Story of Briar Ridge Puppies, LLC in Hummelstown, PA
We live in the rolling hills near Hershey Park in Hummelstown, PA. It is the two of us with our dogs and a huge Snowshoe cat! A very full household! We have a large play area inside and outside for our dogs to play safely.
They live in our home as part of our family, they are required to be Kenneled as per PA Dog Breeding Laws. But we built these into our home as we do not believe in kenneling dogs or having them outside! They travel with us on vacations, friends and relative's homes to visit. We all go hiking, swimming together, we also take them camping with us too. (All the other campers love it when we come to the campground!) Our lives revolve around our dogs! (Now that we have grown we can not take all the dogs camping with us at the same time, so we sold our camper. Maybe a bigger one some day, until then we will stay home with them.)
As things are changing, progressing, and growing with our business we still try to do everything to make our dogs as comfortable as possible. Because of this we are remodeling once again! Adding "Doggie Bedrooms" to our spare bedrooms in our home, agility equipment, and a "Private Dog Park" in our back yard. This will be done in several small phases over the next few years. We have added more dog bedroom areas as required for our PA License. We are now adding a huge 1/2 acre dog play yard with swimming pools, digging boxes, ball pit area, tether ball area, and so much more.
Most of our extra time is spent with our dogs. We do all of the bathing and grooming ourselves. We also do all of their training and exercise at home. We have them involved in Basic Training, Beginning Agility, Rally, and Tracking Skills.
We live in the rolling hills near Hershey Park in Hummelstown, PA. It is the two of us with our dogs and a huge Snowshoe cat! A very full household! We have a large play area inside and outside for our dogs to play safely.
They live in our home as part of our family, they are required to be Kenneled as per PA Dog Breeding Laws. But we built these into our home as we do not believe in kenneling dogs or having them outside! They travel with us on vacations, friends and relative's homes to visit. We all go hiking, swimming together, we also take them camping with us too. (All the other campers love it when we come to the campground!) Our lives revolve around our dogs! (Now that we have grown we can not take all the dogs camping with us at the same time, so we sold our camper. Maybe a bigger one some day, until then we will stay home with them.)
As things are changing, progressing, and growing with our business we still try to do everything to make our dogs as comfortable as possible. Because of this we are remodeling once again! Adding "Doggie Bedrooms" to our spare bedrooms in our home, agility equipment, and a "Private Dog Park" in our back yard. This will be done in several small phases over the next few years. We have added more dog bedroom areas as required for our PA License. We are now adding a huge 1/2 acre dog play yard with swimming pools, digging boxes, ball pit area, tether ball area, and so much more.
Most of our extra time is spent with our dogs. We do all of the bathing and grooming ourselves. We also do all of their training and exercise at home. We have them involved in Basic Training, Beginning Agility, Rally, and Tracking Skills.
If you would have asked us about breeding 13 years ago, we would have laughed... We had no intention of being breeders. We were looking for a black standard poodle and could not find any in our area. My mom found one for us after some time looking.
We talked to that Breeder on the phone, she seemed like she would be a good breeder. Her website was nice, she was friendly on the phone and seemed knowledgeable. So we put down a deposit to hold a puppy until we could go pick him up in a few days.
Two days later we went to pick him up. . .
When we arrived at the breeder's home, it was not what we expected at all! She had 93 poodles!!! They were everywhere in crates stacked two and three high, many in outside runs. She had a big shed with a fence around it with 20 or 30 small poodles all together. There was a crate covered with a towel with dried blood on the floor in front of it . . Our puppy was in a small portable playard in her front yard with his litter mates. They all looked so scared, huddled in the far corner all together, no water, food thrown on the ground. We picked up our puppy and he was caked with poop! It was so horrible, we were shocked!
I told Andy there was no way we could leave the puppy there, if we had enough money we would have bought the whole litter!
We had to ask her to bath him before we could take him home in our SUV. She gave him a shot and worming pill as we were leaving. He became so sick on the way home, passing 8 inch worms... We had to go right to our Vet with him because he was so sick! He was full of worms, had kennel cough, an upper respiratory infection, and he digestive tract was inflamed. We had to put him on boiled ground beef and rice for two months to give his digestive tract time to heal. She had removed his dew claws herself, his right one became infected and was growing back into the bone of his leg. So at 10 weeks old he had to have surgery to correct it.
At 4 months old, he was still throwing up all the time, 6 to 8 times a week... The Vet discovered he has a stomach enzyme disorder from too much in line breeding. At six months old, his third eye lids dropped, which is another sign of over in line breeding... He was not properly socialized which made him afraid of everything. We started training him at 10 weeks old to try to correct some of the issues he was having. Our Vet said he was pulled from his mother too young which has caused physiologic problems. It has been a very long road with him... but he is the love of our lives and will never go anywhere. Thank God we bought him as anyone else would not have kept him with all the issues he has. We have spent so much money on his care over the years. All this could have been avoided if he had a good quality breeder and we would have been educated on how to buy a puppy!
We set out to change this.........
We talked to that Breeder on the phone, she seemed like she would be a good breeder. Her website was nice, she was friendly on the phone and seemed knowledgeable. So we put down a deposit to hold a puppy until we could go pick him up in a few days.
Two days later we went to pick him up. . .
When we arrived at the breeder's home, it was not what we expected at all! She had 93 poodles!!! They were everywhere in crates stacked two and three high, many in outside runs. She had a big shed with a fence around it with 20 or 30 small poodles all together. There was a crate covered with a towel with dried blood on the floor in front of it . . Our puppy was in a small portable playard in her front yard with his litter mates. They all looked so scared, huddled in the far corner all together, no water, food thrown on the ground. We picked up our puppy and he was caked with poop! It was so horrible, we were shocked!
