Hand Raised Family Oriented Puppies

Hand Raised Family-Oriented Puppies!

Our family is devoted to hand-raising companion beagle puppies for approved indoor pet homes.

The nature of our homey, family raised background really makes a wonderful difference as our beagle puppies go into responsible pet homes. We start them off right, hand raising our babies from birth, and bringing our infants into the comforted and loving family atmosphere from the start.

Raising family-oriented beagle puppies for pet homes only is our mission, and it requires unlimited devotion at all hours of the day and night to be sure that these little family members get off to the best start possible here at home.  People often ask us how we can do it all, and we tell them that this way we get to always have puppies around, and knowing that they join loving forever homes who stay in contact with us for the years to come definitely helps us feel comfortable with placing them in happy homes.  Of course getting to cuddle such adorable baby beagles on a daily basis is an enjoyment beyond words... However, the importance of properly raising these little family members from the day they enter this world to the day they are ready to enter their forever homes takes much more than cuddles- what we do is a very time consuming focus that we have dedicated the  our attention to. This is a full-time family business, Miss Christina spends days and night watching over everyone with the help of her two kids Christi & Cody, and the fact that we have the freedom to choose who we allow to adopt our puppies is something we would never give up or sign off to a pet store.

As a mom and two kids, we have worked hard all of our lives towards our dreams for Sunshine Acres, and we have come a long way over the years and are proud of what we have accomplished. As each puppy is born into the world, we are right there with the new mommy, comforting her and helping her along the way in our Whelping Room/ Nursery room which we had built 5 year ago as an addition to our home with wooded acreage. Building the whelping nursery room was definitely a major help in our efforts, whereas before moms had their puppies in our bathroom floor, now they have their own areas inside with automatic waterers and doggy doors to go outside and get exercise as they please, helping the production of milk for their babies.

The newborns start their lives inside on comfy sheets that rest upon warm heating pads, beneath the comforting glow of heating lamps which can be turned on or off as needed. The first two weeks of infancy consist primarily of nursing & sleeping. Meanwhile, we are cooking up plenty of nutrient rich, milk-producing treats and food for mommy to eat while constantly nursing & taking care of her newborns. Throughout each and every day we pick up our puppies, cuddle them, and talk to them. We truly believe they can hear us even during those infant days; their eyes may be closed those first 2 weeks of life, but those ears are often seen perking up at our voice, an always enchanting sight to see. We make watching over (and snuggling!) the newborns our number one priority during this crucial time- which is one reason why we require patience from prospective adoptive homes- our true forever families wouldn't want it any other way! As the newborns open their eyes around 2 weeks old, when we hold them this time they can see who we are! They stare with those big, innocent eyes and have this look on their face as though they are thinking “It’s you, I know you, wow…” They are begin to take it all in and connecting the dots, remembering our touch from their first weeks of life. The learning puppy is the most amazing process to see, and such an honor to be a part of.   That 3rd week with newly opened eyes, the puppies are getting up, interacting with each other and learning even more about gentle human contact. They have been handled and spoken to from birth, and once their eyes open they can begin learning from their human caregivers.

We give our puppies de-wormer at 2 weeks old, and do so routinely every 2 weeks- worms & eggs can be easily picked up in the soil by any dog anywhere and the whole process can start all over, so we give it regardless of whether they have them or not, and advise customers to do the same by picking up your own bottle of dewormer.  We keep our puppies up to date on dewormings and shots (which start as early as 5-6 weeks, and done in 2-3 week increments depending on vet for a total of 4 in the series), and we like to do the puppies’ current shot in front of their new owner whenever possible so they can tell their vet they saw it done and won’t be forced to repeat that shot for a fee, which some vets do on the basis that many breeders say they do shots but didn’t. Therefore we like to do it in front of the person so folks know it was done, and can more easily avoid that unnecessary expense. We put the label off of the vial onto the health records showing exactly what is in the shots so the vet can see what has been given.

