Bringing home a puppy is a big decision, and honestly, the biggest part of it isn’t the color or the coat. It’s who you buy from.
Understanding what makes a breeder reputable
If you’ve never bought a puppy from a breeder before, there are a few questions I always tell people to ask, no matter who they’re talking to: How are the puppies raised? Where are they raised?
Does the breeder do genetic and OFA testing on the parents? And can you come on site to meet the pups? Those four questions alone will tell you a lot about who you’re dealing with.
I didn’t grow up thinking I’d end up doing this. My dad raised German Shepherds when I was a kid, and back then it was nothing like it is now, pups were in a little dog house, and at six weeks old they went home.
No socialization, no time spent with them, nothing. My wife and I actually started with two pet dogs we didn’t even pay for, and we bred them one summer just for fun.
Someone told us we could probably get $350 for the puppies, we sold them fast, and it kind of grew from there. We got into Labradoodles in 2014. Just 1 litter for that whole year. In 2015 we bought a Golden Retriever to start doing Goldendoodles.
Then in 2016 we bought 2 Bernedoodle puppies and had our first litter of Bernedoodles in early 2018, and we are currently doing mostly Bernedoodles but we did get a couple Goldendoodle moms again and are going to do some Goldendoodles again.
We have loved it ever since that that day we decided to breed our first 2 dogs, and honestly at the time we just did that litter for fun and had no intentions of continuing, but we loved it so much so we did another litter and here we are today doing it as our full time business.
I say all that because it matters, how long a breeder has been doing this, and how much they’ve learned along the way, shapes everything about how the puppies are raised.
Avoiding puppy mills and red flags
One of the biggest red flags is a breeder who won’t offer any way to see the puppy, not even a FaceTime call. If you’re close enough to visit in person, a reputable breeder should welcome that too.
If they avoid answering your questions, that tells you something. You should be able to get a feel for whether someone’s being upfront with you.
If a breeder won’t let you meet the puppy’s parents or see where the litter is actually raised, that’s a big red flag. I’d be asking a lot of other questions and asking why they can’t meet them.
Doodles are popular right now, and that popularity does make it easier for scammers and mills to pass themselves off as legit. I’m honestly amazed at how many people tell us they got scammed, we hear it a lot.
Scammers won’t do a FaceTime call, so to me that’s the number one thing to check. I don’t understand why people put a deposit down on a dog without asking enough questions first.
A FaceTime or an in-person meet is always the best way to protect yourself. With puppy mills, people fall in love with a picture sometimes and have no idea where that puppy is actually coming from or how it’s being raised.
What price actually reflects
I’d say you should expect to pay anywhere from $2,500 to $6,000 for a Bernedoodle or Goldendoodle puppy. What moves that price up or down comes down to things like color and markings.
It also comes down to how reputable the breeder is, and how many years of experience they have. Someone in their first year of breeding probably isn’t going to command $2,500 the way a more established breeder would.
If a puppy is priced way below what you’d expect for the breed, that usually means not much, if any, testing was done, and the puppy was likely raised in a questionable environment.
It probably means there’s not a lot of socialization happening either, and it’s likely missing the early handling and stimulation work, the ENS and ESI, that’s part of our BAB program.
What to ask, and what to expect, from a breeder
When a family reaches out to me for the first time, here’s what I want them to ask: How long have you been breeding? How do you raise your pups?
Can I reach out to past customers of yours? Do you do testing on your parents? Can we come meet the puppies in person? If someone seems a little unsure, I always tell them to go check our Google reviews.
And it goes both ways, I ask potential owners questions too. I want to know how much they’re gone during the day, just to make sure the puppy isn’t going to be left alone too much.
If they are gone a fair amount, I’ll give them advice on what to do about it. I also ask if they have a fenced-in area. It’s not required, but it’s the best case.
If they don’t have one, I tell them to plan on taking the puppy on at least two to three good walks a day.
A real story from the field
We’ve had a number of families come to us after their last dog came from a bad breeder, sometimes really bad conditions, from what they described.
In the cases I remember, the dog turned out okay in the end, but it took a lot more work up front. The dog was scared at first and just needed more time to get comfortable and socialized.
It usually came down to a lack of early socialization.
Before you choose a breeder
You should at least have the option to meet the breeder and the puppy you’re choosing, either in person or by FaceTime at the very least.
Before you start looking, do your research. Check Google reviews before you even contact a breeder, because those can’t be faked, a breeder can’t control what people write there.
If you can’t find Google reviews for a breeder, I’d move on to one that has a decent number of excellent reviews.