GoldenDoodle Kennels is a small specialized breeder of Mini Goldendoodle. In the past we have raised Standard Poodles, but as they began to age we let them live out their lives as part of our family. We had to put our last poodle down in 2007 at the age of 14 as he was suffering from cancer. After much research and investigation we decided that our next canine “family member” would be a Goldendoodle. We loved that they had many of the traits of a poodle blended with the wonderful characteristic of the Golden Retriever. For us the only problem was the size of the standard goldendoodle (60 to 80 lbs). At our age and lifestyle we wanted a “smaller” dog and after more research we found that there were a few breeders that were breeding goldendoodles in a smaller size and suddenly we found our answer.
We started with one, then another and finally a third. We discovered that all we had read was true; they were amazingly smart (we trained our first “mini” to ring a bell to go outside in less that 30 minutes on the first day she was in our home at 8 weeks old and that was the end of housetraining), almost no shedding, friendly, playful and great companions. We were motivated to learn more about the breed and as we did made the decision to begin breeding a small number of puppies, so that others my experience the same joy we had.
Our home is well designed for our Mini Goldendoodle. And it allows us to interact with the puppies from the day they are born. Some breeders tell you they raise their goldendoodles in the home and have a lot of interaction with them but then you find out they have 15 to 25 breading females and a few males. Realistically you simply cannot keep that many dogs in the home and therefore the puppies are raised more often that not in a detached professional kennel. In these kennels they are likely to have 20 to 40 puppies at any one time and therefore it is not possible to really spend any significant time with individual puppies. We are not saying the dogs are not well taken care of because the vast majorities are. Puppies like babies however develop a significant amount of their social skills in the first weeks and months of their lives. Puppies that have minimal human interaction during this time can effect their social development and cause them difficulty in bonding to their new human families. It’s not that these traits won’t be learned as they continue to grow with their new families; it is just more natural when the interaction begins within the first couple of days and weeks. We have 3 breeding females and all are raised and cared for "in" our home. And likewise our puppies are “in” our home right from birth.
As you continue your research you may come across the term ‘backyard breeder”, this is almost always used as a pejorative reference and too often confused with a small family breeder like us. The phrase “backyard breeder” predominately refers to individuals who are not committed to a single breed or breeding “quality” dogs. But each breeder must be individually evaluated regardless if they are a small or large breeder. Just because a person has many many breeding females or a variety of breeds doesn’t ensure they are a quality breeder and conversely if a breeder has a single breeding female does make them a poor or ill informed breeder.