Teeth start coming in at 3 weeks, and mommies begin spending less and less time constantly tending to the puppies & cleaning up after them.   The puppies start eating canned Eukanuba &/or Iams Puppy food for a few days, then with dry Small Breed Puppy mixed in, until finally learning to eat just the dry kibble and drink water versus momma's milk. During this time they have begun socializing, and focusing on their human caregivers rather than mother Dog for all their needs, and learn to look to humans for both love and instruction. By the time they leave our home & hands, she is out of the picture enjoying pack life and playing with all the other doggies in the backyard, and the puppies focus is people- making for a much easier transition to life in a human family, and ready to absorb all interaction like a sponge!

We begin the babies on learning to use paper, and keep their bed clean. When they go onto the paper to go, we say “hurry up” so they can begin associating that word with go to the bathroom, making for easier potty breaks in the future if consistently used in their new home. We place a clean sheet of newspaper over where they went, and the next time the go onto the paper they will walk over that area and then be able to smell where they had gone previously. Since dogs are scent triggered, they will know they are to go there again for hurry-ups. Then we periodically clean out the whole setup and start over with fresh paper and bed so that the room is always pleasant smelling!

We introduce them to their toys, and consistently remind them that their toys are good to chew on and play with. Simply showing your puppy where his or her designated toys are consistently that first week home makes everything easier in the future, as your beagle will know what is okay to play with, and therefore your dog can enjoy more freedom in the home over the years to come without worry.
At this innocent yet attentive homecoming stage, they are eager to learn from everything around them, and they absorb interaction like a sponge, making it one of the best times to introduce them to lifelong habits.

As puppies develop, they will seek masters who will earnestly show them right from wrong, so they can understand how to live most happily in your home. Canines want to follow masters who prove to make the best decisions for the pack as a whole, which means a long healthy & happy lifestyle for them,  therefore, it is important that their forever family takes the lead as they adapt to the unique home & lifestyle of their new pack. Make it very clear that your human pack has boundaries for the good of the pack, so that your puppy can understand the rules and do their part to learn how to fit in!

From the puppy's first day home they will begin learning from their environment and how they can fit in most beneficially for the years to come. They can and will adapt to any lifestyle they are presented with - This is the time to guide their adaptation- be a responsible master for your learning and growing puppy by understanding each situation, responding correctly so that your puppy understands the pack lesson, & committing to a responsible instruction plan as a pack. Your family can lead the way with the benefit of our years of experience raising companion beagle pets.

We tend to our puppies’ needs with all our time, guidance, & the best we can offer, just as we expect from the devoted pet homes they go into, once they're ready to bond & begin learning about their forever pack’s order. As an approved pet home who has made that sincere commitment to becoming a sunshine acres family, you will have access to our years of accumulated advice, and can review our Guidance in taking over the wonderful responsibility of raising your new family-oriented sunshine beagle baby, shaping their future in your home as your very own hand-raised Companion Pet for harmonious years to come!

We start them off right, then it’s your turn to continue raising your new baby beagle!
Review the Advice on our Guidance pages so that everyone is prepared to start things off on the right foot from the beginning, when it’s the easiest to establish lifelong routines in your forever pack.

Kid tested.... Mother Approved House-pet variety Beagle Puppies !!! LOL !

We hand raise our baby beagles in our home, not in cages like many breeders...

We don't use wire floor pens off the ground, or boring and monotonous cement floor kennel runs with chain link fences, or like other breeders do...

WE believe this is why our pups are well socialized with children,
and other animals to fit into family life & a great pet lifestyle!

(Pups from 3 different litters hang out on the bed with the kids while they watch a movie.) dogs raised in cages, or kennel runs, are not often handled and can be nervous, and uneasy with new people or animals.

When you purchase a Sunshine acres beagle puppy, you receive a new puppy care package from the Iams and Eukanuba company with a book on what to do for your new family member, a bag of the food they have been eating, a health folder with the pups health records showing shots, including the labels off the shot vials, de-wormings, and vet follow-up dates. Current shot series done, health folders provided. We provide proof of shots vs most local breeders who don't. This saves you having to repeat those vet visits for shots and wormings.

