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Part of unedited transcript of podcast:
Nichole:
Welcome to the good dog pod. Every Wednesday we discuss all things dogs, from health and veterinary care, to trading and behavior science. Follow us and join good dogs mission to build a better world for our dogs, and the people who love them. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the good dog pod. Thank you so much for tuning in this week. I’m Nicole, you’re a breeder community Lead here at Good dog. And I’m so excited to be joined today by Karen Yap, who is an amazing member of our good breeder community, and one of her very recent puppy buyers, Susan, they’ll be sharing more about their experience working together and all that goes into applying and eventually bringing your puppy home from a breeder. For any listeners that are new here, I just wanted to say Welcome, we are so happy to have you here. Good dog is on a mission to build a better world for our dogs and the people who love them by advocating for dog breeders, educating the public and promoting canine health and responsible dog ownership. We’re a secure and free online community created just for dog breeders. And we’re committed to empowering dog breeders with technology. If you aren’t yet a member of our community, we invite you to learn more about our mission and apply to join at good dog.com/join. So to kick things off, I will pass things over to the two of you to introduce yourself. So Karen, do you want to start off telling us a little bit about yourself your breeding program and also how you came to good dog?
Karen:
Well, I’ll do that in reverse. I came to a good dog. I saw a post on Facebook that I had never seen before. And at first I gotta say I thought What is this, like a broker or something like that? So I had to investigate because if it was something I needed to stay away from, I was gonna block you. And I gotta tell you, when I click to investigate, I was absolutely shocked I truly, I was like, Am I really reading what I’m reading that there’s someone out there that wants to bring breeders and good families together, and really wants to hold breeders accountable for what they’re doing. Not only hold them accountable, but raise the bar. So needless to say, from that point on, I really just dove in, and just was more pleased with everything that I saw. So I was real quick to want to become a member, I think pretty close to the beginning. And I have thoroughly enjoyed it as it’s grown, the education that you provide grants that you provide. Again, I can’t say enough about it. And I am so pleased that somebody thought this was necessary and actually had the guts to do it, because it’s pretty controversial to some people. So I applaud good dog. And again, I’m very proud member. So a little bit about me, I know an empty nester, I raised three beautiful daughters who have now blessed me with six beautiful grandchildren that are even better than they are. And I’ve read horses, I’ve read golden doodles, but I was never able to make it something that I did full time to fulfill me. I have a business, a logistics business that pays my bills. And I’m slowly retiring from that. So this is something that I’ve always wanted to do because I loved animals, and the Australian Labradoodle. Once I was introduced to that breed and did the research, and then I had quite a bit of hands on time understanding them. That was it. I was done. It is my full time. I’m not gonna say job is a job. But it is my full time we love it fulfills me in so many ways. And I’m able to enjoy this with my grandchildren. They learn the business side of it, they learn how to care for dogs. They’re pretty good little trainers. They desensitize my puppies to children the way they scamper around and sudden movements. And they learn about the reproductive system. They get great science classes. And we’re living our best life on a 20 acre ranch in Southern Oregon. And just enjoying every day.
Nicole:
I would like to live my best life on a ranch in Oregon. That sounds great.
Karen:
Well, it took a long time but we’re finally here.
Nicole:
Awesome. Well, thank you again for being here. And for being such a great member of our good breeder community. We are so lucky to have you isn’t an I’ll pass things over to you to give a little background on yourself, your background with dogs especially and maybe tell us how you realize you were ready to begin your search for a dog.
Susan:
Okay, well, thank you for having me and for having us together on this podcast because we’ve had such an incredible experience with both A dog and Karen from the get go. So just a little bit about us, my husband and I live in an apartment in New York City. And we raised two kids here, both of whom live independently now, in New York City. We’ve officially been empty nesters now for three years, and we had always talked about getting a dog, but our lifestyle wasn’t really ready to accommodate a puppy. And then last year, we got caught up in a little bit of the COVID, Puppy fever and thought, wow, you know, we’re home all the time. This might be the right time for us to do this. And we had escaped to the Berkshires, in Western Massachusetts for a good part of that time with our family. And we just thought for all of us, it would really enrich our lives to have a puppy. So that was kind of the start of the process. And then earlier this year, I decided to pivot in my career, and I’m now working from home full time. So it really lent itself to having a puppy because I couldn’t imagine leaving home at eight o’clock in the morning and returning at seven. And that being good for a puppy. So it felt like the sun and the moon and the stars were aligning for us this year. In terms of like our background with dogs, my husband had a dog growing up. But I didn’t my parents got one for a younger brother when I went off to college. And so it was really his dog and I wasn’t there for the training, I wasn’t there for the discipline. I wasn’t there for just kind of the wake up in the middle of the night to walk a dog. So this is really my first experience.
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Just in case you're not too sure...
Whether you have questions about Australian Labradoodle, or not too sure about the process of adopting one ~ just ask Karen. She’ll be happy to advise and clarify any queries you may have.