The majority of breeders operate a first come, first served policy with regard to the placement of deposits and the corresponding selection of puppies. The first to place their deposit gets to select their puppy from the whole litter, the second to place their deposit gets the second, so on and so forth. This presents a number of issues, the most important being that nobody necessarily ends up with the puppy that is best-suited to their family. Selecting a puppy based on colour or gender alone is not advisable, and neither is selecting the puppy that is the first to run over to you! Despite what some of the books tell you, this is not because he has or is going to develop a special bond and be perfect for you, it is because at that moment in time, he is feeling more energetic and social than his siblings. Give it a few hours, a different puppy would come running first!
We work a little differently to most breeders and the reason is this - there is no such thing as the best puppy in the litter. There is, however, the best puppy for you and this will most likely be different to the puppy that is best for everyone else on the reservation list. Everybody's situation, circumstances and lifestyle is different and we work to match our clients with a puppy that is a perfect fit.
We match our puppies with their forever families based on temperament first and foremost as this is the primary factor which influences how well your puppy will fit in and become a firm and happy member of your family. After this, we look at size and coat type as these are practical in nature for the size of your home and garden and if any household members suffer from dog-related allergies or asthma. Gender and colour come last because they truly are unimportant and will have no influence on how well a puppy will fit in with your family or how much you will love him or her. There is no temperament difference between males and female Australian Labradoodles and our puppies are speyed/neutered before they go to their new homes, so no discernible difference. Colour is purely cosmetic - please think of it as a bonus if you get the colour you like the most! We will always try to match with your preferences as closely as possible, but we will never forego temperament to please a client on gender or colour because that would not be the best thing to do for the puppy, or the client!
We conduct a structured assessment of every puppy's temperament shortly after they turn 7 weeks old. This is when cognitive development is complete so we can get the most accurate results. Every puppy is placed into the same series of different scenarios and we gauge and record their reaction to each stimulus. This allows us to build a picture of how each puppy's temperament will develop as they reach maturity. The temperament test we use is unique to Lomond Hills and has been developed by combining methods used in the Volhard and APET tests and adapting them to suit the Australian Labradoodle breed. The Volhard and APET tests were developed for generic use across all breeds and we have found our adaptation to be most accurate and reliable for the Australian Labradoodle breed.
Once we have results for the litter, we compare these against client applications and match them up. Temperament comes first, then we look at other physical attributes. The date that client placed their reservations is only used during the matching process if a stalemate is reached based on temperament and physical attributes. After the matching process is complete, we advise clients which puppy has been allocated to them by email. If for some reason, a client chooses not to accept the puppy that has been allocated to them, their reservation can be transferred to an alternative litter. It is important that everyone is excited about the arrival of their new family member - if you don't come across as being excited, we will be concerned as to why! Every puppy deserves to go to a home where their new family is excited for their arrival!
The beauty of the puppy matching process is that every client ends up with a puppy that is a great fit for them and our puppies end up in a home with a family where they will thrive. We get emails from clients all the time about how well their puppy has settled in and what a great fit they have proved to be with the family - this tells us that we have done a good job!
© Copyright of Lomond Hills Labradoodles
Lomond Hills Labradoodles is a trading name of LHL Limited, a company registered in Scotland. Licence No. FC26
© Copyright of Lomond Hills Labradoodles
Lomond Hills Labradoodles is a trading name of LHL Limited, a company registered in Scotland. Licence No. FC26
