After weeks of waiting and worrying about your bundle of cuteness, the day WILL eventually come for you to pick him up.  We prefer to send our puppies home between 8 and 9 weeks of age and older . Be sure to puppy proof your home and review information regarding crate training, house breaking and feeding. Below is a list of important items when coming to pick your puppy up.

• Collar and Leash-your puppy will need a solid collar that measures 8"-14" as well as a leash you can hook on to the collar.  We recommend an inexpensive 20' lead that has a hook on both ends. This works best to keep your puppy attached to you wherever you go the first few weeks.

• Harness-Many different styles and qualities of harnesses exist.  After much searching and lots of experience, we don't have any SPECIFIC harness, just a good high quality one!

• Toys-The topic of toys can be overwhelming so I will try to keep this short and sweet.  We recommend the following: something to retrieve (medium hexi balls are great to start with), something to tug, something with a squeaky and something to chew (bully sticks are great as are raw bones from your butcher). Please NO raw hide!

• Crate pad/Towel-It's common for puppies to get a tiny bit car sick when traveling as youngsters.  Better to be safe than sorry.

• Water Dish-If you are traveling more than 5 hours, we recommend you bring a water dish.  We suggest bringing a little bottled water home to make the trip easier on your puppy. We do not recommend that you feed when traveling.  Puppies will be fine to wait until they get home to eat.

At Elliott's Elite Puppies, nutrition is critical.  Over the course of the past few years, we have tested a number of dog foods and we found what works for us, the puppies, our adults and our new families. We have searched and researched to find a dog food that checked all of our boxes.

• Quality Source of Nutrition-On our nutrition journey we searched for a dog food that helps with joint growth and development, keeps hair coats beautiful without needing to add too much to the diet and is palatable to both puppies and adults. We are also looking for something that comes in fresh and stays fresh as we feed out a bag of food.  Be on the look-out for dog food that is so moist that it can mold as the bag nears empty.

• Readily Available-we searched for a dog food that most people (including ourselves) have ready access to. We have used a number of brands that over time have had "warehouse" issues and that doesn't work when we have babies to feed! We HIGHLY recommend NOTHING with chicken as the first few ingredients, ESPECIALLY for poodles. We use Lamb & Rice dry food, usually Nutri-Source brand or similar

• Highly Reviewed-As with any nutrition-dog food is a controversial subject.  We have tried a number of food brands and we are pleased with the growth, development, spirit, temperament, hair coats and general health of our puppies and adults over time.  

• Consistent Formula- We have found cheap brands like Purina Dog Chow and typical "house bands" from stores are not up to snuff.

In the end nutrition is up to the​ new owner.  For us, we use Purina Puppy Chow to START weaning our puppies (we start them by soaking it and slurrying it up in our food processor until it is liquid)  and meets our requirements. 

We will let you know what your puppy's current diet is consisting of, and provide you with a bag for 3 days of feedings or so! Research and past experience show that puppies can quickly develop loose stools when they are switched from their current dog food.  We typically start to add in some adult Lamb & Rice (or Beef & Rice) when the Puppy Chow is low. We feel this builds good gut flora and good gut health!

We also supplement our adult dogs with a meat and vegetable topper. You can watch a video as to how we make it here... https://youtu.be/tFMPpW9I79E