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Go-Home Day Info
Directions and Instructions for Selection/Go-Home Day at Country Lane
Go-Home Day is such an exciting Day! Read on to make sure you know everything there is to know.
I will email everyone with official assigned appointment times during the week of Go-Home. You will have exactly 30 minutes to complete your appointment. It is extremely important that you are on time. If you are late, the elapsed time will not be made up. You will only get the remaining amount of time to complete your selection. If you don't show during your appointment, you will be bumped to last pick. The purpose of the Go-Home Day selection appointment is to pick your puppy, sign your contract, and make your payment. Generally, we spend the first 15 minutes picking your puppy, and the last 15 minutes handling paperwork and payment. This page will give you all the information ahead of time, so that we can focus on the puppies during your appointment. Should you have any questions, please email me prior to your appointment.
Before visiting our facility, please do not spend time with any dogs or puppies, or visit ANY pet stores, shelters, humane societies, dog parks etc. for a minimum of 72 hours prior to Go-Home Day. Parvo is a very dangerous, highly contagious canine virus that can be innocently transmitted on clothing and shoes. It will kill an entire litter, if they are exposed.
Our facility:
Country Lane Bernedoodles
1055 Pilot Grove Rd
Salem, Iowa 52649
When you arrive at Country Lane, you will see two driveways. The first driveway that is blocked with orange cones pulls into parking for our old house. Please do not use this driveway. Instead, use the second driveway just past the Country Lane sign and the mailbox. You may park in front of the orange cones there, or at the tan machine shed with the large white garage door, and walk down to the Country Lane Office under the covered porch. That way, you don’t have to back up the sloped driveway when you go to leave.
I also would like to mention that we are located off the main highway, and you will be driving on approximately 2 miles of gravel road to get to Country Lane.
Please bring your filled out and signed copy of the Dog Health Warranty, Purchase Agreement, & Spay/Neuter Agreement contract. Click to download.
Payment is due on Go-Home Day, so please have your plan for payment finalized. Personal checks are not accepted.
Sanitation protocol:
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Before you visit our facility, please make sure you are wearing close-toed shoes, with a sole. We recommend not wearing valuable shoes, as you will be stepping in disinfectant before entering.
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When you reach the door of our office, you will come across two mats, one of which is soaked with a hospital grade disinfectant. Please stand on this mat in the disinfectant solution for an additional five seconds. You can choose to remove your shoes or place slip-on, disposable booties over your shoes. Please keep in mind that small children will likely have to remove their shoes.
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When you enter the office, you will be directed to the sink to sanitize your hands.
Thank you so much for partaking in our efforts to keep our facility clean and free from the parvovirus and other harmful germs!
Instructions for Virtual Selection/Go-Home Day
Virtual Go-Home Day appointments are great for families that are towards the bottom of the selection list that might not be confident that they will be able to find their puppy from what's available and are unsure if they want to make the trip to Country Lane on Go-Home Day.
Virtual appointments are done by phone call, as the Puppy Evaluation videos and score cards have already been sent out for you to review, and we feel that you have all the info needed to make a well informed decision about the remaining puppies.
I will be contacting you from my phone (319-261-9634) when the appointment ahead of yours has concluded.
I will email assigned appointment times once I have heard back from everyone on the list. You will have exactly 30 minutes to complete your appointment. It is extremely important that I am able to reach you during your assigned appointment. Elapsed appointment time will not be made up. You will only get the remaining amount of time to complete your selection. If you are unable to be reached during your assigned appointment, you will be bumped to last pick. Should you have any questions, please email me prior to your appointment, so that we can focus on discussing the puppies during your appointment.
I will send you an invoice for you to pay your remaining balance the same day. I will also send the Dog Health Warranty, Purchase Agreement, & Spay/Neuter Agreement contract over through Docusign for you to sign if you will be selecting virtually and having your puppy delivered.
If you are out of state needing delivery, we typically do not start coordinating that until after you have selected your puppy unless you are willing to purchase a refundable ticket ahead of time. If you are not needing delivery, we will set up an appointment for you to come pick your puppy up in the available days following Go-Home.
Payment
Payment must be paid in full upon receipt. If you are attending Go-Home Day at Country Lane, you will pay in person before you leave. Accepted forms of payments are Venmo (@countrylanebernedoodles), cash, or cashiers check. Venmo often has a spending limit, so please keep that in mind so that there are no surprises on Go-Home Day in regards to funds for payment.
