[00:00:00] I was trying to help a breeder one time that was asking my opinion on what two dogs they should breed together, and I was like, "What are your program goals?" And they're like, "You're assuming I have

goals?" I was like, "How do you make a choice of who you pair?" And that's where I think a lot of times doodle breeders are criticized fairly, I think, because they are just breeding for aesthetic reason. Welcome back to the Doodle Pro Podcast. I'm Corinne Gearhart, and today's episode is one I have been so excited to record.

I recently had the chance to attend the Goldendoodle Association of North America Conference, otherwise known as GANA, and it was a gift. I got to sit with breeders who are genuinely at the top of their field. I s- just spoke to The New Yorker journalist, John Seabrook, who was there covering the event, and he warmly called it DoodleCon, which captured it perfectly.

Here's what struck me. I know doodles. I've spent over 50,000 hours working with [00:01:00] them. I talked to thousands of doodle families, and I thought I knew what ethical breeding looked like, but sitting in that room, listening to these skilled breeders talk about tube-feeding neonatal puppies, artificial insemination protocols, parasite work, reading OFA x-ray with a guest vet, the depth of science and care was humbling in the best way.

And it's exactly why I wanted to bring several members of the GANA board onto the show today. Because if you're a doodle parent or thinking about becoming one, the people in this conversation are the ones actually doing the work that keeps our dogs healthier, happier, and better bred for generations to come.

Speaker: And I have one more piece of news that means the world to me. My relationship with GANA has grown to the point they're now gifting a copy of my book, Your Doodle's Daily Schedule Blueprint, to their renewing Goldendoodle Society members. To have the very [00:02:00] best breeders setting the standard for this breed, putting my book into the hands of new puppy families is an honor I do not take lightly.

This conversation was so rich that we split it into two parts. In this first part, we're getting practical. How to find and vet a truly ethical breeder, and how to spot a polished puppy broker before you ever put down a deposit

Now, let's meet them. Can each of you introduce yourself, your program, and your role with GANA? Kelsey, we could start with you. I'm with Bucks Creek Farm, and I'm in West Virginia. I serve on the GANA board, and have been with GANA for about five or six years now, and before I joined the board, I was the registrar.

I just love the association, and I'm happy to be here, and thank you for having me on today. Thank you, and if you listened to my interview with John Seabrook last week, he spoke so highly of your partner, Amy- Yeah ... the work that your [00:03:00] program has done. Yeah, Amy's awesome. Yes. Thank you. Brenda, do you mind sharing more about your role and your program?

Hi, I'm Brenda Adjeison, and I have Bren's Doodles in British Columbia, Canada. I joined the GANA board in, I believe, 2022, and I serve on the board as the breeder mentorship chair, and I was the first breeder in Western Canada to join GANA. I enjoyed being a member so much, and I wanted to help spread the- The Goldendoodle Association, and I was naturally breeding mentors, persuading them to join, so I thought that would be a great role for me.

I'm Shari Hall. I'm currently serving as the president of GANA. I'm in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and I run Shining Star Doodles. I really am passionate about this organization and making sure we [00:04:00] continue to grow and get our messaging out, and really wanting to include as many people as possible into GANA and making sure they're aware we're out there.

So thank you for this opportunity to chat with more people. Oh, it's my pleasure. Each of these women, I'm proud to say, are in the Gold Standard Circle of Breeders that I hand-select, and is invite-only, of just elevating breeders that I so respect and personally recommend. So I'm so happy to have you guys here.

And when you're saying that all the things you have going on in your life, you're running these programs, moms, et cetera, GANA is ... You're still carving out time for this. Why does GANA exist? The mission is to promote ethical Goldendoodle breeding, and there definitely is a need for it with the number of Goldendoodle breeders out there.

The primary mission and objective is to steer breeders into helping the longevity and the health of the breed, and we do that by making [00:05:00] health testing recommendations, requirements of health testing, pedigree. We keep a database so we can track pedigrees and health. Making general recommendations to the breeding community about how to achieve the health and longevity of the Goldendoodle is our mission, and really the purpose of a breed club in general as well.

