OUR PROCESS

Welcome to the Sunny Heart Doodles website! We’re so happy that you found our breeding program! The very first thing you’ll want to do before welcoming a new puppy into your home is determine that you’ve found the right breed. Have you met several Australian Labradoodles? Did you do allergy checks? Do you absolutely adore the ALD characteristics? Are you in love with this breed?

To get the ball rolling in our process, we’ll need to learn a little bit about you and your family. We’ll also want to find out about what you’re looking for in a pet. If you are interested in purchasing a puppy from us, please fill out an application. We also welcome you to check out our Guardian Program and fill out a guardian application if you’d like to become the forever family of one of our beloved breeding dogs.

It will never hurt to drop us a line through our contact page to give us the heads up to be on the lookout for your application. Once we connect, we will give you an approximate timeline for when you can expect a puppy. It is at this point that your reservation fee is due if you want to reserve a spot for a pet puppy. With the submission of this fee (which is deducted from your final payment), you will be added to the SHD master list and you will receive an official welcome email. IMPORTANT: While protection and support are always a good idea, there are some people who want to opt out of Good Dog’s Protection and Support offerings. If that is the case for you, when making your reservation on Good Dog, our payment processor, you will enter the payment amount and then enter your payment details. Below the payment method, there will be a summary of your fees. To OPT OUT of the Protection and Support fee, hover your mouse over the “i” next to Protection and Support. In the pop-up box, click “Learn more.” Scroll all the way down on the next page and click “Change to friends and family payment.” After clicking that, select the second payment type, “Friends and Family (not protected).” No payment is due for guardian families.

Now we wait. We wait for heat cycles, for breedings, for pregnancies and for puppies!! When a breeding occurs, we will put an expected due date on our website as well as on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

When a litter arrives and it is your turn on the list, you will receive an emailed birth announcement. The announcement will include the breakdown of the colors and genders of the puppies as well as important dates such as Match Time and Gotcha Day. Since a lot of logistics go into each litter, we will ask you in the birth announcement email if you will be picking your puppy up in person or if you would like to arrange for delivery on Gotcha Day .

Once the puppies are born, excitement really builds! We will update our families with photos of their litter once a week via Google Photos. We encourage you not to get attached to any particular puppy during the weeks between birth and Match Time as 1) they’ll all be precious and 2) we reserve the right to retain any puppy for breeding. Your remaining balance on the price of a puppy and sales tax (minus any reservation fee paid) is due at 6 weeks. At 7 weeks of age, both breeder and family matches are made.

Match Time is more of a process than an actual day. Matching can begin as soon as the puppies have their vet check and I complete their trait assessments, both at around the 7 week mark. Puppy matching will be done as a collaborative effort between you and me. We will review each puppy and, together, determine the best option for your family and situation! For more important information about matching, please see our FAQs.

We’ll take care of any loose housekeeping, including contract signings, during the last week that your puppy is with Sunny Heart Doodles. You will continue to receive updated photos of your puppy during this time.

Today is the day!…the day you get to welcome your puppy home! On Gotcha Day, you will either come to pick up your fluffy bundle or, for an additional cost, we will deliver your puppy to you. Welcome to the SHD family!!

Your puppy leaving us and going home to you doesn’t symbolize the end of our relationship. We view it as just the beginning and would love nothing more than to receive regular updates from our babies. We have an Instagram account and will encourage our pups to start their own accounts, too, so siblings, cousins and our breeding dogs can all connect on the ‘Gram.