Old Mill Doodles - Staunton, Virginia

[Shazmah Hakim]

Hi - this is my first post on this site and I'm excited about becoming part of this community. 

 

My family and I (my husband and 3 kids who are 11, 8 and 6) have just adopted a labradoodle from Old Mill Doodles in Virginia.  We are originally from the Maryland area but we live in the Middle East right now so the puppy will be making a long journey with us in August when we return home after the summer break.  We actually haven't met the puppy as yet but had to make a decision via the internet since we had to start the paperwork for the shipping.

 

The puppy comes from Kane (standard poodle) and Holly (English Lab). I've seen that some members on here have gotten their dogs from OMD so I wanted to find out if you have any advice/comments for us.  Have you been happy with your choice of dog and breeder?  Are there any health/issues I should be concerned about? I know that the puppies at OMD are not raised inside the house with the family and I would be interested in knowing if there are any lasting effects of this on the puppy.

 

I know Kane is a very tall poodle (but Holly is a stocky lab) so it would be interesting to know if Kane's puppies tend to be tall like him.  

 

Any feedback you have on OMD and the offspring of Kane and/or Holly would be really appreciated. Hopefully the feedback is good but I'd like to know the bad also.  Bringing a dog into a family is big decision but in our case its an even bigger (and very expensive) commitment as we will be bringing the dog thousands of miles away so we'd like to go into this with our eyes open.

 

My apologies for the long post and endless questions.  I look forward to hearing back from you.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[Lindsey]

Welcome to DK and congrats on the soon to be new puppy!!! Can't wait to see pictures :)

[2m42srv7vi6sq]

It's a beautiful area to get your Doodle.  Good luck with the new puppy.  We look forward to photos.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Welcome to DK and congrats on your new puppy.  There is a Group for "Old Mill Doodles" .   You might want to join that group and see if there is any good info there. 

 

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/oldmilldoodlesownergroup

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Congrats on the new puppy and welcome to DK!

[Pauline Rackley]

Hi,

Zeus is an OMD dog. His dad is Kane and mom Dolly. He is a 3 yo goldendoodle and a wonderful dog. You can see photos on our page. He is incredibly smart and loveable. If you would like to talk more, feel free to e mail me.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Congrats, good luck and welcome!

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Personally I would never get a dog that was not raised in the home environment, I would want to be sure that the puppy has had lots of socialization and space to roam. BUT it does not necessarily mean that the dogs are poorly bred. Some breeders still give the puppies lots of socialization, and keep the outside kennels very clean and the dogs have plenty of access to space to play (not cooped up in kennels all the time). Some unfortunately are puppy mills and just give the impression they are good breeders. Dogs in kennels most of the time often are difficult to potty train because they HAD to go potty in their sleeping areas. However, Old Mills website does give the impression that they are very well cared for dogs, but I would want to go see for myself, especially as they have 20 females (and 6 males) that seems to me like they pump puppies out pretty often. Its very hard to socialize puppies if they have lots of litters all living outside.

 

Here is a link for what to look for in a breeder

http://www.doodlekisses.com/notes/What_To_Look_for_In_a_Breeder

 

I also would not want to get a dog from a breeder who breeds many different types of dogs (labradoodles, goldendoodles and sproodles - no comment on THAT!) However, they do say the health test which is great, ask what they test for.

 

On a final note, please DO NOT keep your dog on IAMS (which the breeder feeds), its a terrible food (the Healthy Naturals is better than the regular, but still not all that great). Check out the Food Group http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup for recommended foods, and the dog food project which helps you understand the labels on the bags of food  http://www.dogfoodproject.com/ Ironically Old Mill does have a good checklist of things to look for in food http://www.oldmilldoodle.com/2010/11/rate-your-dogs-food/