What would you say was the problem the founders were trying to solve when creating GANA? Jane was actually the founder of the association in 2009, and, and when she started breeding back in 1999, there was only a handful of breeders at the time, and they were all just working together to establish something and- So at that time, there wasn't really the explosion that there is today, but they decided that they wanted to create a breed club that would track the health and pedigree of dogs, and would require health testing, and set breeders to a code of standards just because they started to see the explosion happen, and they wanted to have an association they...

to hold breeders [00:06:00] accountable, 'cause there was none of that. And how important that is to a breed. If you're not having somebody verifying health testing and tracking- Mm-hmm ... of that, you can't really say for sure that there's a third party out there that's keeping tabs on the breed. And without that, it's kinda hard to develop into a breed even if you don't have the people that are doing that for you.

I think Amy and a group of people just really wanted to be the ambassadors of the breed, and they wanted to establish these protocols so that we can keep tabs and make a way for this to become a legitimate breed, and I think that Amy really did a good job, and I think that we're continuing that good work today.

It just, we have new developments all the time. Just this year we started with OFA. They've agreed- Yes ... to make the Ghana Goldendoodle a breed category within their database, which w- is massively important for the breed, 'cause now we can take the data that they store in their database and use it to make decisions, find out what's going on.

So w- even today, we're making those strides. I... [00:07:00] Congratulations on that. I was so excited to see that accomplishment. I would like to start our conversation with prospective puppy owners who are looking for an ethical doodle breeder, and I know your specialty is with Goldendoodles, but a lot of this really applies to Bernedoodles and other mixes, for example.

And then I'd like to talk about, later in the conversation, the broader issues about people making judgments as to can there be an ethical doodle breeder. So first, if somebody is researching breeders for the first time- What do you wish they knew before they even started scrolling websites, and Instagram, and Facebook?

I always tell people in regard to ethics as well as just really connecting with the breeder is do they have clear sets of goals? Do they have a clear vision for why they're breeding? Are they able to have a level of [00:08:00] breeding that they can maintain good customer service on? That, to me, is huge 'cause a lot of people will

maybe can handle raising multiple litters at a time, but then are they able to then appropriately follow up with their customers and the dogs? Mm-hmm. Are they tracking where those dogs are going, ongoing health concerns or temperament concerns that are maybe happening? Mm-hmm. Because there's a lot of websites popping up that are brokers that are really marketing to the general public, and I think there's a lot of confusion.

If you're searching for a puppy, you might ra- write ... run into these really well-developed websites which will look great, and they very often will say, "No puppy mill promise." They'll have a cost of a puppy, and they'll have a guarantee, and they'll say they have screened the buyers, but you're essentially going through that website to buy it.

Mm. I feel like I'm explaining this more and more to customers, is that the people selling that way are now having to remove themselves from that customer [00:09:00] service piece. Yeah. So therefore they don't know if they're producing problems. This third party is handling all that for them, and to me, that's one of the hardest parts of being a breeder and one of the parts that, like, I so prioritize is, like, I want to make sure my customers really are prepared when they're getting their

Mm-hmm ... and that if there's encountering any issues that I'm aware, number one- That like if I'm seeing a trend in a line that I can either make accommodations in my program and either end that line or make the changes that need to be made. And there's literally no way you can do that if you're selling your puppies to a pet store or through any kind of broker.

And so I think that's something that I'm seeing a lot more with the explosion of selling puppies online and a lot of legislation like here, we're both in Colorado- Yeah ... and there was just one passed in Denver banning any dogs sold through pet stores.

So what's happening now is a lot of that's moving online through these big ... And they look great. So I'm educating people a lot, and that's one trend I'm currently seeing. [00:10:00] But other than that, just making sure that the parents are health tested, and so that's something we're obviously setting standards for with Goldendoodles.

