Frequently asked questions
We are a home-based facility that uses a guardian home program -- so meeting the parents isn't as easy as you would think. We only have two dogs that live here full time. Our other dogs are placed into guardian homes at 8 weeks of age so they can live a normal life with a loving family, rather than in a kennel. These dogs only come visit when it's time to have puppies. We already ask the guardians to part with their beloved pet for 6+ weeks, so we don't add the additional burden of requiring the guardian families to make their dog available for meet and greets.
As for meeting the puppies, we have puppy selections around the six week mark. If you are confirmed on a litter, with a paid deposit, we will schedule an appointment for you to come to our home and meet the available pups to make your selection. You come back at the eight week mark to pick up your puppy. Outside of these two scheduled appointments, we do not allow visits. These puppies are not vaccinated and it is not safe to allow visitors in and out of our home. We get a huge amount of calls/emails from people who want to come meet these puppies. We get it! They are so darling -- but we have to limit the amount of traffic to protect the well-being of these special puppies.
We do understand the importance of wanting to make sure you aren't supporting a puppy mill and wanting to make sure you are buying from a reputable breeder. Please check out our FB page and our Instagram page as we have lots of videos and pictures posted. You can also check out some of our tube videos - you can access these videos via our Started Puppy Tab. We also have yelp reviews and Facebook reviews. These are all ways you can get a better feel for the look of our dogs and the type of experience you will have with Elite Blend. If you do decide to move forward with an Elite Blend puppy, we will show you around our home/doggie facility during your scheduled visits.
Start by sending us an email or filling out our online application. Do you have questions? Email is the fastest way to get those answers and is the only way to get on our reservation list. Next, you need to submit a $500 non-refundable reservation fee. This reservation fee will be applied to the cost of your puppy.
Once we reach your name we will begin sending you litter options until you are placed on a litter specific reservation list. After the pups are born, we send out the birth announcement with the litter details, including the number, color, gender, puppy selection and go home dates. * We reserve the first two spots on every litter for our breeding program but often don't use these spots. In the event that we do not use our breeder spots, all the clients on the list will move up in their order on the list.
You will have 2 days to decide if this is the right litter for you. Your options are: stay with this litter or transfer to a future litter. If you decide to stay put we expect a firm commitment to that litter. We do NOT allow clients to wait and see what happens during puppy selection then move litters - the puppy selection doesn't occur until 6-7 weeks of age, and puppies go home at 8 weeks of age. We do not want to be placed in a situation where we are finding last minute homes.
We want to make sure every family has time to get prepared for their new arrival. As the pups grow, we include you in the process and help you prepare for your new arrival by sending weekly "Getting Ready for Puppy" emails. We also give you a link to your litter's online photo album. We promise new pictures at least once every two weeks (but strive for weekly).
In the very first birth announcement email, the puppy selection date and go home date will be announced. Unfortunately we are not flexible with these dates, but we do give 6 weeks and 8 weeks notice so families have time to plan accordingly. These appointments will always occur during M-F, during regular business hours.
F1 - This is a first generation cross between a labrador retriever and a poodle. The puppy will be a 50% lab, 50% poodle. Most first generation labradoodles do shed, but nothing like their full blooded labrador counterparts. There is a wide variety of coats with the first generation labradoodles.
F1b - This is a cross between a first generation labradoodle (50:50) F1, and a poodle. The resulting puppy will be 75% poodle and 25% lab. The coat is much more consistent with this second generation cross and is a much better choice for those seeking a hypo-allergic non-shedding dog.
Multi-Generational Labradoodle - This cross is between labradoodle and labradoodle.
Australian Labradoodle ("ALD") - The foundation of an ALD starts with a poodle labrador cross and can contain several other breeds. These days ALDs are primarily poodle with a bit of labrador and cocker spaniel. However, lines that are heavy with the founding dogs from Australia can contain other breeds such as Weaton Terrier, King Charles Cavalier, Springer Spaniel, etc.
Some might think, oh, I can just mix the above referenced breeds and make an Australian Labradoodle. Although it sounds cut and dry, it is actually much more complex - as not all genes are expressed equally. For instance, have you heard of set of humans twins where one baby has a fair complexion and one has an olive skin tone but the same parents? Well this happens with dogs on a much larger scale and is the reason why experienced dog breeders educated on the breed standard have the dogs that encompass the look and ideal temperament of an Australian Labradoodle and folks who try to replicate often miss the mark.
American Labradoodle - A cross that contains only poodle and labrador. Can be early generation or multigeneration.
DNA parentage charts provided don’t always accurately depict the full story - mainly what is being expressed. As we discussed above, most ALDs do have heavy poodle ancestry, as that is where the non-shedding, allergy friendly coat comes from -- BUT as you can see yourself, the ALD looks nothing like a poodle. Some of the most obvious differences:
The ALD has a much looser and sometimes even straight coat that is much easier to brush.
Also ALDs have a shorter muzzle, are much more compact, and have thicker boning.
These important traits come from Labrador and other infusion breeds. These traits are preserved for future generations by the careful selection of an educated breeder. When looking at a DNA parentage report, some reports will show labrador and cocker components ranging from 15% apiece, to none at all. These reports vary depending on the foundation breeds used in the line, and how far back the foundation crosses occurred. For instances where the foundation crosses occurred 10 or more generations back (i.e. the initial labrador poodle cross or cocker poodle cross was the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandparents of the puppy you purchased), the labrador or cocker spaniel might not even register on the report. That does not make your dog any less of an Australian Labradoodle but actually makes your dog a purebred ALD. To ensure parentage of our breed and the accuracy of our dog registries myself and many other breeders keep the DNA profile on their dogs to allow for verification of the parents. *DNA profiles do not contain ancestry or disease information - rather DNA profiles are the unique ID of the dog (similar to a fingerprint) which is tied to their microchip number and is used to verify parentage if questioned. Most labradoodle clubs also require members to run DNA profiles for all dogs registered in their clubs.
The rule of thumb is 5 minutes per month of life. That means a ten minute walk is appropriate for your eight week old pup. Remember - Please keep your pup at home the first 16 weeks of life. If you must venture out, absolutely NO parks. Stay on the cement. Make sure your young puppy has lots of opportunities for naps. They play hard then sleep hard.
At Elite Blend we feed all of our dogs and puppies Life's Abundance. There are many high quality dog foods available, but Life's Abundance is a stand out product. We like that our most picky eaters love it and our dogs have shinny, healthy, coats -- less ear and eye infections, and produce less waste. This food is shipped fresh -- within two weeks of being made and is one of the only premium dogs foods out there to have never been recalled. If you choose to keep your puppy on this superior food, click the Life's Abundance logo above to order it directly to your home. If you prefer to feed a premium dog food, that is fine too. Just let us know, so we can send you home with enough Life's Abundance to make a gentle transition to your food of choice.
