Litters — Current & Planned
A small home programme means a few carefully chosen litters a year. Here is what is open, what is planned, and how a Northwest Lagotto litter comes together — from pairing to placement.
Open for Enquiries
The Current Litter
If you are reading this well after autumn 2026, the litter above may have gone home — in which case the most useful thing you can do is join the waitlist, because that is where the next litter is announced first. This page is kept current, but a planned pairing is only ever announced once it is real.
The Approach
How We Plan a Litter
We are a small home programme, and we breed like one. A few carefully considered litters a year, each planned around a specific pairing and a specific reason — never produced on a schedule to meet demand, and never more than we can raise properly in our home rather than a kennel building. The litters we plan are the ones we can stand fully behind.
A pairing begins long before a breeding. It begins with the question of what each dog brings — temperament first, then health clearances, structure, and what the combination does for the breed’s genetics rather than just for a pretty puppy. Both parents complete the full CHIC health-testing panel before they are ever bred, with results posted publicly in the OFA database for anyone to verify. When we reach outside our own dogs — as we did to bring a Westminster sire to a Swedish dam this autumn — it is because the outcross does something a closer pairing could not. The Blanca × Flocky announcement is, among other things, a worked example of how we think a pairing through.
What this means for a family is simple: when we announce a litter, it is the product of a deliberate decision, not a calendar slot. That is the whole point of breeding at this scale.
For Families
How Placement Works
Our placement process is built around fit, and it begins with a conversation rather than a deposit. The sequence is the same for every litter.
It starts with the waitlist. Prospective families write to us and join the waitlist, which is less a queue than an introduction — it lets us understand your household, your experience, and what you are hoping for in a dog, well before a litter is on the ground. Waitlist families hear first. When a litter is planned, the families already on our waitlist are the first to know, before any public announcement. Placement is by match, not by order. We pair a specific puppy with a specific family based on temperament and fit — the calm, biddable puppy and the bold, driven one belong in different homes — rather than letting families choose from a photo or claiming puppies first-come. We have never had a family regret trusting us on that matching.
For the detail of what the whole journey looks like — from first enquiry through the eight weeks to pickup day — the Puppies & Process page walks through every step. And wherever you are starting from, the right first move is the same: write to us.
Looking Ahead
Planned & Future Litters
Beyond the current litter, we plan further pairings as our dogs and our breeding goals develop — but we hold to one discipline about announcing them: a litter goes on this page only once it is real. The pairing settled, the health work done, the breeding scheduled or underway. We do not publish speculative timelines, because an unconfirmed litter is not a litter; it is a hope, and families deserve better than to plan around a hope.
What that means in practice is that the surest way to know about a future litter — before it appears here, before any post goes public — is to be on the waitlist. Planned litters are announced to waitlist families first. A family thinking a year or two ahead loses nothing by joining early, and gains the one thing that matters most in a small programme: a place in the conversation before the litter exists.
We expect to plan litters in 2027 and beyond. When they are confirmed, they will appear here, and the families waiting will already know.
The Standard
What Every Litter Receives
However the parents differ, the standard a litter is raised to does not. Every puppy that leaves us comes from the same foundation, and it is worth being plain about what that includes — both because families deserve to know, and because it is the test you should hold any breeder to.
Health-tested parents, verifiable. Both parents hold current CHIC numbers through the OFA, with every required clearance completed and posted publicly — see our health testing page for the full panel. A structured raising programme. Every litter is raised from the first days of life through the Puppy Culture protocol — early neurological stimulation, careful socialisation, and the confidence-building that happens during the weeks that shape a dog for life. Eight weeks in our home. Not a kennel building — a working household, with the sounds, handling, and rhythm of family life. A matched placement and lifetime support. Every family is matched thoughtfully and backed by support that does not end at pickup, including our standing commitment to take a dog back at any point in its life if a family ever cannot keep it.
That foundation is identical from litter to litter. It is, in the end, what the kennel name is a promise of. If you want the reasoning behind how to weigh all of this when choosing among breeders, our guide to choosing a Lagotto breeder lays it out.
Questions
Questions Families Ask
Do you have Lagotto Romagnolo puppies available now?
Availability changes by season. As of mid-2026, an autumn litter — Blanca bred to NBISS GCHS Il Granaio dei Malatesta Flocky, Best of Breed at Westminster 2023 — is open for enquiries, with puppies expected home in late October 2026. We keep this page and our waitlist current; the best step is to write to us and join the waitlist so you hear first when a litter is planned.
How many litters does Northwest Lagotto have each year?
A small number. We are a home programme, not a high-volume kennel, and we plan only a few carefully considered litters a year so that each one receives the full attention — the health testing, the pairing decisions, and the eight weeks of structured raising — that our standard requires. Litters are planned around specific pairings and specific goals, not produced on a schedule to meet demand.
How do I reserve a puppy from an upcoming litter?
It begins with a conversation, not a deposit. We ask prospective families to write to us and join the waitlist, which lets us understand your household and what you are looking for. When a litter is planned, families on the waitlist hear first, and placement is by mutual fit — we match a specific puppy to a specific family rather than taking deposits on a first-come basis. Our waitlist page explains the full process.
What does “planned litter” mean versus an available one?
A planned litter is one where the pairing is decided and the breeding is scheduled or underway, but puppies have not yet gone home — this is when waitlist families are matched. An open or available litter is one currently accepting enquiries. Because Lagotto litters are small and placement is by fit, the meaningful step for a serious family is to be on the waitlist before a litter is announced, rather than waiting for puppies to be physically available.
Will you have Lagotto puppies in 2027?
We expect to plan litters in 2027, though specific pairings and timing are decided as our dogs and our breeding goals develop. The way to know as soon as a future litter is confirmed is to join our waitlist; planned litters are announced to waitlist families first, and then on this page. We do not publish speculative timelines, because a litter is only real once the pairing and health work are settled.