At Cloud Nine, we attempt to raise the most loved and well socialized puppies we possibly can. They are family raised in our home with lots of love and attention, taken for car rides, and exposed to a lot of different stimuli, but in addition to that we practice the “Super Dog” program – or ENS when the puppies are between 3 and 16 days old.  This is the program widely used for service and military dogs to prepare them for anything that might come their way. A wonderful start for therapy dog training.

We start our puppies with raw meat, canned food, goat milk, soaked Farmina Prime, raw egg, cottage cheese, kefir, bones, and veggies to give them the best start in life possible. They are fed a slurry of this three times per day, and at four to five weeks we introduce them to kibble and canned food as we understand that this may be what they’ll be receiving in their new homes. This article from Dogs Naturally really helped me gain more understanding about feeding raw. If you have the ability to do so, feeding raw is much more healthy for your canines… it’s the way they were meant to eat. If in Canada you can purchase excellent patty raw food in the correct percentages from Sports City Butcher in Surrey, BC.  In Lynden, we purchase raw meat from Lynden Meats. Sometimes the cost or manageability of feeding raw is not conducive, and in that case we recommend Farmina Prime. This food has a 5 star rating on DogFoodAdvisor.com . We’ve tried a lot of different foods, but whatever you decide on, choose something with high quality ingredients, grain-free, no-meals, and do not feed Bernedoodles chicken at any time. We also recommend Earthborn Holistic Grain-free.

We never breed our dogs before they have been fully health tested; both physically and genetically for any diseases these breeds may be pre-dis-positioned for.  We test hips, elbows, patellas, heart, eyes, and thyroid – along with a full panel of testing for any disease traits the dogs may carry for. Click on the Our Dogs tab to see what we test for and the results for each of our dogs. 

Doodles have a coat that is constantly growing, and although it is essentially light to non-shedding, they can shed when they are going through heat cycles, when they blow out their puppy coat, or when the weather is warmer. This coat needs to be brushed on a regular basis which will also reduce any shedding that may happen, and should be professionally groomed three to four times per year. You should never leave the dog’s coat un-groomed for long periods of time as this can lead to serious complications for the skin.  The cost of grooming a Doodle can be between $80 – $100. This should be considered a non-negotiable part of owning a Doodle unless you plan on taking on the grooming yourself which can be a little “Hair Raising”.

We are occasionally looking for suitable homes for our breeding dogs as believe in quality – not quantity. Sometimes we have an exceptional puppy we would like to retain for our breeding program but our household can realistically only retain two dogs. You can take a look at our Guardian Home Agreement here. If you’re interested in possibly becoming a Guardian home, fill out a puppy application and put that in the comments box. To be considered as a guardian home, you must live in Whatcom County and someone must be at home throughout the day.

Because we have done all our homework up front with full physical and genetic health testing on all our dogs and any dogs we use for breeding purposes, we are able to offer a generous two-year health warranty on your puppy, Check out our full warranty here so you can proceed with full confidence that we will stand behind our puppies. 

We begin potty training at three weeks of age when the babies will toddle from their bed to the litter area in the puppy pen. Once the puppies are five weeks of age, they start going outside as soon as they awake in the morning, and we start the bell-training at this time.

We also start the crate training process for you, saving you some sleepless nights.  We believe whole-heartedly in the crate training method, and if you are not familiar with that, you can find more information here… http://www.akc.org/content/dog-training/articles/how-to-crate-train-a-puppy/

The prices for our Doodles is:  $3,200 for Double Doodles, $3,800 for tri-color Bernedoodles, and $3,200 for bi-color Bernedoodles. This includes $150 towards the spay / neuter which will be reimbursed after the procedure has been completed after your puppy has matured sufficiently or around one year of age.  Your puppy will also come with a vet well-check from Whatcom Veterinary Hospital, will be current on vaccinations and dewormings, and will be micro-chipped (with Petlink registration). Each puppy will be sent home with a leash, collar, toy, blanket that smells like mom and siblings, and some food to get you started. We start the potty-training process for you and begin crate training to make the transition easier for you and your puppy. We also provide ongoing support for your concerns and questions whenever they may arise for as long as you need us.

Shipping is recommended via a flight nanny or personal pickup. Delivery is also available on a limited basis. If using a flight nanny, the puppy would be delivered by the breeder to the flight nanny at Seatac or Bellingham Intl airports. The puppy would then fly comfortably in-cabin with the nanny and be delivered into the buyer’s waiting arms at the airport of choice.

Breeder’s price to deliver the puppy to the flight nanny at Seatac Airport in Seattle (4 hrs R/T) is $100 and the price to Bellingham is free. 

Flight nannies can be recommended by the breeder but must be chosen by the buyer and approved by the breeder. We have used D&D Doggy Delivery several times and highly recommend them. Here’s a great list of recommended flight nannies from GoodDog.com. Example pricing: Alabama to Seattle via D&D Doggy Delivery $475, Seattle to San Francisco via D&D Doggy Delivery $600, and Seattle to Maine via Jet Petz $850.

Ground delivery by the breeder is sometimes available. Sample pricing is $100 to Seattle, $300 to Portland, $500 to Spokane, ect.

We do not do early spay / neuter for the health of the puppy, but each puppy comes with a contract that ensures the puppy is spayed or neutered after its first cycle or when it reaches puberty; somewhere around one year old. Cloud Nine Doodles will reimburse the cost of the spay/neuter up to $150. The best price for a spay / neuter in Whatcom County is at Whatcom Veterinary Hospital, which is where we have our vet services performed.  For more information on why we prefer to wait until the puppy has reached puberty, you can read a great article from Mercola here. In addition, here’s an interesting article from UCDavis about the effects of early spay / neuter on Golden Retrievers. There’s a lot more out there so do your own research before you decide. De-sexing is always a healthier option, but it does cost more.  Spaying or neutering before puberty will void the two-year health warranty as we feel it drastically affects the health of the puppy. 

Please follow your veterinarian’s suggestions for your puppy’s first vaccinations. We believe in the importance of initial vaccinations for the health of the puppy. We do not give the first vaccination until the puppy is almost eight weeks old and it is given by the veterinarian. Studies suggest that a puppy’s immune system, acquired by the dam’s milk, will keep the vaccine from doing its job, and I feel it’s also too big a risk for a puppy to be vaccinated younger than eight weeks. It is recommended that the puppy receive two more vaccines 3 – 4 weeks apart. It’s also important to be informed and do your own research. The protocol for vaccine schedules is changing. To determine if your adult dog requires a vaccination, and to find out what is safe for your younger puppy, please study Dr. Jean Dodds’ vaccination research as well as conducting your own. There are Titer tests available to determine your pet’s level of disease antibodies in order to vaccinate for only those that are low in the body. Most vaccines protect for up to five years, once all puppy vaccinations have been given. We also give the puppies a bordetella vaccine to prevent Kennel Cough.

During our years of breeding puppies, we’ve spent so much time with each puppy in our home that we usually have a pretty good feel for the distinct personalities and different characteristics of the various puppies that we raise, but a really cool tool to help in assessing each puppy is the Volhard Puppy Aptitude Test. We like to use this test to make sure we have the puppies pegged correctly – which can help guide us in placing the correct puppy in the correct home. For instance, we would not want to place an energetic puppy in a home with small children who might be overwhelmed, but  realize this would be a better fit for an active family with teenagers. We do allow our prospective families to pick their puppy, at  seven weeks, based on the order in which their deposit was placed, but we help guide them in their decision making process by sharing our observations of the puppies during the first weeks of their lives.