My story
How and why I became a dog breeder.
I wanted a dog for as long as I can remember. Plenty of my family members had dogs and my nan even bred Pomeranians, Pekingese and Afghan hounds. I showed one of her Poms and have lots of childhood memories involving her dogs and puppies. Strangely though I grew up to be against dog breeding as I thought there were too many rescue dogs that needed rescuing and for that reason, when I first set out to get a dog, I chose to go down the rescue/adoption route. Unfortunately, I was “not suitable” as I didn’t meet all of their requirements. This was due to my accommodation. At the time I lived in an annexe on a horse yard surrounded by acres and acres of fields however because my annexe did not have a back door and no ‘secluded’ garden I did not meet the strict requirements set out by re-homing programs. I was very upset about this and eventually, I decided to buy a puppy, Ginger. In hindsight, this was the better option for my circumstances as it would have been so much harder training an adult dog to be safe around horses. At least having Ginger from a young pup meant that I could train her exactly as I wanted especially around the horses.
It took me a long time to find Ginger as I soon realised it was a minefield out there. Trying to find a reputable breeder who had carried out an extensive range of health tests on both parents was extremely difficult but I was not willing to settle for anything less. There were hundreds of adverts but only a handful that I would have been interested in and when I was, I would be told they were all sold or the waiting list was full. It was actually very difficult to find a high-quality breeder.
After being declined for a rescue I realised that adoption or rescuing isn’t always possible nor is it always the best option. It made me realise that not all dog breeding is bad, it just has to be done properly. This then drove my passion for raising the best possible puppies and finding them the best possible homes for people who are unable or not best suited to adoption.
With this in mind and my nans influence I decided I wanted to breed dogs but I wanted to ensure they were the best of the best by ensuring both parents were a good match and extensively health tested and by putting in the huge amount of time, effort, money and love into raising the puppies. I knew how hard it was for myself to find a decent breeder and I wanted to offer that to other people. I spent hours and hours reading and watching any information I could find online from the best time to breed, when to mate, pregnancy, the birth process, learning how to assist if needed, raising confident puppies and so on. There was so much to learn!
I also wanted to be as transparent as I could be due to coming across lots of breeders that were very reluctant to share information with me. I found it so difficult to make a judgement on so many breeders due to their lack of transparency and it made it very difficult for me to make the right decision. I never wanted for one of my puppy owners to have that feeling therefore I created my Instagram page so that I could document my journey, give the puppy owners an insight to who I am and to give them the freedom to view their puppy on a daily basis through my continuous updates.
Ginger is a Cavapoo so naturally, that’s where my breeding started. I bred Cavapoos, Cockapoos and Goldendoodles before deciding to step away from the mix-breeds to focus on something I am very passionate about; assistance dogs. One of my Miniature Poodle pups was already on his way to becoming an AD so this really inspired me. I already had Miniature Poodles and a working line Golden Retriever and with more research, I found that Poodles and Goldens were one of the ‘top four’ rated assistance dogs so it made sense for me to stick with what I had and to pursue my passion of assistance-worthy dogs.
