Become an active Part of our journey
Become a guardian family
We love spreading puppy love but we can't build our program alone.
Becoming a guardian family can be a great experience. While we know it's not easy to live without your dog for 8 weeks we also know how rewarding it can be to be part of a breeding program.
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Read on to find out more about what this looks like.
What is it & how does it work?
At Doodle Trails, we take great pride in being home breeders. This means our dogs are our family; raised and living in our home and not in a kennel. It also means that in order to grow our line and have a handful of breeding dogs, we need to find forever families who would team up with us, raising and loving a dam or stud, as we would (since, as much as we’d love to, we can’t have 10 dogs in our home with us).
That’s where guardian families come into play! These are families who co-own a dog of ours while we retain breeding rights. This family purchases a dog of our choice at a discounted price and the dog lives with them as their own. When the dog is 18-24 months they will have their hips, eyes and heart tested. If they pass they will start their breeding career. When the dog is retired from breeding he or she will be fixed and the guardian family becomes the sole owner.
Guardian families are responsible for all costs that would normally be associated with owning a dog. This includes purchasing the recommended food or one of equal quality, regular vet visits, vaccinations, deworming, heartworm, tick/flea prevention, etc. As the breeders, we will cover all costs associated with health testing, breeding and whelping.
Female Guardians
We retain exclusive breeding rights for 2 to 4 litters, as long as she is healthy enough to do so. This usually starts at the age of 2 but may occur slightly earlier. Each time she goes into heat we will need to be notified. When we establish the heat that she will be bred we will need to know as soon as she starts so that we can time the breeding accordingly. She may stay with us for up to one week during breeding and then return to us a few days before her expected due date. She will stay with us from then until the puppies are weaned at 6-8 weeks.
During her stay with us, you are welcome to come and visit your dog and interact with her and the puppies. Once the guardian dog has completed her breeding career, the contract ends, she is spayed (we split this cost), and the dog is yours to keep. Please remember: all females will live in our home for up to four, 8-week periods, in her lifetime. If you are not comfortable with your dog leaving your home for extended periods of time, the guardian program is not for you. We treat all of our guardian dogs as our own and they receive the absolute best care when they stay with us. Compensation for Female guardian families is the price of a puppy per litter, as long as there are 4 healthy pups produced.
Male Guardians
It is less common for us to place males in guardian homes as we would need unrelated females to breed him with. If we do place a male, we retain exclusive breeding rights until his 7th birthday. He could be used with our females, and for stud services to approved, health tested females, owned by other responsible breeders. He will be required for up to 1 week, per breeding scheduled. We guarantee at least one week's notice for all breeding requirements and expect our males to possibly be used multiple times per year. The compensation for stud families is $200 per litter produced.
Eligibility
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Must live within 4 hours of LaSalle, ON
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Must be willing to drive dog to us or meet part way
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Must be willing to allow dog to live with us for the 8 weeks the puppies are here, each time she is bred or when he needs to be studded
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Must be willing to visit us 3 times before breeding to keep dog comfortable with us, plus bring the dog to us for health testing
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Must keep the dog on Purina Pro Plan or an agreed upon alternative of equal quality
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Must keep an open dialogue with us