Traditionally many dog breeders ran formal kennels where breeding dogs would be housed until their retirement. However, all Rusty Ambers breeding boys and girls live with guardian families. We started our guardian program 14 years ago. Our first breeding girls lived with us as our pets, but as we wanted to expand our program we decided to place pups initially with family members. We came to believe that this is the best possible way to care for our program’s breeding dogs. Labradoodles are bred to be family companions and love human company and I believe they would not thrive in a formal kennel environment. We feel puppies bred to become family pets and companions should be raised in the home and their parents should also live in a home environment.
Our breeding dogs are carefully selected as pups and placed in guardian families and live a normal family life except for the short periods when they have puppies. The girls come back to live with us to whelp and raise their litters and then go back to their families. Our boys of course are only needed for short periods of time to go on ‘honeymoon’. When our dogs retire from our breeding program they are already with their “forever family”.
If you become a guardian family the dog is essentially your pet but we own breeding rights to them.
Please read the information below for more detailed information on our guardian requirements.
Rusty Amber guardian families need to live in or close to Brisbane. (45 mins maximum distance)
We ask for a $1100 refundable deposit when our guardian pups go home with their families. We also require our guardian families to take out pet insurance when they take their puppy home.
At 12 months of age the dog is health tested for HD and Elbow dysplasia and testable genetic conditions. Rusty Amber covers all breeding related expenses. If your dog passes and joins our breeding program the deposit is refunded after their first litter is sold. If we choose not breed from them, we pay to have them desexed but keep the deposit.
We expect our guardian dogs to be well cared for (grooming, training and general veterinary needs) and fed a premium diet by their guardian families.
Guardian families are required to sign a contract.
The boys have a 5 year contract on them (5 years start once they turn 12 months). Our studs are only required for short periods of time – usually 1-2 hrs. Once the contract is finished Rusty Amber will cover the cost of desexing.
Our guardian girls have a 3 litter contract that we try to have completed by the time the girls turn 4 but it may take longer. The girls may come and stay with us for a short period of time when its time to go on honeymoon and they are usually with us for around 8 weeks while they are whelping and raising their litter. Once thier contract is completed Rusty Amber will pay to have them desexed. Our guardian girls families are welcome to visit while their dog is raising a litter of pups.
