Our Commitment

Health Guarantee

Good as Gold Doodles Two-Year Warranty Against Debilitating Congenital Defects.

Why This Page Exists

Bringing home a puppy is a significant decision, and most families carry the same quiet worry underneath the excitement. What if something is wrong with him?

This page is our answer. It is the full warranty that accompanies every Good as Gold Doodles puppy, not a summary. Read it before you apply. Ask us anything about it.

As member breeders of the Goldendoodle Association of North America, we are required to publish our two-year warranty publicly and keep it current. We would publish it regardless. A guarantee you cannot read before you commit is not much of a guarantee.

Before a Puppy Is Ever Born

A warranty is the last line of defense, not the first. The real work happens years earlier, in deciding which dogs are bred at all.

Every breeding dog in our program completes the full testing required by GANA before being bred.

Orthopedic and physical clearances (certified through OFA)

Hips
Elbows
Patellas
Cardiac
Eyes, CAER examination, repeated every two years for the dog's breeding life

Genetic disease panel (through an approved canine genetics laboratory)

Progressive Rod Cone Degeneration (PRCD PRA)
Golden Retriever Progressive Retinal Atrophy 1 and 2
von Willebrand Disease Type 1
Neonatal Encephalopathy with Seizures
Ichthyosis
Degenerative Myelopathy

We do not breed a dog with missing, expired, or failed testing. We do not breed dogs related within three generations. We will show you the actual certificates for both parents of your puppy, not a badge, the documents themselves. Just ask.

What Comes Home With Your Puppy

A veterinary examination completed before placement, documented
Age-appropriate immunizations
Deworming on a veterinary schedule
An implanted microchip
Complete vaccination and deworming records
A GANA Puppy Registration Certificate
Copies of both parents' health testing results
Thirty days of Trupanion medical coverage at no cost, activate within 24 hours of go-home day
This warranty, signed

The Two-Year Warranty

What is covered

We warrant your puppy against debilitating congenital defects for two full years from the date of sale.

A debilitating congenital defect is a condition present from birth that is either life threatening, or that would prevent your dog from serving the purpose for which you acquired him.

We also affirm that every reasonable measure was taken in selecting and pairing the sire and dam to reduce the likelihood of hereditary disease.

What we will do

Where a covered defect is confirmed, you are entitled to one of the following, at our discretion:

Financial assistance of no less than 50% of the purchase price, excluding shipping, applied toward treatment, requires written veterinary diagnosis and paid invoices.
A replacement puppy from a future litter.

You never have to give your dog back

We will never require you to return your dog to exercise this warranty. Not for financial assistance. Not for a replacement puppy. Not for any reason.

By the time a hereditary condition appears, your dog is your family. Asking you to surrender him in order to get help would be cruel. GANA prohibits it, and we agree completely.

Terms on a replacement puppy

We determine which puppy is offered
Because we breed a limited number of litters each year, the wait may extend up to 18 months
Color, coat, and sex are not guaranteed
Shipping on the original puppy is not refunded, and transportation of a replacement puppy is your responsibility

How a Claim Works

Contact us as soon as you have a concern, before diagnosis if possible.
Obtain written confirmation from a licensed veterinarian. Where the dog has died, a necropsy is required.
Send us the veterinary records within five days of diagnosis.
We may seek a second opinion from a veterinarian or specialist of our choosing, at our expense.

Two things to know:

Where a necropsy is performed and the findings are inconclusive, the warranty is void as to that claim.

Where the dog is euthanized or otherwise disposed of without giving us the opportunity to obtain a second opinion, all rights under this warranty are forfeited. Please call us first. Always.

The Three-Day Veterinary Examination

Please have your puppy examined by a licensed veterinarian within three business days of go-home day. This is required.

Where the puppy is found to be in poor health at that examination, you may return him to us, at your cost, for a full refund, supported by a written statement from the examining veterinarian identifying the defect or illness.

Where the puppy is not examined within three business days, this warranty is void.

Please protect your puppy at that visit

Your puppy is not fully immunized, and a veterinary clinic is one of the highest-risk places he will go.

Keep him crated or in your arms in the waiting room. Do not set him down.
Do not let him walk on the clinic floor anywhere.
Ask that the exam room and table be disinfected before your appointment.
Bring a clean towel or blanket from home and set him on it during the exam.

