The puppies have been so happy outside when it has been hot!! We also put a kiddo's sled into the pen with water for the pups to play around in (and to help keep them cool). The whelping pen in the house also got an update - Todd added higher sides so the pups cannot get out at night! Puppies sleep inside, but spend as much of each day in the outdoor kennel (weather depending). We got a new batch of individual photos of the pups. It gets more and more difficult to capture good photos of them because they are really wiggly! 

We are half way through the time the pups spend here with us at our home - that means only four weeks to go before you pick up your pup! If you are starting to think about the transition of bringing your puppy home, here are a few details. First, details about puppy food are below. Second, we currently have the puppies' 8-week appointment on Tuesday July 29th at 9 am. If all goes as planned, we can schedule puppy pickups starting the afternoon of July 29th. PLEASE BE PREPARED TO BE FLEXIBLE. In 2024, our 8-week vet appointment got rescheduled for three days later than planned (very much at the last minute). In the state of NH, puppies cannot be sold until they are 8 weeks old and they have to recieve a health certificate from a vet before going to new homes! We are worming the puppies every two weeks while they are here at the farm. We will bring a fecal sample to the vet a week before their currently scheduled 8-week appointment just to double check them for parasites - the vet cannot issue a health certificate without a clean fecal test. So this is one of our main priorities! You'll see a photo of Webber in the weighing basket - we weigh the pups every two weeks to apply the worming medicine. Puppies weigh 6.25-6.75 pounds at the end of week 4. Third, people are excited to pick their puppy and know EXACTLY which puppy will be their's. Stay patient, folks. At about 6.5 weeks old, we do our puppy aptitude test (you can read a bit more about that below on the web page. After this we will begin communicating with you all about YOUR specific puppy. Just a reminder that puppy pick goes in the order of people who got in touch with us and sent along deposits. If you have questions about this, please get in touch.

Puppy Food: We started them on solid food this week and they have gone at it like a robins at worms! We use TLC Whole Life Puppy Food. We are not affiliated with TLC in any way, nor do we recieve payment for promoting the brand. We have been using the adult version of this food for our dogs for several years now and really like how they perform on this food. We follow the feeding guidelines on the food bags for our puppies. Since they just started on solid food, we are soaking the food in goat's milk until it is nice and mushy before offering it to the pups. At around 6 weeks, we will start adding less and less milk, so that by the time you take your pup home, they will be on mosty dry kibbles. I've included a link to the TLC website below.

https://tlcpetfood.com/product/puppyfood/ 

PUPPY VIDEOS - Click on the links below to see some videos of the pups.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bJzKf3M33-hL2KIMimkqmRnrHq_V3rYX/view?usp=sharing 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iTHNam-SNdZO8fwiUAJZ01QRcAYaoRXf/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DUqfLGiKT-AXJH1C4mJ2XCULXmKOJNac/view?usp=sharing

June 2025 - Week 1 Photos

June 2025 - Week 2 Photos and Update

The puppies are GROWING!! Several times this week, I commented on how they looked like little piglets. At the end of week two, they were (on average) 1/4-1/2 pound bigger than last year's puppies. We are continuing to do our Carmen Battaglia's stimulation protocol with them daily. They are all super tolerant of this, though the little yellow male (we call him Webber) is the most calm. At the end of week 2, a few have their eyes open - they are a bit cloudy and they cannot really see much yet, but it is a step in the right direction! They are starting to have some doggy qualities - they attempt to chew on eachother's tails, try to scratch their ears with their back paws, and are starting to move around on upright legs (instead of scootching and swimming around the whelping pen).  We have started to notice some differences in the puppies and given them names. We know their names will change, but we like to have something to call them while they are here : ). I've provided some photos with labels in this weeks' batch and will continue to do so as the weeks progress. You'll also see our other dog, Cruiser (the brown and fluffy one), checking in on the pups periodically! At the end of week 2, they got their nails trimmed for the second time and had their first round of wormer medicine. They are all doing great!

June 2025 - Week 3 Photos and Update 

Everyone's eyes are fully open and that's when it gets real, folks. Puppies go from being super cute, but rather boring little lumps of mash potatoes weeks 1-2, to SUPER fun and interactive in week 3! Once those eyes open, it's a whole different ball game. Around the same time their eyes are opening, so do their ears. Prior to week three, they can neither see nor hear. Now that they have both those senses, they are exploring their surroundings like crazy! We switch to shavings in the whelping pen at the end of the third week because they start to take care of business in a specific area and the shavings really help with absorbency and smell. We clean their pen pretty much daily from here on out! They also got their first exposure to the outside this week. They weren't sure what to think of the grass under their  sweet little paws at first, but after a few minutes, they started to toddle around. Then after toddling around and nursing, they were EXHAUSTED and all fell asleep, littered about the front stoop - it was the perfect 'first time outside'. 