But all the other doodle mixes other than Australian, Australian Labradoodles, you're not really having that out there. So it's making sure that those breeders... One thing that you can do if there isn't a breed club association that you can check- Mm-hmm ... what the health testing standards are, you can look up like for Bernedoodles for instance, like the poodle, what's health testing that should be done on poodles- Yes

as well as Pyrenees Mountain Dogs, and then making sure that those breeders are doing that, asking them to send you the health testing on those parents of a litter you're looking for. And then just asking them about what temperament characteristics they're breeding for, maybe how they track their lines, things like that are what I encourage people to do.

You'll notice when, if you're on the hunt for a healthy puppy [00:11:00] that the people who have the most experience breeding often don't ... and, like, truly ethical, they're just part of the movement of healthy, great temperaments, are not the best website developers. Yes. And the prettiest page doesn't always equate to the healthiest pups.

Do you have a tip for someone on how to tell if they're looking at a broker's site versus a breeder they could trust? For myself, I prioritize my website last a lot of times- Mm-hmm ... because I have so many repeat customers and so many word of mouth. And I have tried to make it up to date, so there's a lot of information on there, but I agree with you.

There's a lot of breeders with marketing teams- Mm-hmm ... and a lot of litters now that have really focused on that. And as far as differentiating, it's really can you talk to that breeder directly? Uh, can you call them up? Really, I think if you can [00:12:00] have an in-person conversation one on one, you can get that feeling.

The brokerage websites, you're talking to a customer service team, and it's not the breeder directly. Like, you do have Good Dog, which would be a conglomerate website, but you can message the breeder directly. Yes. The brokerage websites, you cannot message the breeder directly usually. You're going through a customer service team.

Um- And they'll say things like, "We handle the calls so the breeder- Yes ... can be with the dogs." Yeah. Yeah. They've got a lot of different things that they say. And to add on to that, I think the biggest telltale sign, or one of them, could be that if you go on a website and they have many different breeds, and they have an option to- Yeah

add a puppy to cart, add to cart- Yes ... and to place deposit right from the website, the breeders that are doing that are not really getting to know you as well. So when they're not getting to know you, they're not getting to know your lifestyle and what puppy would be best suited for you- Mm-hmm ... what breed would be best suited for you.

So you can just go on there and buy a puppy based on looks, and- [00:13:00] Mm-hmm ... it's not really the best way to go about finding a family dog, one that- Mm-hmm ... you want to be part of your life. So keep that in mind when you're looking where there's just, like, endless scrolls of puppies available- Yeah ... that you can just add to cart and buy right on the website.

You wanna be cautious of that. Actually, you would really want to avoid that completely. Mm-hmm. But it's something that you can use to tell what you're looking at. When puppy parents are looking for a healthy pup, and they know that now they should be looking for is there health testing, et cetera, you'll see the buzzword vet checked.

What does that mean, if anything? Vet check doesn't mean the dogs are actually health tested. It means they just brought the dog to the vet. With Ghana, we do have standards of testing. We test our hips, elbows, patellas, cardiac. We thoroughly DN- DNA test for panels for both go- for the golden retriever and poodle Though there's so many [00:14:00] breeders that are selling the dogs cheaper, oh, health tested, and they'll also only be DNA tested- Mm

without orthopedic testing at all. So they'll use it as a marketing term rather than a qualifying process. Yes, and when y- it'll say health tested and DNA tested. Would one of you mind explaining the difference between a basic DNA panel and the full health testing your organization recommends? Yeah. So the best way to explain OFA testing, in my opinion, to somebody who doesn't really know about it, is I explain to them that we take our dog into our primary veterinarian, and they take an X-ray- Mm

and they send it off to a specialist. Like when we get imaging ourselves, we go into- Yeah ... a hospital, a technician will take the X-ray, and then they'll send it off to a radiologist for review. So it's a similar process to how when we get testing done. So the [00:15:00] OFA testing is, is physical testing of the joints, the hips, elbows, eyes, heart, and patella, which is the gold standard health testing tier for the association.

And the hips and the elbows are X-rays that are sent off to radiologists at OFA, which is the Orthopedic Foundation of Animals. Mm-hmm. And they'll give us a rating, so they'll tell us what they think about the dog, and we use those scores to make breeding decisions. And it's not just a matter of if you're getting the testing done, it's also a matter of if your dogs are passing the testing.