Parasites, Please Read This Before You Apply

We deworm every puppy on a veterinary schedule and follow strict cleaning and disinfection protocols. We still cannot guarantee a parasite-free puppy, and we will not pretend otherwise.

Coccidia and giardia shed intermittently, which means a clean fecal test one day does not rule them out the next. They are also stress sensitive, and the most stressful week of a puppy's life is the week he moves to a new home.

A parasite flare in the first two weeks after go-home is common. It is treatable. It is not a sign that something is wrong with your puppy or with us.

All costs of treating intestinal parasites are the owner's responsibility, including where parasites were present at go-home.
More than one course of treatment is sometimes needed.
If you are not prepared to treat parasites, please do not buy a puppy.
Many parasites are contagious. Other dogs in your home may contract them.
Do not let other dogs eat your puppy's stool. Remove waste immediately and disinfect.

What Is Not Covered

Viral illness and infection
Improper bite or dentition
Stress-related illness
Seizure disorders of any form
Hernias
Hypoglycemia
Food allergies and sensitivities
Parasites of any kind, including giardia and coccidiosis
Cancer
Endocrine disorders
Illness or injury from ingesting foreign objects, food, or chemicals
Physical injury or trauma
Conditions caused or materially worsened by care after placement
Cosmetic characteristics, adult size, adult coat, and temperament

This warranty is non-transferable and applies only to the original buyer. No warranty or guarantee, express or implied, is made beyond what is written on this page.

What We Do Not Require of You

We are explicit about these, because some breeders do require them and GANA does not permit it.

No specific brand of food is required. We ask only that you feed a premium quality, complete food formulated for dogs. That is a quality standard, not a product. Your choice of brand has no effect on this warranty.

No supplement purchase of any kind is required. Not ours, not anyone's.

Exercise limitations are requested, not required. We ask you to postpone strenuous, forced exercise until your dog is over one year old, because the orthopedic research supports it. It is a request. Declining it does not void this warranty.

We will never require you to return your dog to exercise this warranty.

What We Do Not Guarantee

We do not guarantee hypoallergenic or non-shedding coats.

We are direct about this because it is the most common piece of misinformation in the doodle world, and families get hurt by it.

No dog is truly hypoallergenic. Goldendoodle coats vary, even among littermates from the same pairing. Some shed very little. Some shed more. We test coat genetics and we will tell you exactly what the results say, but a prediction is not a promise.

If someone in your home has a serious allergy, talk to us honestly before applying. We would rather help you reach the right decision, including the decision not to get a goldendoodle, than sell you a puppy that makes someone in your family sick.

We also do not guarantee adult size, adult coat color, or adult temperament. We select carefully, we raise every puppy on the full Puppy Culture curriculum, and we will tell you what we expect. But a dog is a living animal, and how he turns out depends enormously on the life you give him.

Genetic Carrier Status, Full Disclosure

Some of our dogs are carriers of certain recessive genetic conditions. The word sounds alarming and usually should not be.

A recessive condition requires two copies of a variant for a dog to be affected. A carrier has one, is completely healthy, and will never develop the condition.

GANA requires at least one parent be clear for every required recessive condition. That means a puppy from our program can never be affected by these conditions. A puppy from such a pairing is either clear or a carrier, never affected.

Where your puppy is a carrier, we tell you in writing on your go-home paperwork. It does not affect his health or your warranty. We tell you because you deserve to know everything we know about your dog.

Your Ongoing Responsibilities

Your warranty is supported by the care you provide. We ask that you:

House your dog indoors as a member of the family
Feed a premium quality, complete food
Maintain a healthy weight
Schedule an annual wellness exam
Seek prompt veterinary care when he is ill or injured
Keep immunizations current per AVMA guidelines
Administer heartworm preventative where applicable
Register and maintain the microchip in your name

We also strongly encourage basic obedience training within the first year.

If You Cannot Keep Your Dog

We will determine how he is rehomed, and a goodwill refund less expenses is issued once he is placed. We will never allow a dog we bred to go to a shelter, a rescue, a pound, or a research facility, and neither may you.

You do not need to be embarrassed. Life changes. Just call.

Spay and Neuter

Every puppy is placed on a written spay/neuter agreement unless specifically sold with breeding rights. We will discuss timing with you. Current veterinary guidance for large breed dogs generally favors waiting until growth is complete. Make that decision with your own veterinarian.

Questions

Something Unclear? Ask Us.

Read something here you do not understand, or do not like? Tell us. We would rather have that conversation now.