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 goat milk and then move on to raw meat, canned food, goat milk, soaked Blue Buffalo Lamb for Puppies, raw egg, cottage cheese, kefir, raw bones, and veggies to give them the best start in life possible. They are fed three times per day, and at four to five weeks we introduce them to dry 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 Blue Buffalo Life Protection Lamb & Oatmeal. We’ve tried a lot of different foods, but whatever you decide on, choose something with high quality ingredients, grain-free or ancient grains, real meat – not meal products, and do not feed Bernedoodles chicken due to the possibility of allergies. 

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 every two months for a gorgeous fluffy coat. 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 – $120. 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 personally love and recommend Cindy @ Hound Lounge Grooming in Ferndale, WA.

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 – three dogs. You can take a look at our Guardian Home Agreement here (click on the small photo to bring up the larger image). 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, have a fenced yard, and someone must be at home most of the day. The fee for this option is substantially less that purchasing a puppy outright; usually somewhere around $800. If the Guardian Home puppy is trained and passes the AKC Good Citizen Program, we will reimburse $100 per live puppy, up to $500, for each successful breeding. This helps to offset the costs of feeding and caring for your guardian home puppy, and pays back the initial investment.

We never breed our dogs before they have been fully health tested; both physically and genetically for any diseases these breeds may be pre-dispositioned for.  We test hips, elbows, patellas, heart, and eyes – along with a full disease and traits panel by Embark Vet for any disease traits the dogs may possibly carry for. This is a vital piece that many unschooled breeders miss. If a dog carries for a disease, such as Degenerative Myelopathy, it is imperative that the dog is NEVER bred to another carrier of this disease. Without proper genetic testing by facilities like Embark and Paw Prints, the breeder will never know the true results of the pairing. Another important factor in breeding is coat traits. These are what give the puppy its coloration and doodle-like coat. If two “Improper Coat” carriers are bred together, the puppy will not be allergy friendly, and the coat will not have furnishings, which gives them that gorgeous teddy-bear-like look. The best information I have found on this subject is at Moonstruck Bernedoodles‘ website. Kim has been breeding Bernedoodles for many years, and she has been an amazing mentor for me. I’ve drawn on her wisdom, and yes, even her dogs, to help make Cloud Nine Doodles a GREAT place to get your next furbaby. Click on the Our Dogs tab to see what we test for and the results for each of our dogs. We do Pennhip testing, at Timberland Veterinary, on all of our dogs as we feel it’s a superior method of assessing a dog’s hips, but we also utilize OFA for most of our dogs’ hips, elbows, patellas, eyes, and heart. 

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. If you choose to utilize the recommended NuVet Vitamins throughout your puppy’s first three years, we will extend the warranty for that period of time (a total of three years from date of birth).  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/. You can also watch “An Introduction to Crate Training” by Baxter and Bella, the Online Puppy School. I love and recommend Baxter and Bella whole-heartedly. All of my puppy families who have utilized this amazing resource can’t stop talking about what a game-changer it is. If you use code CLOUDNINE, you’ll 25% of their lifetime membership which gives you access to their 100’s of training videos, live puppy classes, one-on-one telephone calls with the trainer, and so much more. This is the best value you’ll ever find and I’ve learned so many training tricks from Amy, who is a certified service dog trainer. 

The prices for our Doodles is:  $3,200 for Double Doodles ($3,500 for flashy, parti-doodles), $3,200 for bi-color Bernedoodles, and $3,800 for tri-color Bernedoodles. Please note, adult coloration is not guaranteed as some dogs can fade with age, and this is not something we can predict. The purchase price 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. Puppy must be spayed before 1.5 years to maintain your health warranty and to be eligible for a refund. Your puppy will also come with a vet well-check from Whatcom Veterinary Hospital, will be current on vaccinations and deworming, and will be micro-chipped (with ID Tag registration). Each puppy will be sent home with at least a leash, collar, toy, blanket that smells like mom and siblings, and starter food. We also provide information regarding Trupanion’s offer for 30 days of free pet insurance, which we highly recommend taking advantage of. USAA/Embrace offers great rates for puppy insurance. We start the potty-training process for you and begin crate training to make the transition easier for you and your puppy. Puppies will have slept alone in a kennel a minimum of three nights before coming home, and typically it’s longer than this. We start the training by placing kennels in their play area with free access, and after several days, we start placing puppies in crates with a sibling. After three or four nights of this, they are placed in individual kennels. Finally, we also provide ongoing support for your concerns and questions whenever they may arise for as long as you need us. Please see our Google Reviews and decide for yourself if Cloud Nine Doodles is the breeder you’ve been looking for. 

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 the decision making process by sharing our observations of the puppies during the first weeks of their lives. Many videos will also be shared as the puppies grow to help each family watch the behavior of the puppies during different stages of growth. Many families already have a pretty good idea of which puppy will be the best fit for them before the actual picking process even begins. Every family is allotted 1.5 hours for picking, and it can be done either by video, or in person, which is always the recommended method unless distance makes it impractical. 

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 Dr. Karen Shaw Becker about the effects of early spay and neuter on Bark & Whiskers here. In addition, here’s an interesting article from UC Davis 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. The $150 reimbursement for spay/neuter will also be forfeited if the dog is spayed or neutered before it’s first heat cycle and / or one year of age. 

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. Cloud Nine Doodles also offers the option to fly the puppy personally to the airport of choice, on a limited basis. This can reduce a lot of stress and anxiety for the puppy who is flying with someone they are familiar with.

Breeder’s price to deliver the puppy to the flight nanny at Seatac Airport in Seattle (4 hrs R/T) is $100. Portland is $300, and Spokane is $500.  

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. We have driven puppies to California a few times, so don’t hesitate to ask. 

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 7.5 weeks old and it is always given by a veterinarian. Studies suggest that if the vaccines are given too early, a puppy’s immune system, acquired by the dam’s milk, will keep the vaccine from doing its job. We also feel it’s also too big a risk for a puppy to be vaccinated younger than 7.5 weeks. It is recommended that the puppy receive its 2nd and 3rd boosters three to four weeks apart. Rabies should never be given before five months of age, and should not be given together with any other vaccine. 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 here and online here at Animal Health Foundation, 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. Do NOT give your puppy the Lepto vaccination. Puppies should not be taken to places like dog parks or schools where many dogs spend a lot of time. Never take your puppy to these places until all vaccinations have been given – for a period of time after the last immunization as recommended by your veterinarian.