I told Andy there was no way we could leave the puppy there, if we had enough money we would have bought the whole litter!
We had to ask her to bath him before we could take him home in our SUV. She gave him a shot and worming pill as we were leaving. He became so sick on the way home, passing 8 inch worms... We had to go right to our Vet with him because he was so sick! He was full of worms, had kennel cough, an upper respiratory infection, and he digestive tract was inflamed. We had to put him on boiled ground beef and rice for two months to give his digestive tract time to heal. She had removed his dew claws herself, his right one became infected and was growing back into the bone of his leg. So at 10 weeks old he had to have surgery to correct it.
At 4 months old, he was still throwing up all the time, 6 to 8 times a week... The Vet discovered he has a stomach enzyme disorder from too much in line breeding. At six months old, his third eye lids dropped, which is another sign of over in line breeding... He was not properly socialized which made him afraid of everything. We started training him at 10 weeks old to try to correct some of the issues he was having. Our Vet said he was pulled from his mother too young which has caused physiologic problems. It has been a very long road with him... but he is the love of our lives and will never go anywhere. Thank God we bought him as anyone else would not have kept him with all the issues he has. We have spent so much money on his care over the years. All this could have been avoided if he had a good quality breeder and we would have been educated on how to buy a puppy!
We set out to change this.........
We realized that there are no QUALITY Doodle breeders in our area. After several months of research and planning, we decided to change this. It took us 1 1/2 more years to find our first puppy with the intention of breeding. We researched bloodlines, genetics, temperament, etc... and picked a beautiful, intelligent, healthy Parti Female.
It took us 4 more months to find the perfect male to breed with her. Then we spent almost 2 years raising and training these two puppies until they were old enough to mate.
Then, because of so many people asking us... We added a female Goldendoodle to our family in early 2009. (Then keeping with our goals for growth and becoming what we had planned for our breeding program, we have added another male Parti-Factored Standard Poodle and Goldendoodle to our clan in Fall of 2010, then a female F1 Parti Goldendoodle in the spring of 2011. And picked up our new girl from a line of Imported English Cream Goldendoodles in the summer of 2011. We NOW do not even Breed Standard Poodles any longer! If you are wondering about the names... Andy's family on his father's side is Greek, hence all the Greek Names; to honor his father and his heritage. To make the names easier for our families, we have stopped using the Greek names. It was hard for people to say or remember our dogs names so we are starting to use easier names.
We spent many hours learning about the importance of keeping the puppies with their Mother long enough for them to develop the socialization needed for stable, sound puppies., everything that a puppy will need to have a great start at their life. All the advantages our 1st Standard didn't get! We are still learning everyday, we are striving to set the bar for the way breeding should be done, the best way for each dog in our breeding program!
We are committed to making available quality puppies for great homes. And we take the time to get to know the people our puppies will go to. We are always here for our new puppy owners to help with training, behavior problems, and anything a new owner might need for the rest of our puppy's life! We want to help our puppies grown and develop into the Great dogs we know they will be!
Also we do not ever want any of our puppies in a bad home, shelter, or rescue! We will always take one of our puppies back, at any age, and for any reason the new owner might not be able to keep them. This is why we have all new owners sign a contract that if they ever, for any reason, cannot keep their puppy, it must be returned to our home.
No matter where they are, no matter how old they are.... They will always be... One of Our Puppies!
It took us 4 more months to find the perfect male to breed with her. Then we spent almost 2 years raising and training these two puppies until they were old enough to mate.
Then, because of so many people asking us... We added a female Goldendoodle to our family in early 2009. (Then keeping with our goals for growth and becoming what we had planned for our breeding program, we have added another male Parti-Factored Standard Poodle and Goldendoodle to our clan in Fall of 2010, then a female F1 Parti Goldendoodle in the spring of 2011. And picked up our new girl from a line of Imported English Cream Goldendoodles in the summer of 2011. We NOW do not even Breed Standard Poodles any longer! If you are wondering about the names... Andy's family on his father's side is Greek, hence all the Greek Names; to honor his father and his heritage. To make the names easier for our families, we have stopped using the Greek names. It was hard for people to say or remember our dogs names so we are starting to use easier names.
We spent many hours learning about the importance of keeping the puppies with their Mother long enough for them to develop the socialization needed for stable, sound puppies., everything that a puppy will need to have a great start at their life. All the advantages our 1st Standard didn't get! We are still learning everyday, we are striving to set the bar for the way breeding should be done, the best way for each dog in our breeding program!
We are committed to making available quality puppies for great homes. And we take the time to get to know the people our puppies will go to. We are always here for our new puppy owners to help with training, behavior problems, and anything a new owner might need for the rest of our puppy's life! We want to help our puppies grown and develop into the Great dogs we know they will be!
Also we do not ever want any of our puppies in a bad home, shelter, or rescue! We will always take one of our puppies back, at any age, and for any reason the new owner might not be able to keep them. This is why we have all new owners sign a contract that if they ever, for any reason, cannot keep their puppy, it must be returned to our home.
No matter where they are, no matter how old they are.... They will always be... One of Our Puppies!
_
In Loving Memory of Hobo, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge on March 29th, 2016.... You will Always be in our Hearts!
Our 1st Standard that took us down this path . . Hobo
In Loving Memory of Hobo, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge on March 29th, 2016.... You will Always be in our Hearts!
Our 1st Standard that took us down this path . . Hobo