If you hadn't already sent your own choice of toys for your new family member to enjoy while growing up here, we often include toys, greenies or rawhide chews as we have them if you'd like, so that they have something familiar to play with. You are welcome to bring a blanket, or toy to rub on the littermates or send something to go in with the litter to take home with their scent, so the first night away from home isn't so hard.

Dewclaws are removed whenever possible, to make nail cutting easier. Already started going on paper and outside, and used to being around the family indoors vs cheap caged pups from local hunters. Easy to keep new puppy in a bath floor or laundry room etc. less shedding coats, less bathing required, no hound odors. Less exercise required when from show champ, and indoor companion dogs than our competitors Hunting hound variety who want to get out and use their noses to track animals..

Our pups are kid cuddled cuties from AKC show champion bloodline origins, not caged hunting stock. That results in a Big difference in desire to stay home with the family. The majority of our customers have had a beagle growing up or had one in recent years and most who have had the hunting variety don't want to repeat that mistake and recognize the difference.

All our adult dogs &/or ancestors are American Kennel Club registered so you know they come from Purebred Pedigreed Parents. We provide copies of both parents/ancestor's papers to our customers to verify this. In order to avoid other breeders from trying to purchase and use our pet only puppies in their breeding programs we do not individually register the litters. We do not sell our pets to hunters or breeders, only pet homes, so our dogs are DNA tested to prevent breeding of our very special less shedding and rare colored house pets. Even having one litter by one of our Sunshine Acres Beagles is not allowed, and we will not make exceptions or grant individuals registration of their puppy in order to do this.

Our sincere wish is that each one of our babies just be a spoiled pampered house pet in a Loving family home!

(All our Adult Dogs we own, and have purchased for selective breeding have always been pure bred AKC Registered Beagles over the past 20 years, in the development of our Sunshine Acres Beagle Indoor raised family Pet bloodline. )

In the event the mother or father of a litter came from the breeding of two registered parents and their pups were not registered we will be happy to provide the grandparents papers to show they are from purebred beagle ancestors. the papers arent why our customers buy their family pet from us... the many hours we spend with their future family member, and the years of selective breeding to achieve the best coats, and temperaments and desireable qualities for indoor companionship are what make our puppies so special folks come back for more !

Other beagle breeders in our area dont have pups during the cold months due to the fact that their dogs are out in cages up off the ground and its nearly impossible to heat those open cages for newborns to survive outside the way they raise pups in wire boxes vs indoors, like we raise our baby beagles on heated whelping areas with heat lamps in the ceiling above for warmth.
our moms get a whelping area with a doggie door that allows them to go out when they like. They have automatic water so its always fresh, and as the puppies get old enough we move them away from mom for short periods onto paper in a low box with a bed and toys on one side..

Daisy raises her newborn puppies, and as they grow they begin going on paper vs bedding, eating dry food, and she begins spending less and less time in with them and they begin focusing on their human caregivers!

Some families have gone home and made their own box from wood, to be able to have their pup in the main room with them at first when they bring it home... this is a great idea ! Especially if your family is waiting to take one home .. there is time to locate everything and make it.. one family said it was a nice family project to make while they waited on their choice to be old enough to come stay in it !!

ok, I know , I know...
My favorite "Grace" likes to be in all the pictures she can... LOL !! especially since she and I are constantly doing things together.. she is such a great companion ... going everywhere i go from room to room !

a bathtub also works well... just so they have a choice of bed, or go onto paper ... we pick them up as youngsters and put them on the paper so they learn to go after naps, and food, or water... within 5-10 min. a pup will need to go... then as they learn this they spend less and less time with their mom until they are weaned from her. Once this is accomplished they move to a higher oak box, or tub, and spend some time alone, and with other pups ...to socialize them.

as you can see this pup is sitting in a bathtub with a cuddler bed on one end and paper on the other side.. this is the easy way to housebreak a new pup. when you have time take them outdoors too, and soon they are going to the door to go out..