Credit card is also an acceptable method, however, a 3% fee will be applied. You can use the website link below to submit using credit card (additional 3% fee) with the password clbpayments
https://www.countrylanebernedoodles.com/deposit-and-final-payment
Shopping Guide
Click here for an amazon list of puppy essentials!
Puppy Packs - What is sent home with your puppy?
Some of these items may not be included due to unavailability or price changes. Unfortunately, the Snuggle Puppy is no longer gifted, as they raised their bulk purchase pricing and I can no longer get it for a reasonable price. If you are still interested in having the Snuggle Puppy added to your Puppy Pack, you can purchase it from us (cheaper than wholesale) for $24, and we will familiarize the puppies with them and add mother and littermates scent to it for you
Puppy Pack Files
Click to Download
Go-Home Instructions
This file explains how to properly acclimate your puppy to it's new home!
New Puppy Care Handout
This file has everything you could possibly want to know about your new puppy and how to care for them. Most questions you have within the first day or two with your new puppy can be answered here.
Grooming Guide
This file is your guide to grooming your Bernedoodle!
Socialization Guide
This file is your guide to socializing your puppy.
What food should you buy?
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We feed our puppies Royal Canin Puppy Food. From weeks 1-8 in our care, we feed mom and puppies the Mother and Baby Dog formula. A 1 lb sample of that food will be sent home with them. At 8 weeks, they are ready to graduate from this food, so you will need to purchase a bag of their puppy food. For our Mini and Tiny sizes, we recommend the Medium formula, and for our Standards or Bernese, we recommend the Large formula. It is intended that you use the 1 lb sample from us to mix in with your bag of food for the first week so they can become accustom to their new kibble and wean off their old. Royal Canin can be found at most large chain pet stores or online. Click the bags above to be taken to Chewy.com where you can set up an auto-ship service if you would like.
They are being "free fed" here while they live communally. This means that food is always available to them and is best to ensure all puppies have an equal opportunity to eat while living with their siblings. Once they head home, we recommend letting your puppy "graze" for the first week to let them get used to where their new food and water station will be. Grazing means keeping your puppy's food bowl full at all times and letting them go up and eat whenever they please. While we know that if a puppy is eating all the time, they will likely be going potty all the time, so when you feel that they have established where eating will take place, we then recommend starting a schedule/feeding routine and feeding them 3-4 meals per day. The amount you should feed your puppy should be written on a chart on the back of your dog food bag according to their weight. You should split this total daily amount up between how many ever meals you choose to feed. It is important for a puppy to have meals because it helps distribute calories and energy throughout the day. We love using these "meals" as training sessions and we hand feed them their kibble as the treats when they do good!
Should you want to switch their food, keeping them on a premium quality puppy food appropriate for their size is necessary while they are growing, roughly for the first 12-18 months. Another brand we recommend is Purina Pro Plan. The steps below should be followed over the period of a week to transition from the food they were used to at Country Lane to the new food you wish to feed.
Crate Training
We recommend the Midwest Life Stages crate with the divider panel. The divider panel makes it possible for you to buy the size crate needed for the adult size of your pet, and divide off the kennel into a smaller size for when you are crate/potty training your puppy.
For Standard Bernedoodles & Bernese we recommend the 42-inch or the 48-inch size.
For Tiny and Mini Bernedoodles we recommend the 36-inch size.
Nuvet Supplements
click image to purchase
Trupanion Medical Insurance for Pets
Online Training
You should start training your puppy immediately once you bring them home! We love these online training methods above for that reason. You can get started right away at your own pace in the comfort of you own home! Method K9 and Baxter & Bella are both great programs that I have used with my own pets. Click on the images above to be directed to their pages.
I love Baxter & Bella for it's easy-to-use and fun-to-follow features. A membership with Baxter & Bella is not just training videos. It includes lifetime access to lessons and videos, games and activities, a resource library full of articles and helpful info, video archives, parent forums, and LIVE support. It's the leading provider of online dog training, and we are so excited to partner with them. Use coupon code "CLB25" at sign up for 25% off.
Method K9 is an actual full time dog trainer in the PNW. It wasn't until recently that she started online courses training families from all over how to use her incredible training techniques. If you are truly wanting to take your dog training to the next level, this is the course for you. She has several courses available, and I personally have purchased the Puppy Jump Start (ages 8 weeks-5 months) and Basic Foundation (ages 5 months+) courses. After you purchase you will have access to the courses for up to a year. I am working on getting my customers a coupon code for these courses, so I will update in the future if I'm successful. I will say that they are well worth their money!
Other free training videos I find helpful, as well as the desensitizing sounds our puppies listen to daily (that we recommend you play for them moving forward as well) are located below.
