Policies

When adopting from Grace Wood Farm, you are committing to partner with us and our team to set a different standard in this community. We have implemented policies to ensure we give our puppies the best. Our hope here at Grace Wood Farm is that you will find a family dog to love forever and feel like you are a part of the family!

 

More Puppies than Deposits in a Litter

Every week we receive dozens of requests for currently available puppies, and most of our litters are full many months in advance, reserved by our deposit holders. Sometimes our deposit holders will choose to pass on a litter, and we end up with puppies available. This is rare, but it does happen. If this is the case, we will update our Available Puppies page and announce on our social media accounts that we have extra spots to fill. We do not take an additional "interested" list, as it would have hundreds of people on the list and would be unmanageable. If you would like to try and get on one of the extra spots, you will have to watch our social media announcements after a litter is born for notice that additional puppies are available and contact us right away. Extra spots usually go immediately, so you must be on the lookout!

 

Training

We have a firm policy at Grace Wood Farm: if you want any puppy from us, you better be 100% ready to train it! Every puppy needs training, and not being willing to do this disqualifies you from owning a puppy or dog. A dog may have the best genetics, parents with the best temperaments, and the highest level of socialization from birth. But that dog can become a lousy doggie if it doesn't get training! If you want "the perfect pet," you must be willing to put in the time, money, and effort to train your dog once they are home. If you put in the training, you will reap the benefits!

 

To give our Grace Wood Farm Families the best opportunity for a well-trained dog, we have partnered with lifetime online puppy trainers Baxter and Bella. Visit www.baxterandbella.com to check them out, and when you place a deposit, we will give you a unique coupon code for 25% off.

 

Rehoming Policy

When you buy a baby from us, you welcome a family member, and they will not be rehomed in a non-ideal situation. If you decide that you do not want your dog anymore, for any reason, you must return the dog and its belongings to us for rehoming. 

 

All of our dogs deserve the chance to have a happy and stable life. We do not want our dogs to end up in kill shelters, sold on Craigslist, or bounced from home to home. We have many wonderful families waiting to receive a dog from us, and it is always easy to rehome a dog in a fantastic setting.

 

When you sign Grace Wood Farm's contract, you agree to pay a $5,000 legally binding agreement fine if you break it. Please understand that we want our babies to be safe, loved, and in good long-term homes. This also gives everyone the comfort of knowing that we here at Grace Wood Farm care about our sweet babies!

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Health Guarantee

Here at Grace Wood Farm, we are confident that our puppies will be healthy when we send them home with you, so we offer a one-year health guarantee. For 12 months after birth, we guarantee that your dog will be free from any inherited diseases impairing long life, good health, and full function as a pet. A vet must check the puppy within five days of taking them home and spayed/neutered at six months. Details of the Health Guarantee are provided when you purchase a puppy or upon request.
 

Spay/Neuter Policy

We do not offer breeding rights for any of our puppies, and you are required to spay/neuter your dog by six months of age, or your health guarantee will be voided. This prevents unplanned and unwanted pregnancies, removes the possibility of your dog contracting a canine STD, and eliminates the chance of a fine for violating our contract by unapproved breeding. You can learn more about this in our Anti-Puppy Mill Policy.

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If they choose not to neuter, they void their health guarantee, and if the dog accidentally impregnates another dog, we will hold up the contract's $40,000 fine for negligence. 

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We've set our policy after reviewing the opinions of hundreds of vets and veterinary organizations. The risks associated with waiting far outweigh the chances of a six-month neuter, which is why it is in our policy. 
 

Deposit

The deposit to join our waitlist and become eligible for a litter is $250. When you join a litter, this deposit is put towards the total cost of your puppy. Deposits are non-refundable, and refunds will not be issued for any reason.

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12-month Price Lock-in

When you place a deposit and join our waitlist, the price quoted to you is secure for 12 months. After 12 months, the puppy's price will change to the current price for the breed and size you chose when placing your deposit. If you decide to switch to a different breed or size, you will automatically pay the current price for that breed/size.

 

Litter Timing and Size

Grace Wood Farm does not guarantee any timings of future litters, as dogs can go into heat earlier or later than predicted. Additionally, we do not guarantee specific litters, as sometimes the mating does not take. These are living creatures, and we are working with their bodies and time schedules. We do not run a puppy mill. Therefore we work with the mamas and daddies that we have on their schedules. If a litter does not take, we will move you to the next litter of the breed you picked. We also do not guarantee litter size, as this is 100% up to God. If your litter is smaller in size than the slotted deposits, we will move the spot holders who can't get a puppy to the next litter of the breed you picked.

 

Gender and Color

We cannot guarantee the gender and colors of puppies that will be born, and based on your spot in line, you may have different choices.

