Drive over and collect
The one most Southern California families pick. Nothing to arrange and nothing to pay for the collection itself. Bring a crate, a towel and more water than you think you need.
California families
Corgi puppies for sale
in California.
California is the one state where most families come to us rather than the other way round. We are in Casa Grande, a morning from the state line. Every puppy is $850, and any travel is quoted separately once a puppy is reserved.
The honest answer
Is California a drive,
or a flight?
For most of Southern California it is a drive, and a straightforward one. Leave after breakfast, meet your puppy where they were raised, and be home for dinner. The advantage is not the money you save. It is that your puppy spends their first journey in your own car, with you, rather than being handed between strangers.
North of roughly Bakersfield that logic flips. Eleven hours in a crate is a long first day for an eight-week-old, and ninety minutes in the cabin is kinder to everyone. Bay Area and Sacramento families almost always fly.
| From Casa Grande to | Driving time |
|---|---|
| San Diego | about 5 hours 30 |
| Palm Springs | about 3 hours 30 |
| Los Angeles | about 6 hours |
| Orange County | about 6 hours |
| Bakersfield | about 8 hours |
| Fresno | about 9 hours |
| Sacramento | about 11 hours |
| San Francisco | about 11 hours 30 |
Your options
Four ways a puppy
gets home to California.
Meet us part way
Some families would rather split the drive. Quartzsite and Blythe sit close to the line and make a sensible halfway point, which turns a twelve-hour round trip into two shorter ones.
A flight nanny into LAX, SNA or SFO
Someone carries your puppy in the cabin and hands them over at arrivals. For the north of the state this is the short, sane option.
Not in the hold, ever
We will not send a puppy as unaccompanied cargo. If a route only works that way, we will tell you it does not work.
Worth knowing
What catches
California families out?
The desert, every time. I-8 and I-10 between here and the line are the hottest part of the trip, and from late May into September the tarmac is brutal by mid-morning. Cross it early or cross it in the evening, keep the air conditioning on the back seat, and never leave the puppy in a parked car, not even while you pay for fuel.
Then the airport. Los Angeles is the obvious choice and often the wrong one. Ontario and Orange County are calmer, faster to clear, and usually a shorter total day for anyone in the Inland Empire or south Orange County. Tell us your town, not your airport, and let us work backwards.
And if you are heading north in winter, the Grapevine occasionally closes. It is rare enough to ignore and costly enough to plan for, so keep a second date loosely in mind.
What we ask
What we ask
of California families.
Your town, roughly when you would like to travel, and who is home during the day. That is genuinely it. A $300 holding deposit reserves a puppy once we both agree they suit you, and it comes off the $850 rather than sitting on top of it.
We work the route out after that, not before, because a puppy ready in July and a puppy ready in November are two different journeys.
Settling in
What are the first
few days like?
If you drove over, your puppy has already done the hard part sitting next to you, and they usually walk into the house like they own it. Keep them on the same food for the first week or two. A new home, new water and a new diet all at once is how you get an upset stomach on day two, and you will blame the wrong thing.
Give them somewhere small to start. A crate or a single room beats the run of the house, and most puppies sleep far more than new owners expect for the first three or four days. That is normal. The confidence arrives about a week later, usually all at once.
We hear from families right across the state, in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Long Beach, Oakland, Bakersfield, Anaheim, Riverside and Irvine, and from a lot of smaller desert towns on the way to us.
Next step
In California and wondering
how it would work?
Tell us where you are and we will say honestly whether to drive or fly. How pickup and delivery work.
Before you inquire
Start with the drive
Nearly every California question we get is some version of "how far is it really?". The travel page answers that properly, and the litter page tells you whether there is a puppy worth the trip right now.