A Cross-Country Match Made in Heaven
Learn how Good Dog buyer Susan forged a special connection with Karen, a Good Dog Breeder from across the country, and eventually brought home the puppy of her dreams.
After years of waiting, it was finally the right time for Susan, a life-long New York City resident, to bring an Australian Labradoodle puppy into her life. She just didn’t know where to begin finding a responsible breeder to work with. Then she found Good Dog, and soon connected with a Good Dog Breeder named Karen, whose program, Autumn Harvest Dood Ranch, was located in Oregon. With Karen, Susan knew she’d found exactly what she was looking for in a responsible breeder. Despite being separated by thousands of miles, the two formed a close relationship built on trust, that eventually resulted in Karen’s puppy, Sadie, finding her forever home with Susan.
Good Dog: Karen, can you start off telling us a little bit about yourself, and how you came to Good Dog?
Karen, Good Dog Breeder: I came to Good Dog when I saw a post on Facebook that I had never seen before. At first, I’ve got to say, I thought: What is this? I was really quick to want to become a member, pretty close to the beginning, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it as it’s grown. Again, I can’t say enough about it, and I am so pleased that somebody thought this was necessary and actually had the guts to do it. I applaud Good Dog. I’m a very proud member.
Breeding is something that I’ve always wanted to do because I love animals. The Australian Labradoodle—once I was introduced to that breed and did the research and then had quite a bit of hands-on time understanding them—that was it. It is a job, but it’s also my full-time love.
Good Dog: Susan, tell us how you realized you were ready to begin your search for a dog?
Susan, Good Dog buyer: My husband and I live in an apartment in New York City. We’ve officially been empty-nesters now for three years. We had always talked about getting a dog, but our lifestyle wasn’t really ready to accommodate a puppy. And then a few years ago, it felt like the sun and the moon and the stars were aligning for us, and that it was finally the right time to do it.
Good Dog: Since this was your first time working with a breeder, were there any preconceived notions you had about what the experience would be like?
Susan: I didn’t have any preconceived notions, but once we made the decision to start the process, Good Dog made it easy! There’s a level of trust that we had in Good Dog that allowed us to just go full-steam-ahead with the process, because we knew Good Dog was vetting the breeders, and we knew it was important for the breeders to have that connection on the other side. Then it was a matter of finding the right breeder. Once we connected with Karen, we knew we had found the right breeder.
Good Dog: Karen, from your perspective, what really stood out to you about Susan’s application? What are some of those things that you’re looking for to really know if someone is a good match for your program?
Karen: Well, I’ll continue with some of the things that Susan mentioned, which is being a part of Good Dog! I do have a certain level of expectation that, if a potential buyer is going through Good Dog, they’ve done some research. They’re reading things on your website about what to expect from a Good Breeder. Hopefully, they’ve read some things about raising a puppy. That in itself will help elevate an application for me, if somebody has done that kind of research, rather than they just googled “Doodle” and happened to find me. Part of my process is to ask: How did you find me? Again, Good Dog takes precedence in that.
Good Dog: Susan, what was the process like for you as you waited for your puppy to be ready to come home?
Susan: The process was really incredible. Karen is a fantastic communicator. She shared just everything that was an indication of a healthy pregnancy that made us feel good and made us feel like we were also going through it. All of her weekly updates once the puppies were born were incredible. Of course, the photos were the first things we looked at because they were so fantastic. Just a few weeks before our puppy Sadie came home, Karen sent just so much incredible information about how to greet our puppy, communicating, potty training, discipline. Everything you could possibly want to touch on, she did that for us! And then augmented it with phone calls to just make sure we were getting prepared in the right way. I’d say the communication was really at the heart of what made that waiting process a lot easier.
Good Dog: How did you feel about Karen’s matching process?
Susan: From the start, we knew that the matching process was really in Karen’s hands. We trusted her on that because not every puppy is necessarily going to be destined for riding an elevator every day and concrete backyards like we have. We really wanted to make sure that it was the right puppy for us, too. It would have been easy to allow ourselves to fall in love, just based on what the puppies looked like.
Good Dog: What was the day like when Sadie finally arrived in New York?
Susan: We met her at the airport. It had been a long day for her, traveling from Oregon to New York. The individual who brought her put her down and unzipped the carrier, and we just melted from the get-go! She was affectionate and as welcoming as she could be. We didn’t really have expectations. I think, in part, because we trusted Karen so implicitly, but if we had had them, she would have exceeded them.
Good Dog: Susan, what are your main takeaways from working with a breeder like Karen and what you would tell someone who is thinking about working with a breeder to find their next dog?
Susan: Working with a breeder (and Karen in particular) has been a great experience for us. We just feel incredibly fortunate that Good Dog connected us with Karen. My takeaway from my experience is that the relationship between the puppy owner and breeder is one that’s built on trust. As a buyer, you need to invest in it, nurture it, and value it the way you would any other relationship in your life. If you do that, and build a strong foundation early on, the rest will just take care of itself. If you do it right, it will pay dividends.