 

Location of Litters

Standard and Mini Sheepadoodles may come from either our California, South Carolina, or Georgia locations, depending on the litter. Micro Sheepadoodles come from our Atlanta location. Merle Standard Sheepadoodles come from our South Carolina location, and Reverse Sheepadoodles come from our California location.

 

Picking a Specific Litter

Once you place a deposit, you will be assigned to the general waitlist. Waitlist spots are filled on a first-come, first-serve basis. After our parent dogs successfully mate and the puppies are born, we contact our deposit holders with info about the litter and give them the option to join that specific litter based on their spot on the deposit waitlist. Full payment (excluding the cost of rare markings) of the remaining balance is required to confirm your spot on a litter. Your puppy cannot be picked up from the location breeder or transported to you unless it has been paid for in full. Please see the "Limit to Skipping Litters" Policy for more info.

 

Limit to Skipping Litters

Please take a moment to review our Anti-Puppy Mill Policy. When you get on our waitlist, you are committing that you are serious about adopting a puppy from us. We expect our Grace Wood Farm families to come with genuine and sincere intentions of adopting one of our puppies. We strongly discourage our deposit holders from spending exhaustive time on our waitlist, skipping many litters over much time. To prevent the practice of our deposit holders continuing to skip litter after litter or "shopping our puppies," we only allow our deposit holders to skip four litters before forfeiting their spot on the waitlist. If you skip four litters, you will be removed from your place on the deposit list and instead placed at the bottom of the deposit list. This allows our families who are serious about getting a puppy to provide our babies, who are alive and ready right now, to have a home. 

 

Picking a Puppy

You can pick out your puppy when they are 5-6 weeks old. When the puppies are born, you will be emailed with a schedule that includes Pick Day, Go Home Day, and other important dates/deadlines. You pick your puppy based on the number in the line of your deposit. Your deposit holds your spot in the reservation line and goes towards your overall cost.  

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Right to Breeder's Pick

There is always a breeder's first-choice pick, and we can decide at any time that we may choose to keep any puppy. The first deposit will always be after us if we were to decide to keep a pick of the litter.

 

Forfeiture of Litter Spot on Pick Day

At times on pick day, families decide not to choose a puppy from the litter they committed to. You may, at that point, decide to forfeit your spot on that litter and return to the general waitlist. When you return to the general waitlist, you will be placed back at the end of the list. However, you can only do this once.

 

After that, we will have no choice but to take that as a sign that you may be an irresponsible dog owner, and we will not feel comfortable that we can trust you to follow our policies and care for one of our babies. If you forfeit your spot on a litter twice, we will remove you from our deposit list. This also is a part of our Anti-Puppy Mill Policy. We spend a tremendous amount of time, thought, communication, and effort to ensure our puppies are cared for with world-class standards, and we strive to give all our families an outstanding experience from start to finish. Committing to a litter and then vacating your spot creates tremendous extra work for us. The puppy now only has three weeks to find a new home, and if we don't see a new home quickly, that puppy will be left without its littermates as we search for a new home. We ask that you carefully decide to commit to a litter when the puppies are born.

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Go Home Day

This is the day you will get your baby, usually eight weeks after the puppies are born. Unless there is an emergency, we require all puppies to be picked up on the Go Home Day that is given. Puppies are sent home with a care package that includes their records, a blanket or toy with the scent of the litter, and other items, including their papers and shot records.

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Puppy Transport & Shipping

If you would like us to deliver your puppy to your home rather than making the trip to our location yourself, we can help! We invite you to take advantage of our Grace Wood Farm Transport Service. Learn more about our transport team by clicking here.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: We only allow one of our own Grace Wood Farm transporters or you to pick up (or deliver to your home) your new baby. We do not work with outside transporters for the safety of your puppy. 

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Interacting With Our Team

We are committed to giving our clients a wonderful experience at Grace Wood Farm. We treat our clients like family because that's what they are. We are entering into a relationship that will hopefully last for many years, and good relationships take effort. We strive to be kind, respectful, and helpful at every opportunity, and we ask that our clients treat our team with the same respect. Remember that throughout the process, we vet our clients to ensure that our dogs will be cared for in a loving home. If you respond to our team with hostility or irrational demands, it could make us reevaluate your character, intentions with our puppies, and your eligibility to adopt a puppy from us.

 

Location Visits

For the health and safety of our location breeders, their families, parent dogs, and puppies, we do not offer in-person visits to our locations. We take extra precautions to protect our locations because of things like kennel cough, distemper, and parvovirus. However, no need to fret; click below on your location, and you will get a complete tour of our homes and nurseries where the puppies are born and raised.

 

Grace Wood Four Seasons - Reverse Sheepadoodles and Standard Sheepadoodles in California

Grace Wood Southern Magnolia - Standard Sheepadoodles, Mini & Moyen Sheepadoodles in South Carolina

Grace Wood Wisteria - Micro & Mini Sheepadoodles in Ellijay G.A

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All this is in place to give you the best puppy you can get!​