I met with a couple recently who said they wanted one of our puppies because of the previous beagle they got from a hunter... they told us it was so hard to housebreak it took a year and then wasnt trustworthy , they too felt it was the wire floors when they are learning to go that made it not see the reprecusions of going where you sleep... it just drops through.. no labor involved for the hunter/breeder who raised it that way , but alot more work for the new family teaching it manners and cleanliness in the home !

Time is money, we devote many hours hand raising our puppies, to be loving loyal lap dogs.
Content to be by the fireplace or cuddled on the couch with the kids.

THE DIFFERENCE STARTS WITH INTENTIONS

Christi sits with silver sunshine beagle

Cage raised pups on the other hand, are easier to raise for a breeder, with not as much time or care devoted,
but this can make them difficult to house train, and worse, not content to stay in your yard.
they become a constant problem with escapes  from their owners' yard, fenced or not.!!
The root of our bloodline begins up in the North West Show Champion and Companion Dog Titled CDX winners. not bred for these hunting abilities.   Not too long ago I had a call from a retired couple who had called at a time when we were sold out of puppies last summer. they decided not to wait on our next litter and purchased one of the many pups advertised in Mooresville by a breeder who was thrown out of AKC. He now not only raises some of his hunting stock pups for his hunting purposes, but has puppy mills in the mountains where he purchases pups they bring entire litters to him weekly to resell in the Charlotte market. His ad is on a reduced rate with the observer since he has one at just about all times. It says "super pretty" about every litter. Most of which he has for only days before selling to the pet market.

A lady who had gone to look at his pups years ago told us when she asked about the mom to the litter he got out a scrawny old female and the second he set her down on the ground she lit off for the woods behind his kennel like a flash. the lady said I didn't get to see anything but her tail going into the brush to hunt!! ha!

He provides no health folder w/ proof of shots, worming or vet checkups, no papers and certainly no follow up to those with questions or requests for referrals. I have over the past few years talked to many of his customers who have made the mistake of going for the cheapest beagle pup advertised.. and just like this couple they find out later the dog is miserable being inside and wants nothing more than to climb over their fence or dig under it as this couple reported...to get out to the nearby woods. The man asked if I knew of anyone who would want his year old beagle male now ..he described how it walks back and forth at the sliding glass door crying to go out... constantly no matter how much they try to spend time with him in the house.. once let out he knows exactly where the squirrels are in the trees and once they jump to a tree outside the yard the dog goes nuts pacing back and forth at the rear of their 2 acre fenced in yard.. he said " he can climb right over just like your web site says...
I remember you telling my wife the hunters had a climbing gear and we didn't get it ..till now."

"what can we do, we have raised him inside and he's not happy! we don't want to give him to a hunter to put our boy in a cage, but he is too much work for us to keep chasing.. I wish we had listened to you then. can you help us find a home where he can be. He is blue ticked, meaning so many spots you cant see his white legs.. (big time hunting instinct dogs)   he is crate trained, someone will want him wont they?, we just want to start over and get one of yours like some friends of ours did.. that is the nicest house pet he goes out to do his business and play and comes right back when the owner calls. "

I said "what can I say, I told you so.. you aren't the first with this problem and wont be the last, as long as hunters don't care who they sell to.   I have customers who value their time and want indoor companions THEY don't want to be off in the neighborhood chasing this dog either. If I found him a home he would just do the same thing to the next home. I can only talk to some of the hunters I know to see if one will take him." I did locate a home for him with one. We do some rescue work with beagles who get out and get lost on occasion so they wont end up at the pound , get adopted by a family as a pet and go through the escaping over and over with new adoptive families..

Hunting Kennel Containment - is this your lifestyle?

