Visitor Policy
Salt Lake Lagotto is dedicated to raising the healthiest puppies for our puppy families. For this reason, we have necessary policies regarding the visitation of puppies.
While we have puppies in the nursery or mothers expecting a litter, we no longer allow visitors to our home. If we happen to have puppies available after 8 weeks of age, after leaving a deposit, you may schedule a visit to meet and pick your puppy in person.
One of the reasons people would like to schedule a visit with a breeder is that they have never met a Lagotto Romagnolo. We do recommend meeting a Lagotto, or doing extensive research, before making the decision to bring one home. At least once a year, usually in the summer, we host a Lagotto Romp at a local park. This is a get-together for Lagotti owners or enthusiasts to visit and meet other owners with their dogs. We feel this is the best way to "get to know" the breed and see the personalities of several Lagotti in a safe environment. If you would like information about our romps, please contact us. We also welcome you to our Instagram page "Salt Lake Lagotto" to see how we raise our dogs.
We sometimes get asked why we don't allow families with deposits to visit our puppies. This is not surprising given the number of "what to do when buying a dog" websites that advocate for visiting the breeder and meeting the puppy's parents first. The problem with these sites is their priority is the buyer, not the puppies or breeder's health and safety. Please remember that our dogs and puppies are members of our family and raised inside our home. This means you can't come to visit our adult dogs without also "visiting" our puppies and their mother. We can help our families pick out their puppy based on our daily observations, assessments, and your home life. We ask that you consider matching temperaments to the right family, before color or markings are considered.
Safety of the Pups:
1. The immune system of puppies is very immature. Visitors can unknowingly bring disease (parvovirus, distemper, etc) with them when visiting. The result of which could be the death of the entire litter. I personally know several breeders that have lost, not only entire litters, but also fully vaccinated adults, to parvovirus brought in by well-meaning visitors.
2. Stressed-out Mom creates stressed out puppies. A new mother is already emotionally charged and in hyper-protective mode. When a stranger comes to visit, Mom becomes stressed, causing her body create cortisol, which goes into her milk. The puppies consume this cortisol rich milk and become stressed themselves. Stressed puppies may fail to thrive or grow.
3. A panicked Mom may accidentally hurt her babies. When a stranger comes to visit, Mom’s state of mind changes rapidly. She feels threatened and moves quickly to assess the threat. Many Moms have unintentionally stepped on or crushed a pup in their urgency to get out of the whelping box to assess the threat.
4. I have been entrusted with the care of our puppies for the first critical weeks of their lives. As the guardian of other peoples’ new family member, I must do everything I can to protect them.
In conclusion, a breeder that limits visitation is just putting the health and welfare of their puppies first. Once your application is approved and deposit received, you can schedule to pick up your puppy at 8 weeks of age. We thank you for your understanding and hope families considering us will see that as an attribute of a reputable breeder.
We are very happy to provide references of some of our previous puppy families. We ask that only serious buyers ask for contact information, so as to not overtax the families with casual interest.
