FAQs

Our puppies are handled every day by both children and adults from the time they are very small. They also spend time in a number of different settings before they go home, indoors in the house and the office, out in the kennel, and outside in the fresh air, so that new sounds, new footing, and new surroundings are already familiar to them rather than frightening.

Just as important, from the first days of life we use early neurological stimulation, sometimes called Bio Sensor therapy. It is a short, gentle daily routine that came out of the United States military working dog program, and the studies behind it report stronger cardiovascular performance, stronger adrenal glands, more tolerance to stress, and greater resistance to disease in the puppies who receive it.

It takes only a few minutes a day during a narrow window early in life, and it gives a puppy a real developmental and neurological head start. It is one of the things we would not skip for any litter.

• Early neurological stimulation, demonstrated

Yes, and we love it when families do. Visits are by appointment. We are in Bradford, Maine, about half an hour from Bangor. To protect our litters from outside contaminants, puppy visits begin once the puppies are six weeks old. Please get in touch and we will find a time that works.

Pickup happens at eight weeks of age, unless your puppy is staying on for one of our training programs.

If you need us to keep your puppy longer than that, we are happy to board them here at a competitive daily rate. Please tell us early so that we can plan for it.

Your puppy comes home with a folder containing the health clearances for both parents, AKC papers where applicable, and a good deal of helpful information covering health, training, and the paperwork Maine requires us to provide at the time of sale. Your puppy is microchipped before going home and the number is recorded for you in the folder. If you would like a small bag of the food we have been feeding, just ask and we will send one along with you.

This growth chart gives expected weights for males and females at each stage. Golden Mountain Dogs run considerably larger. Ask us and we will happily tell you what your own puppy’s parents weigh.

Golden Retrievers are people dogs through and through. They thrive on attention and want to be with you, around you, and near you, and they do not do well left alone for long stretches. Before you reserve, please look honestly at your week and ask whether there is room in it for the love and attention this breed needs. If there is, a Golden will add more joy to your life than you can imagine.

Enough that they can settle and be calm in the house, which is really what most owners are asking for. A fenced yard and daily walks go a long way. Puppies need less hard exercise than people often assume while their joints are still developing.

Puppy Culture’s exercise chart breaks it down nicely by age.

Yes, and it is time very well spent. Basic obedience is what turns a lively puppy into the calm, happy companion most families are picturing, whether you start with one of our programs or begin from scratch at home. The videos below cover the basics of stay, leash, and crate.

• Harmful things you do to your dog without knowing
• How to train your puppy, with Cesar Millan
• Force free dog training, Uncle Stonnie

It is one of the most common questions we get, and it is very fixable with consistency.

• How to train your puppy to stop jumping

You may have heard of littermate syndrome, the idea that two puppies raised together will bond only to each other and never listen to their owner. It is a far more common warning than it deserves to be, and the videos below take it apart.

That has been our experience too. Two puppies who are properly trained and raised together do just fine. What makes the difference is giving each puppy individual attention, a little time apart each day, and training sessions of their own, rather than treating the pair as a single unit. Do that and you get two well adjusted dogs and the pleasure of watching them grow up side by side.

We have also found that raising two at once is not twice the work. It is quite a bit less than double, and the two of them have each other for company and someone to play with, which takes a good deal of pressure off you.

If you are thinking about taking two, we would love to talk it through with you and help you set things up so that both puppies get what they need.

• Should I adopt two puppies? What about littermate syndrome?
• More on raising littermates together

We feed the Wholesomes puppy formulas here at the farm, so that is what your puppy will be eating on the day they come home. Wholesomes makes several puppy formulas and we are happy with all of them, so you can choose whichever suits you and your dog best.

Our quality dog food page lists all three of the foods we stand behind, ranked from best to least best. Whichever you choose, please transition gradually over a week or so rather than switching all at once.

There are two, and both are written into your sales agreement.

• A daily nutritional supplement for your puppy’s first twelve months, either NuVet Plus or Springtime Longevity, with proof of purchase or the supplement on hand at pickup. Either product satisfies the requirement, and we highly recommend continuing it for the life of your dog.
• Kochi Free for the first three weeks at home, an herbal digestive aid from Amber Naturalz that helps your puppy’s digestion settle during the move. Please order it directly from Amber Naturalz.

