Philosophy & Practices of a Responsible Breeder
Mission Statement
Our mission is to provide families with the best, healthiest possible dogs for companions, therapy, or competition. We strive to have a net-neutral or positive impact on the environment and to raise our dogs as naturally as possible.
Lifestyle
Our dogs live with us on 35 acres near Acadia National Park. Our dogs hike, swim, run through the woods and love to hang out in the house with us. We feed premium foods and treats exclusively from Life's Abundance, TLC , and PawTree. Their supplements are from NuVet.
Socialization
We raise our puppies using the Avidog and Puppy Culture protocols with adaptations based on our dogs, experience and new research. Puppies are socialized, and well-started on house, crate and clicker training when they go to their new homes.
Environmentally Conscious
To minimize our impact on the planet, we compost, re-use and re-cycle. We avoid plastics (but some dog toys are a necessity). We compost waste and use cloth instead of paper whenever possible. Our dog rooms are heated primarily with wood, harvested responsibly, from our own property.
Health & Genetics
All of our parent dogs have the relevant hip, eye, heart, thyroid, patella and DNA exams and clearances.
Parents are evaluated and paired to produce puppies with the best temperament, health, intelligence, confidence, style and beauty.
Member of GANA
We are proud to be Red-Ribbon level members of the Goldendoodle Association of North America (GANA). We adhere to their stringent health-testing requirements and code of ethics. We are working toward qualifying for GANA's Blue-Ribbon level and many of our parent dogs and litters already meet the blue-ribbon criteria.
Early Neurological Stimulation
Each of our puppies is handled daily starting at birth, and receives ENS treatments from the third through the sixteenth day of life. The result is an increased capacity that positively affects the dog for life and includes:
- Cardio-vascular improvement
- Stronger adrenal glands
- More tolerance to stress
- Greater resistance to disease
- Increased ability to learn
Socially Responsible
We support the following organizations with our time and money:
Our partnership with Kuranda Beds allows us to support the Wounded Warrior Project and every purchase from Life's Abundance helps support companion-animal rescue groups through the Dr. Jane Foundation
Litter Box / Dog Door
Our puppies are litter-box trained early. We start the process when they are 2 weeks old. They get their first exposure to dog doors at 4 - 5 weeks. By the time they go home, they are using the litter box, and/or outside area reliably. All you need to do is get them used to YOUR home/yard/dog-door, stick to a schedule, and watch them closely!!
Expert Advice
We know you don't have time to stay up-to-date on every new development in the canine world. So, we do it for you. You can call and ask about any issue that comes up during the life of your dog. And check out our blog periodically.
Nutritional Guidance
We are constantly on the lookout for premium nutrition (and foods safe from recalls) for our own dogs because of the HUGE effect it has on our breeding program. We share our recommendations with you and extend our health warranty from 24 months to 36 MONTHS if you follow our recommendations.
Informative Blog Posts
When we get a question from multiple families, we try to put together an informative answer and make a blog post about it. You can find all the posts on our FAQ page. And, if you like blogs, you can also check out Your Dog Advisor, for information on a wide range of topics.
Our Partners
