As a breeder of English Goldendoodles and Schnoodles, I am often asked these same questions, over and over again. How do we decide who we are going to breed, How many times do we breed our girls and When do we retire our dogs?
I wanted to take a minute to answer these questions and I will be answering many more questions over the next few weeks in this blog. We make our decisions based on scientific research and the most up to date medical information from the top Vet schools in the country. We also depend on our personal vets to determine what is best for each one of our dogs individually.
These are all very important questions and represent valid concerns for many people. Unfortunately, because of the day and age that we live in, there are so many puppy mills who are breeding for profit above the well-being of it's dogs (which are often severely neglected) and have no regard for the dogs’ health or well being and therefore act without regard for responsible breeding practices. Because of this, breeding has been given a black eye and it's up to Good Breeders to set the status Quo as to how it's supposed to be done!
The Smeraglia Difference
Every year we take continuing education courses and do research to better ourselves, our breeding processes and our training programs. Our goal at Smeraglia is to produce the most outstanding English Goldendoodles & Schnoodles in the world!
It is our passion to ensure that our Parent Dogs and their puppies are healthy, highly socialized, well rounded dogs and puppies that are ready to embark on their purpose in life. Our parent dogs and their puppies are now being trained to become therapy, companion, emotional support and service dogs at our private training school,"Smeraglia's Puppy University". This is a 10,000 sq. ft facility that houses our beautiful boarding Villa's, Grooming Salon, Training Arena's and our indoor playgrounds.
Our heart at Smeraglia is to train our dogs and puppies to be wonderful family pets and to be therapy and service dogs for children and adults with special needs.
What do we want you to know about us?
- We want our clients to know as much as possible about our breeding program.
- Know that we are very responsible breeders.
- We stand behind our dogs and provide a guarantee and life long support to our clients.
- That we always put the well-being of our dogs above everything.
- That we spare no cost in making sure that our adult dogs and puppies have the best there is offer.
- That they have excellent care from the moment they are born until they go home.
- That the health and well being of our dogs is top priority over anything else.
- That our parent dogs are being trained to assist special needs people while in our programs.
- That our girls retire at age 5-6 years old and then are spayed
- Once spayed they continue the work they were trained for.
Our Breeding Dogs: When it comes to breeding dogs, the experts all seem to agree that the least healthy approach is to skip heat cycles. If a girl is not spayed, and comes into season she needs to be bred for her health, according to the Canine Reproduction specialist at Ohio State University. This is not new information, either. Dr. Billinghurst's book GROW YOUR PUP WITH BONES, addresses the health of puppies as well as their parents reproductive issues. He states that canines are to be bred each heat cycle.
Reproduction Seminars : Dr.Hutchinson from OSU explains in his seminars, the hormones are the same and the girl goes through the same changes whether they are bred or not. So when the hormones 'do their thing' to a uterus that does not have pups, it is "hammered" (his term) by the hormones and causes aging and thickening which makes the uterine lining less conducive to implantation and more prone to infection over time. I personally know two precious girl dogs that lost their lives because they were allowed to cycle several times and they were not bred. They developed utero infections that went undetected and when they finally manifested it was to late to save their lives.
I will never allow this to happen to one of my girls. That would be irresponsible on my part. We will follow the recommendation of the experts, which is to breed on every heat cycle until they are spayed. Granted, there are certainly reasons why some girls should probably not be bred again. Some are poor mothers. Some don't produce much milk. Some can't whelp or conceive w/o veterinary intervention. But the bottom line is that in a healthy normal situation, breeding every heat cycle while in the program, then spaying, is the most healthy way to go.
This is the healthiest scenario for our breeding girls. They will be trained as therapy and companion dogs, and will remain in my breeding program for 4-5 years and then they will be spayed. Once spayed they will continue in their work....We believe our breeding girls can be working moms.
Hopefully, I addressed your questions and you have a better understanding about our breeding process.
Bottom Line,
It's always about.....LOVING GOD. LOVING PEOPLE. LOVING DOGS......all the time!
Sincerely,
Sherri Smeraglia
