Grooming a goldendoodle
Remember that even though most goldendoodles are low to non-shedding dogs they still need to clipped and brushed on a regular basis. You should groom your dog every 1-2 days. Grooming helps do a few things. It will help establish your dominance over your dog and create more of a bond between you and your dog, it will get your dog use to you touching different body parts and it will keep your dog free of mats ect. A Goldendoodle should be clipped every 3-4 months. If you are taking your dog to a grooming take a picture with you and be very specific. Many people will just drop their dogs off only to come back to a totally shaved dog or a dog clipped like a poodle. So take a picture into the groomer and be very specific how you want your goldendoodle clipped!
A goldendoodle should only be bathed every 3-4 months because their are good oils in the fur and you don't want to continually strip the coat of these oils.
Gernal maintaince includes plucking hair out of the ears and clipping the fur around the anus and eyes.
It is important to pluck the hair out of the ears with either a tweezer, hemostat or your fingers. If a lot of hair is allowed to accumlate in the ear canal mositure will build up and you goldendoodle will get ear infections, also it will be hard to hear so make sure your dogs ears are clear and free of hair. The hair should be plucked out at least once a week to maintain it!
Flea and tick control
It is important you put your dog on some sort of deworming program. They can pick up fleas, ticks and worms from anywhere. If they eat a house they could get tape worm, if the even walk across another dogs feces some worms can absorb through the skin and the dogs can get infected. Talk to your vet about what the right deworming program for your dog is!
Spay and Neutering your dog
Every dog purchased from SwissRidge Kennels needs to be spayed or neutered. It is vital to do this and I recommend doing it at 6 months of age. Females that are not spayed could develop pyometrium (every time the female goes through a heat the cervix opens up and they are more prone to infection, pyometrium is a deadly infection and can kill your female, female dogs are also more prone to develop certain types of cancer if they are nor fixed as everytime they go through a heat estrogen levels in the body rise which makes them more predisposed to mammary and unterine cancer. Females will also bleed all over your house and go through mood swings if not spayed where they become very temperamental and lash out (hmmmmm, remind us of anyone, hehehehe)
Males that are not nuetered can become territorial, aggressive and can roam. They are also more prone to testical cancer do to high levels of testoteron.
EVERY DOG PURCHASED FROM SWISSRIDGE KENNELS NEEDS TO BE SPAYED AND NEUTERED!!!!!
Vaccines and Microchipping
It is esstial that your dog be vaccineted against certain diseases. At SwissRidge Kennels I will provide your puppy with it's first set of vaccines HOWEVER this may not fully cover them becase if the mother antibodies are still in the puppies system they will fight off and destroy the vaccine. This is why it is so important to get 3 sets of vaccines (eash one 3-4 weeks apart). I will give your pups it's first vaccine at 7 weeks of age so it will need another one at 10-11 weeks and then one more around 14-15 weeks. By this time all the maternal antibodies should be gone so the vaccine can take affect. Your puppy will need it's rabies vaccine around 3-4 months of age as well.
It is very important not to take your pup to dog parks or walk it on the side of the road until it is fully vaccinated as you don't want it to pick up any diseases like parvo, distemper ect. I tell people you can bring your puppy to puppy class once it's had it's 2nd set of vaccine and the reason is that more pups end up in humane socities because they haven't been trained properally then ending up with parvo. Obedience class is normally a very safe place HOWEVER make sure the trainer is asking to see your vaccine record because if she isn't asking you she may not be asking others which means some dogs might not be fully vaccinated and then this wouldn't be a safe environment.
Your puppy can play with other dogs and it's important to get your dog socialized with other dogs as early as possible! Make sure that any dog your puppy comes in contact with before it is fully vaccinated is health and fully vaccinated.
All puppies are microchipped! It is important that you sign this chip up. You can either call the phone # at the top of the from or fill the form in and send it to the company. The microchip also comes with 45 days of free pet insurance which starts at midnight on the day you sign up the chip so make sure to ask about this and sign your pup up for this when you are registering the microchip! IT IS IMPORTANT YOU DO THIS ON THE DAY YOU BRING YOUR PUP HOME!
