LOOKING FOR A RESPONSIBLE GOLDENDOODLE BREEDER IN ONTARIO

[stuart b wein]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum ( a friend from the local dog park referred me here as a great place to meet other doodle owners) . My family and I were the proud owner of a standard f1 goldendoodle named Max from Burkhart Kennels in the Kitchener/Waterloo Are. We purchased Max in 2009 from Lovina and Joseph and unfortunately he passed away from bone cancer 3 months ago. My kids and wife are devastated and we are looking to purchase a new puppy in the next couple of months.

I can honestly say that i did not do the proper research before purchasing max from Burkhart Kennels. I just was not educated enough about puppy mills and inbreeding and the other important factors that one should look for in a breeder. My wife phoned Lovina in November when he was diagnosed to let her know, not because I was looking for my money back or anything of the sort ( even though I was still in the guarentee period of the two years she offers with each puppy). She was not understanding or sympathetic in any way and hung up the phone by saying " there is nothing we can do to help you, please dont call here anymore". She did tel us however, that Max's mother is still breeding and she is 10 years old.

I am just wondering if anyone can help me find a responsible caring breeder who stands by their puppies...any recommendations would be very helpful

Best

Stuart

[BG and Gavin]

Here is a site with owner recommended breeders, although I see Burkhart is on there.  It may provide a starting point for you.

http://goldendoodles.com/breeder_location/ontario.htm

 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Starnge, we've had discussions, not flattering as I recall about this breeder.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

We have had several on this named breeder.  Hmmm?

[jamie margez]

Hi Stuart,

I am a new doodle kisses member as well! We live in Ottawa and i have not met any other Burkhart Kennels Doodles where we live. We have a female f1 labradoodle from Lovina named Cici and unfortunately, she was diagnosed with hip dysplasia at the age of 2. I am so sorry for your loss...

I too, like you , did not really know all that much about the breed before purchasing from Burkhart. My kids just saw the puppies and fell in love..I found the burkhart kennels website online and I called her up that day and she invited us up to see the puppies. At the time, she had about 50 puppies for sale, all were so cute and we were just so overwhelmed. We decided on Cici and i did ask Lovina to see copies of the genetic health tests that she advertised on the website however, she told me that her vet recommended that she not show copies of the tests for privacy reasons. We accepted that at face value and until Cici was diagnosed with hip dysplasia we had no problems whatsoever with her. She is a great dog with a wonderful temperament and is such a loving girl.

She was diagnosed at the age of 2... word of caution to all you doodle owners out there, pet insurance is so important! We have spent almost 30,000 on Cici but we just love her and wouldnt have it any other way. I did phone Lovina to let her know and she replied with "you are the first person to ever have a complaint about any of our puppies". She offered me a new puppy at half price, which i guess was generous.   After doing some research and speaking to a couple of vets, I understand now that while Lovina's kennel is clean and the dogs are well cared for, she does engage is some non ideal breeding practices. ( like breeding females at older ages and breeding them twice or three times a year).

I wish you all the best in finding a new puppy and if you have any questions, you can always email me here!

[Lorraine Bromley]

I want to thank you for bringing this to our attention. I have a beautiful f1 goldendoodle from Burkhardts and also go to her vets (atleast they were back then) 

I got the paperwork with our dog and the follow up was good. I felt it was a large breeding operation but with excellent health and cleanliness and happy dogs. We met alot of them. Better than the home breeders we went to previous to screen. I even felt better about her after my friend went and bought a puppy there that had not been sold and was alot older. So she doesn't sell to stores.

What was the name of your doodles parents. I want to bring up some of these things to my vet when I go for our yearly soon. They verified that all the stock had been screened for me, but also said if your dog gets a genetic condition that is proof enough for the warranty to be activated.

I would like to verify or educate my vet and atleast alert the ospca of her practices. 

[jamie margez]

to be honest with you, I never met the mother, at the time we visited she said the mother was not there on the property. She said the father was cooper. He was a cream colored standard poodle, rather large.

 Lovina doesnt sell her goldendoodles to pet stores but at the time i was there, she had four litters of s***-zus that she does sell to pet stores all over ontario.

I really should have done more research... at the time, i didnt think it was strange that there were so many different breeds of puppies , i just didnt know better

[Lorraine Bromley]

When we were there she only had golden doodles, labradoodles and aussie doodles ( the australian cattle dog and poodle mix not the ALD) 

There were no s*** zus. All the moms were there with litters. Although they have a large extended family that they use for breeding as well. The mom was from her relatives. 

The dogs were all so well groomed and nails done ect.

I am really disappointed. This is not the idea I had of the place even after me doing research on breeders. I thought I had covered all the bases.

[Lorraine Bromley]

With the laws being so ambiguous with the definition of a puppy mill I doubt there is anything that can be done to stop her and her extended family with the practices of back to back breeding and breeding into old age. The place is run well and the dogs are all fed and watered with large kennel areas and lots of land they are exercised on.  The OSPCA doesn't seem to be able to do much.

[stuart b wein]

i think you are right , the OSPCA cares about things like cleanliness and things that are in plain site of their inspectors.

The specialist that we visited regarding the hip dysplasia believes that when a mother is bred too often, hip dysplasia can occur even if the mother had been previously tested with no problem noted.

From what i know from other burkhart owners, the mothers give birth twice a year and at any given time, she has between 6 and ten litters of golden,labrad,aussie doodles...

[shuli chen]

Hi, everybody, I just joined the community and read about the sad story of Max.  Stuart, I'm so sorry for what you and your family had to go through.  Hopefully by now you've found "the" lovely healthy puppy for your family.  I am also in the middle of searching for a responsible doodle breeder in San Francisco Bay area.  I've looked at DK's buyers recommended breeders, but found only one in my area. I'd appreciate more suggestions, if anyone could help me (privately) in this painful process of searching!  Thanks! 

[Chris and Monster]

Hi Stuart,

My wife and I picked up our mini/petite F1B English Goldendoodle Monster from XXX.  We have had him for 3 months now and couldn't be happier.  He was almost already housebroken and crate trained when we got him which was a big plus.  We live in a condo and have a potty patch on our balcony for those times in between walks when he wants to go.  The minute we took him home and brought him on the balcony, he recognized it as grass and did his business on there and has been doing so ever since with only a few accidents (he was 11 weeks old when we picked him up).  He also loves his crate and we've never had any problems with him in there.

We are hoping to get a second puppy in the spring/summer and will definitely go back to XXX.

Edit: Just realized this thread was started back in March, sorry!

Edited by admin to remove breeder name.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The DK Guidelines also prohibit giving breeder recommendations here in the forum, as was previously mentioned.