Imagine buying a beagle puppy that has been raised in a wire floored cage like this.... they are very difficult to house train since from birth they never learned what happens if they "go" where they sleep etc.... in a wire cage it falls thru the floor . much less they haven't been held or cuddled daily like ours !!
so often they are skittish and haven't been socialized with other dogs or kids. (these cages are needed though to keep the adult dogs at home , the instinct to get loose and track animals is bred into them)

WireFloors

I stopped at a hunting supply store a while back where they used to sell lots of beagle puppies to the public they told me they now just sell the supplies to other hunter's .... she got out of selling the puppies since people wanted pets and complained when their puppies grew up to be unhappy in their homes and neighborhood yards and would dig out or climb out to go off to the woods. These pictures are of the fencing they used to contain the young beagle hound pups they would "Start" ... this is the term used for starting them learning to hunt rabbits.
After seeing which ones had the technique they wanted-(loudest baye ,so he can be found eaisly, most desire to track and scent after prey- rabbits that are raised to be let out in the fenced area to chase down..etc.) the rest would go in the paper and be sold off to unsuspecting pet homes...
how do you keep one who wants to hunt already, happy in the house?? Much less they learn to dig under or go over your fenced in yard to head off to the nearest woods... oh there is a big busy rd. out there too, but they still try to make it...over and over...

Here is how the Hunters must contain these pups and adults so they can work with them..

Double Fence at Hunting Kennel

This fencing has electric wire shock , and barbed wire along the top to keep them in !! and there was Two rows in case the pups managed to get out of the first fence the second would stop them from heading to the fields and woods nearby.. wow ... They may be cheaper puppies to start with , but over the 10 to 15 years you own your pet.... do you really think its worth the difference ,,, having to work to keep a dog home who doesn't want to ?? Ever wonder why there are so many hunting hounds in the area they have beagle rescues for those who are turned in by owners who cant handle the escaping any more and the constant drive to find animals outside their owners yards, or those who make it out into the big world and dont make it back home, before someone finds them, and takes them to be adopted into a new nightmare for the next person.

Why not just start with one bred to be a Homebody housepet variety beagle ?

Started in the paper & bedding setup, like the tub, ours are easy to train

when you have time they can be taken outside at the same time as going on paper without confusing them. You know that after meals , water , naptime, or playtime they will need to either be put on their paper confined area, or taken to the grassy area you have chosen for them.....pick one area of the yard to go to and take them there each time at first ... they can learn paper is when you are busy, and outside is when you can take them for a walk..
Our Sunshine acres beagle puppies are family raised to be indoor pets .

Starting with a puppy raised in a cage like other breeders do it in the section above, is more difficult..
You must take it outside whenever it needs to go ! It hasnt used paper before ...

-vs -

Ours going on its own on paper at 4 am. in your bathtub for the first few weeks, till old enough to hold it all night , and then moving into a crate , or bed with You !

( we offer helpful hints on how to housebreak the day you pick up your puppy )

"Belle" CUTIE WHO'S FAMILY OWNS THE KOSHER DELI ON INDEPENDENCE BLVD.

What type of lifestyle will your puppy come from?

RULED BY THEIR HEARTS NOT THEIR NOSE !

Even though your family has no plans to show- the fact that the pups are out of show dogs back in their ancestry means, your puppy won't display the instincts of a field trial beagle, hunting, howling, the hound odors, and worst of all escaping your home and yard to go track prey, rather they have been raised as family companions for many years inside the home with no emphasis placed on tracking ability or instinct in the breeding, and will be loyal loving lap dogs, not howling hunting dogs.

* Please take the time to read our 2nd page, "Indoor Companion Pets vs. Hunting Hound Bloodlines", for background information on why our beagles are so different and the years our family has devoted to developing our unique lines for pet homes only. We prefer to work with people who show a sincere interest, not only in adopting a family member, but also in working with our family to adopt one of our babies, by being patient and following our advice to successfully make a lifelong addition to your family and a continuing positive relationship with your puppy's first family, Christina, Christi and Cody, here at Sunshine Acres.
(After the 2nd page, you can follow the link at the bottom to see our available puppies and contact us with your family's info to be approved to take the next step.)