If you choose NuVet, our order code is nuvetlabs.com/55651.

Windy Knoll Goldens is paid a commission on NuVet Plus orders placed using our order code. We receive no payment or other benefit in connection with Springtime Longevity or Kochi Free.

We mix garlic from Springtime Inc. into the food as a natural preventative. If your puppy does happen to pick up fleas, diatomaceous earth dusted into the coat for a few days, and onto their bedding and play area, kills fleas mechanically and is perfectly harmless to your puppy.

We have had good results with herbal remedies over the years. Infection Fighter is what we keep on hand. For anything that is not clearing up, or that worries you at all, please call your veterinarian.

Please keep these away from your dog. Several are toxic and some can be fatal.

1. Alcohol
2. Avocados
3. Chocolate
4. Coffee and caffeine
5. Fruit with pits or seeds
6. Grapes and raisins
7. Macadamia nuts
8. Onions
9. Xylitol, an artificial sweetener
10. Yeast dough

Please also avoid bones that splinter and can injure the intestines, particularly chicken, fish, and pork chop bones.

If you think your dog has eaten any of these, call your veterinarian right away, or the ASPCA Poison Control Center at 1-888-426-4435. A consultation fee may apply.

Every dog we breed is screened before being bred. Hips are evaluated through PennHIP, which measures joint laxity by radiograph and can be done from four months of age. Some of our dogs also hold OFA hip, elbow, or cardiac certification. Hearts are examined by a veterinarian. All of our dogs have DNA testing, and most are tested through Embark, which screens a broad panel of inherited genetic conditions including progressive retinal atrophy, ichthyosis, and degenerative myelopathy.

The certifications and test results for your own puppy’s sire and dam go home in your binder, and we are always happy to email them to you before you reserve. Just ask.

Our guarantee runs twelve months from the day you take your puppy home, and it covers congenital malformation and hereditary disease, including moderate or severe hip and elbow dysplasia. If a covered condition is diagnosed, you choose the remedy:

• A full refund on return of the puppy.
• A replacement puppy from the next available litter.
• Keeping your puppy and being reimbursed for reasonable veterinary costs, up to the full purchase price.

That last option goes further than Maine law requires, and we offer it because we believe most families would rather keep the dog they have fallen in love with.

Separately, Maine law gives you rights that we follow in full: ten days for a health problem that existed at delivery, and a full year for a hereditary or congenital defect. You may claim under whichever is more favorable to you. The complete terms are in our sales contract.

Yes. We administer all vaccines here at Windy Knoll Goldens before your puppy goes home. We use either non toxic homeopathic nosode vaccines, covering parvovirus, distemper, parainfluenza, bordetella, leptospirosis, coronavirus, hepatitis, and Lyme, or a conventional two way vaccine covering parvovirus and distemper.

If you have a preference between the two, simply let us know ahead of time and we will be glad to give your puppy whichever you would rather have.

You will receive a written record of what your puppy received, along with the dates, so that your veterinarian can carry on from there.

We highly recommend that you do not spay or neuter your dog at all.

Long term research out of the University of California, Davis, funded in part by the AKC Canine Health Foundation, found substantially higher rates of joint disorders and certain cancers in Golden Retrievers neutered before one year of age, and its published guideline recommends against spaying female Golden Retrievers at any age.

Dr. Karen Shaw Becker, the veterinarian who wrote The Forever Dog with Rodney Habib, makes the same case at length. The hormones that spaying and neutering remove go on doing important work across a dog’s entire life, and leaving a dog intact is generally better for long term health and longevity.

We keep our own dogs intact and we have been glad of it. The decision is finally yours to make with your veterinarian, and we would encourage you to read the research before you make it.

• Should you neuter your dog? Uncle Stonnie

Cancer rates in Golden Retrievers are a real concern, and understanding them is one of the reasons we put so much care into nutrition and into the health testing behind every litter. The two talks below, from Dr. Andrew Jones of Veterinary Secrets, look at ivermectin as a possible cancer treatment in dogs.

• Ivermectin for cancer in dogs, doses and regimens
• Could this dog dewormer cure cancer? Dr. Jones explains

Please call us first. If at any point in your dog’s life you are not able to keep him or her, six months from now or twelve years from now, we will take the dog back. There is no time limit on that, and there is nothing you need to justify to us. All we ask is that you come to us before you contact a shelter or a rescue. We will take it from there and find your dog the right home, with people who are every bit the dog lovers you are.