Yes. And yeah, sure, anybody can say, "Yeah, I do the OFA testing," but if it's a failed test and they're continuing on with the breeding anyways, A, you can ask yourself is the testing really any more worth than the paper it's written on? Mm-hmm. And the answer's probably no. But then there's the heart and patella, which is done by a regular practitioner, and that's the same day exam.

And, and the vet listens to the heart, and they manipulate the patellas to see if they are sound. A- and then the eyes are done by an ophthalmologist, so o- another specialist that [00:16:00] does that. Three out of the five OFA tests are not done by your general practitioner. They're done by your general practitioner, and they're sent off to- Mm-hmm

radiologists and specialists for grading. And then your DNA testing is something that you can do as an eight-week-old puppy or younger, at birth even. Yeah. And a swab, a cheek swab done, and you send it to a company, and there's many companies out there today. And they report back to you the genetic diseases that your dog c- carries or doesn't carry.

And when you use that information, you don't wanna be pairing two dogs that are carriers together. So that's why we use this information to make sure we're not breeding any carriers of recessive diseases to one another. I think a lot of people would be surprised- At the level of investment financially and time- Yeah

that it's taking for you to breed healthy dogs- Yeah ... and to really put their health and temperament at the top. Not only is there the financial [00:17:00] piece, which I would love to get an estimate of, but you can't just test an eight-week-old puppy and decide, "Oh, this is one I'm going to use to breed for the line."

Yes. You have to wait years for some of these tests in order to be able to bring them in and get these exams. Yeah. So the OFA will accept preliminary four months old for the hellb- elbows and hips. But yeah, you're generally waiting until they're a year or two years old to be doing this testing, and then from there, y- that's not it.

You've got to determine the temperament of the dog. You have to find the right mate for a dog. Mm-hmm. So there's a lot that goes into it. Financials are really going to vary a lot. I live in West Virginia, where it's relatively- Yeah ... cheap to live here, so I could probably get all my testing done on a dog for under $1,000, but it's not gonna be the same for Sherrie.

Her costs are gonna be a lot higher. So it is expensive to do this testing, and the DNA testing is maybe $120 if you're doing an Embark panel, or $129, I think- Mm-hmm ... is what they charge breeders. So [00:18:00] the DNA is not expensive, and it's a very important piece of the puzzle. But we're finding that there's a lot of breeders out there that just stop there.

Yeah. And like I said, you can do ... You can run that on a newborn, a three-day-old puppy. So it tells you a lot, but it doesn't tell you everything at the same time, if that makes sense. And I'll just add one thing. Yeah. Also, I would say what a lot of our breeders do that even if you have somebody saying, "Hey, this dog was DNA tested," I think a lot of times what we've found within the Goldendoodle Association is talking to these DNA companies, we've seen Embark, for instance, is one big brand name.

Mm-hmm. Like, their DNA tests are linkage. You're not testing the direct genes. Uh-huh. So most of us will double-check with another DNA company if we're- Yeah ... testing certain diseases. I know for myself, pretty much all of my dogs are tested through two different companies for- Okay ... coat trait things that maybe aren't as accurate with one company, so there gets

It gets real complicated after a while. Yes. I have seen [00:19:00] people purchase puppies from breeders that say, "Oh, all my dogs are Embark tested." And ... Oh, okay. I just had a cat. It's perfect. We are an animal-loving place. Welcome. That's Angela. That isn't the first time on this podcast. She wanted to say hi. Yes. But there are, like, curl genes, for instance- Mm-hmm

on Embark that can come up saying the dog is straight-coated, and then through another company, it's actually the super curl ge- gene. And I've had people buy puppies thinking they're getting one thing, but the breeder- Yeah ... wasn't aware 'cause they hadn't gone into some of these in-depth studies of some of these genes.

And they think, "Oh, the dog is clear." So anyway, just wanted to throw that out there that DNA testing isn't as simple as it sounds either. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. And we were talking about what region the breeder is from, that there could be cost differences. And not [00:20:00] to put you on the spot, Sherrie, but you and I are both in Colorado.

