WHY WE DON'T USE GUARDIAN HOMES....

We are often asked "What happens to your breeding dogs once they are done breeding?" Retiring and rehoming our breeding dogs to a new family home is by far the HARDEST part of our profession.  We REALLY struggle with this one as they are raised in our home as one of our family members.  One solution is to place our prospective breeding puppies into what is called a Guardian Home.  The normal profile of a Guardian Home is a family that adopts a breeding-potential puppy and then keeps the dog intact for a period of time specified by the breeder and used for breeding purposes for a specified period of time or number of breedings.  On the surface this would definitely lower the stress of the dog as it does not have to be rehomed as once the contract period ends the family permanently adopts the breeding dog and then proceeds to neuter or spay the dog and the breeding dog is then theirs.  The problem we have with this model is that we lose all control of the quality of the environment including exposure risks (flea, tick and heartworm meds) that then could have impacts to our puppies we produce.  Further the mom has to be taken from her family and brought into our home which disrupts the natural rhythm of pack dynamics and can cause undue stress to the mom dog and subequent puppies.  In some cases the mother dog will have puppies at the Guardian Home who will then whelp and maintain the puppies until they go to their new home.  This one we have a major issue with as we have a very detailed puppy training program during the first 8 weeks including Early Neurological Stimulation and Puppy Culture training, both of which are critical for the success of the puppy in their new home.  As such we carefully vet out and place our retired dogs into approved homes based on the nature of the dog and the dynamics of the new home.  Not every retired breeder dog is the right fit for a family looking for a retired breeder dog so we will carefully find the right home of the retired dog.  We are never in a rush with this process.  Once the retired breeder dog is in their new forever home, they will take between 1-6 months to fully adjust to their new home and in many cases within a few weeks.  Once integrated they do amazing as they were raised in our home, are crate trained, housebroke, and understand rules, structure and boundaries and have basic obedience training done.  They will also usually be on the younger side as we try to retire breeding dogs prior to the age of 4.   For more information on adopting a retired standard poodle or bernese mountain dog (and the occasional bernedoodle) please email us at PremierDoodles@gmail.com.  We can provide referrals that have adopted our past retired dogs (we would get your approval to forward your contact information to our customers and have them reach out to you).