You start by putting in a reservation for a puppy, which places you on our general waiting list.

We work our way down that list, and when we reach your name we get in touch, so long as we have a puppy that matches what you told us you are hoping for. If a particular litter is not quite the right fit, you keep your place and we come back to you at the next one.

If you already have a certain litter or a certain puppy in mind, simply tell us that on your reservation. If that litter or that puppy is still available, we will put your reservation toward it.

For most families, choosing happens on pickup day. You come at eight weeks, spend some time with the litter, and take home the puppy you fall for. Families choose in list order, and we space pickup day into time slots so that nobody feels rushed.

If you are in the first or second pick slot, you will often have the option of picking out ahead of time instead, either here at the farm or over a video call, any time after the puppies are six weeks old. We cannot offer an early pick out to everybody, since anyone further down the list would simply be waiting on the families ahead of them to choose first.

On some litters the puppies are easy to tell apart, and families are glad to choose from the photos and videos we send along without needing to be here in person at all.

If you are meeting us on the Kittery delivery run rather than coming out to the farm, you will either pick out ahead of time or wait and meet your puppy when we hand them to you in Kittery.

If you are second pick and you pick out before first pick has chosen, simply give us two puppies, your first choice and your second choice. Once first pick has taken theirs, whichever of your two is left is yours.

Your deposit reserves your place and comes off the price of your puppy. If a particular litter does not work out for you, we simply move you to another litter list and your deposit carries right over. There is no rush and no penalty for waiting for the litter that is right for you.

If we cannot offer you a puppy matching what you asked for within twelve months, we refund your deposit in full. That includes any situation where we decide not to place a puppy with you. If you decide not to go ahead at all, the deposit is not refunded.

You can tell us on your reservation that you would like first or second pick, though choosing that option does not by itself guarantee it. Pick order goes on a first come, first served basis.

When we reach your name on the waiting list, we look at whether first or second pick is still open on the litter we are matching you with. If it is, it is yours. If someone ahead of you has already taken it, you keep your place in line and choose in list order along with everyone else.

At the time you reserve, we charge the deposit, along with training fees if you have signed up for one of our training programs. Nothing else is charged up front.

The remaining balance is paid straight through your invoice, which has a payment link built into it. There is no separate portal, app, or payment service for you to sign up for.

We prefer ACH bank transfer, which costs you nothing extra. Card payments carry a processing surcharge.

We do, and we recommend it warmly. We offer two week and four week training programs, run here at the farm. Puppies in a program go home once their training finishes rather than at eight weeks. Good basic obedience makes an enormous difference to how much you enjoy that first year together.

Training spots are first come, first served. We work with a small number of trainers, so there are only so many puppies we can take from any one litter. If training matters to you, please let us know as early as you can.

We offer delivery rather than shipping, because we would rather hand your puppy to you ourselves. Most buyers meet us at the Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine on one of our scheduled delivery runs.

If you are coming from farther away, the closest airport to us is Bangor. Bangor offers a free shuttle service that can bring you out to our house.

Yes. Every puppy is microchipped before going home, and the number is recorded in your binder so that you can register it in your name.

Our purebred Golden Retriever puppies are registered with the American Kennel Club on Limited Registration, which records your dog with the AKC but means that any puppies it produces would not be eligible for registration. Full registration is available on request for an additional fee, decided case by case.

Golden Mountain Dogs are crossbred dogs. They are not recognized as a breed by the AKC and are not eligible for AKC registration, though other registries do recognize crosses. We do not register them or provide registration papers with them.

Yes. Windy Knoll Goldens is a licensed Maine breeding kennel, license number F1857, licensed through the Animal Welfare Program of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

We are inspected by three separate parties: the American Kennel Club, the Town of Bradford, and the State of Maine.

Yes. Every puppy we place is born and raised here at Windy Knoll.

If we do not have a puppy available when you are needing one, we may recommend another breeder.

Golden Retrievers and Golden Mountain Dogs. Within our Goldens we keep a dark red lineage that has given us some of our very favorite dogs over the years, and it is one of the things we are proudest of here.