You might have gotten a puppy that you think the line is strong. You've liked the temperament of the parents. You like the size, et cetera. They've been a healthy line. You don't sell that dog, so you're not getting that income coming in. You're waiting till, tell me if I'm right, around the age of two for some of the final health tests that you could have invested X amount, and if they don't pass, those are sunk costs Correct.

Yeah. I just had that happen this past year actually. Mm. And this one dog, actually she got great on orthopedic, but and then I took her to the eye vet- Yeah ... and she had the tiniest little speck on her eye, and the eye vet actually said to me, "This probably will not develop into anything, but it is considered a cataract."

Like, and we find her entire year, and we have no idea if this is genetic or not, and I retired that dog. That was a hard call because the eye vet was like, "It looks [00:21:00] a little crazy." But at the same time, it was considered a fail on the eye exam, and I was like, "God forbid," and we don't know exactly what this is she had.

It could've been nothing, but if it turns into cataracts in other people's pet dogs or having- Yeah ... eye problems, I would feel responsible. So yes, that is a hard call a lot of times, and it is, it's- Yeah ... hard. And, and yes- And I know- ... I guess factored in. Yeah. Like- I know good breeders that- Dog after dog they've tried, you know?

Mm-hmm. And for one reason or another, it didn't make it into the program, and there are- Yeah ... a lot of breeders, there's a lot of breeders out there that would respect that and retire the dog, and then there's a lot of breeders out there that would just keep going on with what their, with their plans to do.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think a good question to ask your breeder perhaps is what tough calls have you had to make, and do you make them- Mm ... when you need to? What kind of proof of health testing should a breeder be willing to show a family [00:22:00] about any of their pups? Yeah, it should be- Absolutely everything. Yeah, everything.

Yeah. So OFA will issue certificates. If the dog is in within... So all the dogs get a certificate, but if they're within certain age ranges is when the certificate, the type changes a little. So a- and at any point that someone does testing, OFA will issue some type of documentation on this was received, and we gave it a grade, the date, the microchip of the dog, the name of the dog.

So verifying information. So there'll be some sort of record that this testing was done, and there's also OFA that has a public database, but their rules vary depending on when they post these tests. So sometimes you just have to rely on a certificate. But if the dog- So sometimes it could be missing if you were to look up- Yeah

through the OFA site? Okay, that's helpful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and it's tricky because they'll have a record that it was done. They'll have some type of written documentation from OFA. It wouldn't necessarily be posted on the website. However, the gold level for the associate for Ghana requires that you do go back at these age [00:23:00] ranges and get the certificate.

So heart and patella is done after a year old, so that will be in the database. And then hips and elbows, it just depends on when it's done. But what the point of this is that in any case, a breeder will have written documentation from OFA that will have the da- the name of the dog, the date of birth- Yeah

the chip, what was done, and the date it was done. And that should be available- It really should be, there's different opinions. It should be available on your website or it can be available by request, but one way or another it needs to get in the hands of the owner looking into your program. So it, all the OFA certificates should be provided.

There, there's no reason why an over- OFA certificate should not be provided. Perfect. And if a breeder you call hesitates or gives vague answers to these questions, what do you think that means to a pet parent? Sometimes there are some people that are just suspicious and are like, "I don't wanna give out my certificates because- Yeah

people can fake things." But I do think they [00:24:00] need to be able. You either need to send a link, like otherwise, why are you doing the testing? You know what I mean? I think it is pot- a red flag if somebody's refusing to give you that because we have all seen, we've kicked people out of our association that have bred dogs that have failed one or something- Mm-hmm

or that have tried to join and we're like, "This is not a passing score." When people say they'll justify it a lot of different ways, or I've tried to purchase puppies myself from breeders that send me the testing and their dogs would be considered a fail. Or we have people all the time that don't join GANA for those reasons- Yeah

'cause they just wanna do what they wanna do. So yeah, I do think it is a bit of a red flag if they will not supply that to you. The other thing I was gonna say is- Mm ... a lot of breeders do PennHIP, which, so there's two different type- Yes ... testing for hips on dogs. So there's PennHIP, which the dog has to be sedated, and then [00:25:00] the vet actually will pull the legs out to see how far the ligament will stretch, and they'll give a rating on the, it's called laxity of the hips.

