Life as a seven-week-old puppy can be exhausting, but this litter of goldendoodles will happily fall asleep just about anywhere—even on the staircase.
Dog breeder McKinley Matthews from Farmington, Utah, loves seeing the puppies roam around the home excitably, but nothing beats the sight of all eight puppies sleeping soundly. After being cradled to sleep, each of the puppies was placed on its own step as they got some well-earned rest, leading to the ultimate "stairway to heaven."
Matthews told Newsweek: "We rocked each one individually to sleep and then placed them on the step. It was similar to having 8 newborn babies. Everyone loves the video. Who doesn't enjoy watching a bunch of puppies? It is so much fun having puppies around our home.
"We get our kids involved with helping to raise them. We get very attached to every litter, but as much as it's hard to let go, it's so rewarding to see them bring so much joy to their new families. Makes it all worth it."
The puppies are raised on a curriculum for therapy and service dogs, meaning their training begins before they even leave the Matthews family. But despite being just seven weeks old, some of them have shown remarkable abilities already.
The American Kennel Club (AKC) says that owners and handlers can train their service dogs themselves, and the perfect candidate should be calm in all settings, even ones they're unfamiliar with, be alert but not overly reactive, and be willing to please. It's also fundamental that a service dog can learn and retain new information, and reliably perform tasks to help their handler.
The AKC suggests that training should start by covering foundation skills, which can include house training the puppy. Once they've mastered these early objectives, they can be socialized and tested to see if they can remain on task while in an unknown environment.
One of the key components in training a service dog is teaching the dog to focus on their handler rather than any possible distractions.
"Our puppies are raised on an 8-week curriculum and then go to their forever homes," Matthews continued. "It's always amazing how quickly the puppies catch on to our curriculum at such a young age.
"All of our families are looking for a unique type of dog that is family friendly, intelligent, hypoallergenic and a loyal companion."
The clip of the puppy staircase was shared on their Instagram and TikTok accounts (@matthewslegacyfarm) on September 21, generating more than 3.9 million views on Instagram, and 529,000 on TikTok.
The eight goldendoodle puppies may have been sound asleep at first, but since they have to do everything in unison, they were all filmed waking up together too.
Since the video went viral on social media, many TikTok users have lauded the adorable scene of so many puppies in one household. With more than 39,000 likes and 200 comments on the post so far, the puppies have certainly developed a new fanbase already.
One comment on the post reads: "It's hard seeing someone else live your dream."
Another TikTok user responded: "I want my stairs to look like this."
While another person commented: "I just fell in love 8 times, on 8 different levels."
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