The Carmen Bettaglia Stimulation Protocol ended when the pups were 16 days old. Now we are just handling them and exposing them to tons of noises and smells and feels - that means lots of puppy play (I know, I know, pooooor us). Over the next week, we will be setting up their outdoor kennel and they will start to spend most nice days outside in the fresh air! I am trying to figure out how to get videos on the website so you can all start to see these little buggers in action. Now that they are more on the move, it get's difficult to catch great photos! Stay tuned for that.

Ruby is hanging in there, but feeling a little less excited about jumping into the whelping pen to nurse. This behavior is right on time because at about 3 1/2 weeks, we introduce solid food. We soak it in goat milk and it becomes a hungry, hungry hippo mess! But Ruby is happy to help with clean up (extra calories are good when you're nursing 6 puppies :). Ruby is getting a full 9 cups of food a day to help support the huge caloric call of nursing. You'll notice in some photos that Ruby looks like she is losing hair - that's because she is. This happens for two reasons: 1) post pregnancy and birth hormones cause hair loss (this happens to women, too), and 2) the puppies do a lot of kneeding with their paws when nursing and this abrasion causes hair all around Ruby's belly to fall out. She's holding her condition so far! 

Some Background

Ruby had her first litter of puppies in April 2024. I worked with Harold McCoy to breed Ruby to a beautiful yellow lab named Oscar. I have chosen to use Oscar for the spring 2025 breeding because we were very pleased with the look of our spring 2024 puppies! Oscar is soooo handsome! He has very deep yellow to red coloring. Check out the Heather Hollow Labs website for other photos of dog style and conformation - I've included a link to the Heather Hollow website below. Ruby had her first litter without any hiccups! In just over four hours, she had seven beautiful pups - two black and five yellows.

A lot of people ask about OFA hip and elbow testing. All of Harold McCoy's breeding dogs are x-rayed and evaluated for sound hips, but this is not through the OFA process. I worked with Norway Veterinary Hospital in Norway, ME to have Ruby OFA hip and elbow checked in January 2025. Her elbow result is NORMAL and her hip result is EXCELLENT.  These results were not surprising. I've had the opportunity to meet many of the dogs at Harold's farm and they are very mobile with no issues in their later years of life. Ruby has also been tested for genetic diseases and she showed no markers for any of the 17 major issues that affect Labrador retrievers (in fact, she was clear of all major genetically related dog issues). She and Oscar are a good match - these puppies should not end up with any of those issues either, based on genetic test results of Ruby and Oscar.

Our puppies are whelped right in our living room and live there full time for their first three - four weeks of life. At three weeks of age, we start to take them outside daily so they can interact with a variety of stimulants.  Our whole family, including our sons (5 and 8) interact with them daily. We follow Carmen Battaglia's puppy stimulation protocol from days three through sixteen after the puppies are born. We also clip their nails once a week. When the puppy stimulation protocol finishes at day 16, they are starting to open their eyes. This is a total game changer! At this point, they start to be far more interactive and we soak that interaction right up!  Raising our pups inside our home allows us to expose them to all manner of household noises from the very beginning (human conversation, vacuuming, pots clattering in the kitchen, children playing with Legos on a wooden floor - you name it). We pair this with lots of time outdoors after they are four weeks old, where they get exposed to lots of farm smells and sounds (other animals, tractors and lawn mowers, a puppy pool). We hope this makes for very noise and smell tolerant dogs once you take them home! 

When pups are around six weeks old, we conduct a puppy aptitude test. We evaluate them for social attraction, following, restraint, social dominance, elevation, retrieving and play, loud noises, umbrella opening, prey drive, and overall touch and handling. We do this to check for any potential red flags in puppy behavior or personality. In our spring 2024 litter, all our puppies had no problems with loud noise, the umbrella, elevation, restraint, and overall touch or handling. They also all had great prey drive. Some were more social than others,  but none of the pups showed any concerning issues with behavior or personality. 

For information about the sale of puppies in the  state of New Hampshire, please check out the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets, and Food: https://www.agriculture.nh.gov/laws-rules/index.htm#animalindustry

and

NH Department of Justice Consumer Sourcebook – Extra Note: Pets: https://www.doj.nh.gov/consumer/sourcebook/pets.htm 

All photos below are from Ruby's litter of puppies in Spring 2024:

Some photos below are from our puppy's new owners/homes -  thank you to those who have shared photos with us as they've grown!