And so that won't show up on the OFA database. So I've had- Mm-hmm. And those are valid as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And- Yeah. And when we're talking about these hip exams- Somebody who's new to dogs or health testing might be like, "Why the heck do I care about a hip exam?" We never had that when I was growing up.

Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. What advice do you have as to why they're important? It's just, in a breed like golden retrievers that are part of what we're breeding here, the hip dysplasia is an issue in the breed, and it can be life inhibiting for sure. And these things can happen when your dog is young. Now, there is a picture I would like to paint here, and that is that even if you're doing all of the testing and you're breeding dogs that are passing their OFAs and they're getting good scores, that doesn't mean that it eliminates risk.

Mm-hmm. It reduces risk. So [00:26:00] that's also something that owners should be aware of, and I spend a lot of time talking about. So I have all of this information to show you that I'm doing the best that I can do with the resources available to me. We're still breeding live animals- Yes ... and things can still happen, and there's a lot of genetics involved that, for example, are not identified with testing.

So if you're working with a breeder that's not doing the OFA testing, i- it's in my opinion that they're probably not doing everything that they can. They're not doing everything that's available to them. So testing results aside, that part is im- important. Are you working with a breeder that's doing as much as they can with the resources available to them or not?

And then there's the second part of the results, which is good to have. And like I said, it reduces your risks of having these issues in the future. It does not eliminate them. But when you're purchasing a puppy and you're making a family investment- Yes ... this is a part of your family, you wanna make sure you're working with someone who's doing everything they can, and that includes checking the [00:27:00] hips, elbows, eyes, heart, and patellas, as well as DNA on their dogs.

Thank you so much for explaining that. GANA is unique and only, there's only a couple other clubs of doodles that have a breed standard like GANA. Yeah. Yeah. And can you explain in pa- in plain language for parents what a breed standard is and why that might matter for a family's daily life with their dog?

Yeah. Yeah. The breed standard is important because it's creating a level of consistency, and I think that there's a lot of argument out there that the Goldendoodles, they aren't, you know, just the luck of the draw or unluck of the draw, I guess. And I think that we wanted to argue that with the fact that we do have a breed standard that we are encouraging our membership to breed towards.

And our breed standard may be slightly different because it does not really focus so much on color and coat type. Yeah. It, there's a big temperament involvement of our breed standard, which is important, and most [00:28:00] breed standards do have temperament involved, but it's usually just a small section. Ours is a little bit more involved because we wanna focus on that.

And then the structure of the dog, the way that the joints are put together and the way that they work together is also important to the longevity and the health of the dog that you're purchasing too. So we wanna make sure that our breeders are looking at structure, health, and temperament, a whole picture, instead of focusing on one single thing over another, and making sure all of those boxes are checked.

So the addition of our breed standard in 2017 was a major part of what we do, and that's to steer our breeders towards, we make recommendations to support the breed, and that was just a part of doing that. Wonderful. And if you are a listener and you are like, "This is amazing, I wanna support this," you actually have a way for Goldendoodle parents to support your efforts and the research through your Goldendoodle Society?

Yeah, we offer a Goldendoodle Society. The [00:29:00] best part about our Goldendoodle Society is that a portion of the proceeds that we get from it goes to research, to fund research. So you're contributing to that, and that overall makes a better breed for you as owners as well. Perfect. I'll have the details for that in the show notes.

Okay. All right. So Kelsey, if you could put one thing on a billboard for every doodle parent researching breeders, what would it be? To look at the Goldendoodle Association to find your breeder through GANA. So another thing I really wanted to touch on about GANA is that it's very common for breed clubs to recommend certain health testing that's prevalent in the breed.

