Our Philosophy

When I think of the puppies I create and the homes they go to it sets a high standard for me. I can’t simply put two dogs together, make puppies, and send them off. They need to be much more, it has to be more carefully planned.

People often think breeding dogs is easy, and while the idea is easy, it gets complicated with all the decisions you need to make. Sure, there are easy things like color genetics, size, coat type, they all need to be considered, but that isn’t what makes the dog of your dreams, the dog that will make the memories, and be your child’s hero.

Breed a Healthy Dog

While in the process of deciding whether or not to add a dog to our Tamarack Therapy breeding program, the following standards are non-negotiable. Our potential breeding dogs must have the following characteristics:

Health

test as non-affected on genetic diseases tested through Embark
hip, elbow, cardiac, and eye clearances
comes from a line of dogs with increased lifespan
comes from a line of dogs with increased health span- a long life that includes physical comfort
the ability to reproduce and whelp naturally

Behavior Health

minimal-to-no-fear of unknown humans
no behavior conditions- such as aggressive, compulsive or anxious behavior

Our Breeding choices prioritize breeding to lower the inbreeding coefficient of the puppies produced.

Select for the Ideal Temperament

Unlike health testing and genetic traits which are often black and white and can be understood with statistics and algorithms, temperament selection is much more dynamic. You don’t get to use a DNA swab to tell you if a dog will love children or if they’ll do well in a busy city. Despite being able to test for temperament, temperament is greatly genetic.This complexity makes this one of the more artful pieces of breeding. It requires us to carefully watch and observe our dogs in numerous environments, see how they handle different situations.

We know that what we see in our breeding dogs’ temperaments and personalities is likely to pass on. We carefully select our dogs to meet the criteria that will thrive in a family environment, one that can handle the busyness of a home with small children, but isn’t bored sleeping at your feet while you work from home. When you get the right temperament, the entire experience of having the dog is more joyful.

Healthy Parents, beyond just the physical.

Healthy adult dogs make healthy puppies, but it’s more than just nutrition and exercise. Just like humans need time to relax, decompress, and enjoy their hobbies and great relationships, dogs do, too! In addition to feeding high-quality dog food, we have 100 acres of land, with a lake! They get plenty of exercise and entertainment. Like humans use their eyes, dogs use their noses to take in their environment, it’s soothing to them like watching a movie is enjoyable to us. Our environment provides plenty of enrichment, giving them all they need to be in a happy, stress-free state of mind.

We’ve found that dogs that have their needs met not only stay healthier, but they make healthier puppies, and the moms go on to set a better example for their puppies, as they’re more patient, have an easier time producing better milk, and better socialize the pups to their environment.

Raise Healthy Pups!

One of the biggest responsibilities a breeder has, after doing all the background genetic work and testing, is to take those precious puppies and give them an environment where they thrive. We start with providing the best flooring for our whelping box. We use a specially designed traction mat that helps the puppies have more stability as they walk. It particularly helps them develop their teres ligament. This ligament, when properly developed, helps the femoral head seat correctly and securely into the socket. Looseness of this ligament is the primary cause of hip dysplasia. While our dogs are genetically cleared for risk factors for hip dysplasia, using these traction mats provides our puppies the best opportunity for proper development and musculature.

Since adding this to our puppy rearing process we’ve seen better muscle development and balance, the coordination prevents injuries, encourages healthy growth, and this leads to greater socialization through puppy wrestling and play.

To keep our puppies healthier, we train them to use a litter box. This teaches our puppies where they should go to the bathroom and simplifies the process of house training for you. While we have preventative measures against parasites, these practices mitigate parasite transfer in the unlikely event of exposure.

Foster a Trust of Humans

Trust is a key element in training. When a puppy trusts their trainer, they are willing to try new things, to make mistakes, and they’re more curious. Dog training is often a game of tempting the dog to try something, then rewarding them for their effort, marking the behavior. When a dog isn’t curious, they’re less willing to try. Confidence and curiosity go hand-in-hand, such that when a dog has both, they’re most successful in training.

We’ve found a great way to encourage curiosity and trust of humans is for our puppies to engage in puppy yoga. Puppy yoga is an opportunity for puppies to engage with people on their own terms, they can run up and meet someone, curious about their yoga pose or breathing. It gives them an opportunity to explore people and engage in a calm environment.

Match You With the Perfect Puppy

Do you have two kids? I have four and they’re all different. They have their own personalities, interests, and quirks. Just like kids, it’s the same with puppies, they’re all their own unique individuals. My greatest success as a breeder is placing the perfect puppy for you into your hands.

It all starts with temperament testing. Which is a fancy way of us telling you that we do personality and drive assessments. These tests are designed to see how a puppy will react in certain situations, what is of interest to them, and the type of lifestyle they would thrive in. Yet, it’s not enough to understand the puppy, we need to understand you, too!

We know it can be annoying to answer the questionnaires, we don’t intend to be invasive, rather we want to undersand. We want to understand what you are looking for in a puppy: the lifestyle and memories you hope to create with the dog. We take all this information and apply it to our puppies, their temperament testing results. It all helps us help you, pick the right pup.

This is why–if you want the absolute best–then you should jump on our waitlist as soon as you settle on our dogs and our breeding program for your next family addition.