Thistle Ridge Doodles
Premier Breeder of Goldendoodles, Australian Labradoodles and the beautiful cross between the two; Double Doodles
How do you know we are a true breeder and not a broker or puppy mill?
In today's society some breeders seek out to be true hearted breeders and some want to make a quick buck without the effort and care.
How do you know which one we are? With Covid it is harder for us to show you as we can't easily have you over to visit as we used to.
How can we show you we are legitimate?
These are some keys points that mean something to us and think should be something you care about also.
We breed each and every puppy we sell.
Our parent dogs live in guardian homes rather than a kennel or barn environment. This guardian home is the Mom or Dads home while in our breeding program. When the Mom or Dad complete breeding we give them at no cost to their Guardian Family, however until then they are owned by us ensuring proper care.
In our Guardian contract we ask that they are taken to one of our approved vets for their yearly check ups, vaccine care and all pregnancy related care of Genetic testing, Progesterone tests, ultrasounds, late stage x rays if needed, vitamins also if needed. We are then direct billed for this. We take this responsibility to ensure they are healthy and well vetted.
How does the Guardian program work? it is important to us that our pups are first and foremost raised in loving homes as a pet although they have a "job".
Each and every Mom and Dad in our program is health tested genetically, vaccinated and well cared for. Our Mom and Dads are placed with a family as a "Foster Dog"; with us holding ownership. We genetically test each and every parent to ensure they are of breeding quality and not going to pass along any known testable genetic illness' or disease'. Once the female or male is of breeding age and has finished and passed their testing become eligible for breeding.
We will breed a female up to 4 times. Although they could safely breed many more times that 4, we cap breeding at 4 litters or age 6 to ensure our Moms are not used as "breeding machines" and to give an end date to our Guardian Families. The reason we say up to 4 times is at our discretion; we may reduce the number of litters. This is something we have done over the years for various reasons.
For males it is a bit different. They could happily and healthily breed until they run out of umph, this could be age 12. Again we cap our males at 7 years of breeding to be able to give our Guardian families an end date.
When our girls start their adult heat cycle after completing their genetic testing we will bring them back from our guardian's home to ours for breeding when ready. How do we know when they are ready? We ask the Guardian to pop in for a visit to us so we may run a progesterone test or the vet to have a progesterone test run.
This blood test will tell us the approximate time for breeding. Once her test shows she is ready for breeding she will come back to us for up to a few days. We will keep the girl here in our home for these few days then returning her to her Guardian family for her 8 weeks pregnancy.
At approximately 56 days from breeding the female returns to us for whelping. This happens in our living room, sitting room or our bedroom. It is important for the first few weeks after being born that the pups are well watched ensuring they are growing well.
We start all of our puppies in our living room, sitting room or even our bedroom. As the pups age and start to come out of the wading pool we will start crate training with Mom, this gets them used to being in a crate before going home, so it isn't such a surprise.
We also start our pups with Puppy Culture and then Baxter and Bella training to help your pup feel more relaxed in their new environment.
Please see a few pictures of how our Guardian dogs (The parents to your pups) are raised and loved. No barn raised or kennel raised parents.