The association GANA actually requires this health testing. Mm-hmm. And it goes so much further than that. We have a, a registrar who's employed to actually verify the health testing on all the dogs that are registered with the association, and a member cannot get the stamp of approval until they've met all of these requirements for [00:30:00] every single dog that's active in their program.

And it goes so much further than that even. Then we employ an admin who does litter audits and if somebody had a litter and they didn't register it, we address that. And when a breeder has a litter, they register it with the association. Their dogs are double-checked again to make sure- Gosh ... that those dogs met the requirements of the association.

So I'm not saying that there's not other breed clubs out there doing this, but it's generally the case that breed clubs are recommending, strongly recommending- Mm-hmm ... that their members do this testing. And then there are a smaller amount of breed clubs that are actually making sure that they're doing it, and GANA is one of those breed clubs where we do spend a lot of our resources making sure that our members are keeping their credibility with the association.

And you are- And our members- Yeah ... should be really proud to be a part of that- Yes ... because somebody is double-checking, triple checking actually, all of the litters that they're producing and holding them accountable, and that's [00:31:00] something that they can say to their owners, "Hey, I'm being held accountable by a third party- Mm-hmm

not once, not twice, but three times." So- Yeah ... that's something I wanted to address as well, 'cause it's very important. That's- Yeah ... phenomenal. And the fact that these breeders are going through these rigorous standards of testing, and then the amount of verification that they show in order to have these badges- Yeah

is just an- another level. Yeah. And they have to keep showing. They can't just show up once. You have to keep showing up. And we're really proud of that. Yes. Yes. I would like to add that there are breeders out there, and you'll see on their website, "I'm not a member of GANA, but I..." test to gold level standards.

And oftentimes those breeders were left, they have left Ghana, or when we audited, they were in fact up to those standards, or they don't repeat the [00:32:00] eyes or repeat the patella testing at a year So I want people to be cautious. That's a great insider tip there. Thank you. So another part- Yeah ... about GANA is that if you have 10 dogs in your program, all 10 of them need to meet the standards basically at all times.

You can't just pick which dogs you're gonna fully health test and which you're not. The association is an all or nothing, so all of your dogs, your entire program needs to meet these requirements. Perfect. And I'll have the link in the show notes. You guys are a nonprofit too, right, for all- Yes, we are ... of this work.

We are. Yes. Yeah. And that's what I always... A lot of times I think people think of a breed club, especially breeders that we sometimes talk to, as like a marketing association. We're trying to be a collaborative place where- Yeah ... breeders can connect with each other and then keep educated. We are like breeders that are really passionate about the health and longevity of the dog are what we want to recruit, because we are looking to pool our [00:33:00] resources to develop health surveys and different things that can actually improve the health that we're all aware of potentially issues within our breed that we can then tackle collaboratively.

And so that's really what we're trying to do, s- is really improve the life of our dogs and- Yeah ... treat them better. And if your breeder's not a part of the association, you're like, "Okay, do they not wanna be under accountability? Are they not appreciating these things?" It is worth asking anyway.

Speaker 2: What a conversation. If you take one thing from this first half, let it be this. The prettiest website does not equal the healthiest puppy. The breeders doing this right are the ones getting to know your family, showing you real health testing and making the hard calls to protect the breed even when it costs them.

So if you're ready to find a breeder you can actually trust, here's where to start. If you're looking for a [00:34:00] Goldendoodle, begin with the GAANNA Breeder Directory at goldendoodleassociation.com. If your heart is set on another Doodle cross like a Bernedoodle, Cavapoo, Sheepadoodle, or Whoodle, my Gold Standard Circle is my hand-selected invite-only network of ethical breeders I trust and recommend personally.

It's linked in the show notes along with the pages for all three of today's guests, Bren's Doodles, Shining Star Doodles, and Fox Creek Farm. This conversation was so rich we split it into two. Next week in part two we go straight at the critics, the people who insist there's no such thing as an ethical Doodle breeder.

One of those breeders shares a story about a champion show line, the kind everyone calls ethical, that was hiding a serious health problem you could not see by just looking at the dog. Make sure you're subscribed so it lands right in your feed. [00:35:00] I'll see you there. This conversation I'll see you there