“Can I visit one of your locations and meet the sheepadoodle puppies?”
Sorry, but no.
This is probably not the response you are hoping to hear when you ask a sheepadoodle breeder about a visit to meet their puppies. And it may not always be the response you get from a sheepadoodle breeder, but if it's a reputable sheepadoodle breeder, there’s a good reason why they don’t allow visitors.
With growing concerns over puppy mills—terrible places where dogs are left neglected inside small kennels for their entire lives—we’re encouraged by people investigating how dogs are treated by breeders. Anyone trying to profit off the abuse of animals has something to hide, so of course, they won’t let anyone visit their facilities. This is why you will find so many articles advising you not to buy a puppy without visiting the location in person. It’s all about transparency, and we certainly support that.
On the other hand (or paw, in this case), a good sheepadoodle breeder has something to protect. Here are a few reasons why good sheepadoodle breeders won’t let you visit the puppies, and why Grace Wood Farm has a strict no visitation policy at all of our locations.
Sickness
You’ve been waiting weeks (or even months) to bring home a sheepadoodle puppy, but these cute little furballs aren’t ready to face the world yet. Canine sicknesses like kennel cough, distemper, and parvovirus are potentially fatal threats and they can be transmitted by something as simple as walking inside with your shoes on. Did you know that parvovirus can live in the grass for up to a year? If you step in contaminated dog poop, parvovirus can survive on the bottom of your shoes for 5-6 months! During the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple animal hospitals and vet’s offices were reporting as much as a 70% increase in the number of parvovirus cases they were treating. Experts have speculated that this was due to increased visits to dog parks and public areas due to stay-at-home mandates, and lack of access to puppy vaccinations. Regardless of the reason for the increase, one thing is for sure. We are more committed than ever before to protect our sheepadoodle puppies and parent dogs from contracting this terrible illness. A sheepadoodle breeder’s highest priority should be the health and safety of their sheepadoodle puppies. A sheepadoodle puppy’s immune system is highly volatile, and they don’t receive their first vaccinations until around weeks 6-7. Keeping sheepadoodle puppies isolated from outside exposure is the best thing for them. To ensure the highest level of care for our sheepadoodle puppies, Grace Wood Farm doesn’t allow anyone outside of our families and staff to interact with the puppies until their Go Home Day. While it might be hard to wait, we hope that you will understand our heart behind drawing a hard line here. We are committed to sending home healthy sheepadoodle puppies, and it just isn't worth the risk to expose them to the outside world at such a young age.
Privacy
Trust us, sheepadoodle breeders and puppy lovers alike want to snuggle with the puppies as much as anyone else, especially when they see photos on Instagram from our babies’ new owners. As curious as we or the public may be, no one is going to come knocking at your door or peeking through your windows. That would be really, really weird.
Many sheepadoodle breeders operate out of their houses, and all of our Grace Wood Farm locations are homes with families. Respecting their privacy might be hard when you’re excited to finally meet your sheepadoodle puppy, but if you don’t have enough patience for that, just wait until you start potty training! We love our Grace Wood Farm families, and we are dedicated to protecting their right to live normal lives. Well, as normal as can be with all those adorable sheepadoodle puppies underfoot.
Time
When a sheepadoodle leaves a breeder to discover its forever home, that new owner joins an ever-growing family of animal lovers and the pets they adore. And in many cases, it’s a big family. A good sheepadoodle breeder is like the mother of that family—the slightly crazy, mildly stressed, but always joyful mother. They’re caring for your sheepadoodle puppy, starting potty training, encouraging socialization, and ensuring the puppies have a clean environment to grow up in.
Time is something that’s already in short supply, and most good sheepadoodle breeders simply don’t have any to spare. From the day they’re born, our dogs at Grace Wood Farm are raised in family homes, and each of those family members has other responsibilities and commitments. In addition to the responsibilities and demands of family life, our location breeders are bathing and grooming puppies, cleaning nurseries, taking dogs to the vet, assisting mamas during birth, and even taking all those cute photos and videos you love to look at on social media. Our location breeders are rockstars, and we are committed to making the most of their time in the best way possible, by protecting it every chance we get. So no, we aren’t going to ask them to open their homes for visitors. Even if someone asks really nicely.
Transparency
We understand the goal behind asking for a visit to our farm and believe us, we would want to visit too! We understand why you would want to make sure that Grace Wood Farm is a legitimate, responsible sheepadoodle breeder, that we take good care of our parent dogs and that all of our locations are well kept. Our heart is to be as transparent as possible with our clients while still protecting our families and puppies. We try our best to make up for prohibiting visitors by posting loads of photos and videos of our puppies on social media, as well as photos and videos of our location breeders (and their homes) on our website. Many breeders don't want you to see their setup or conditions for a reason - it's not going to be appealing. If you could peer behind the curtain at some of those other breeder locations, you would likely find dozens or even hundreds of dogs locked in small kennels on concrete slabs, with no access to the outside world and no quality of life. There is no feasible way to manage that many dogs unless you put them all in kennels. All of those poor parent dogs end up living their entire existence in a small kennel. They don't go out. They don't play. Often they are neglected and rife with infections, parasites, mites, fleas, etc.
At Grace Wood Farm, we are committed to a different way of doing things. Not only are our dogs raised in families, but they also have large, clean nurseries and big yards to play in. We provide pictures of every location and every setup we have for our dogs on our website because we want you to see how we do things. We have nothing to hide. Grace Wood Farm maintains the highest standards of cleanliness and health for our sheepadoodle puppies and our adult dogs. Without question, we pride ourselves on providing the best possible experience for all our dogs. We genuinely believe that our sheepadoodle breeding program is the best, and without question, better than any other program we know of. (Side note: Did you hear that we were recently ranked as the #1 Sheepadoodle breeder in the country? Check out this article written by We Love Doodles. We were also picked for #1 Mini Sheepadoodle Breeders!)
We know some wonderful dog breeders who allow people to visit their locations and meet the puppies personally. We are happy that works for them. However, at Grace Wood Farm our highest priority is the health and safety of the animals in our care. Allowing outsiders to visit is a risk to our newborn puppies, our parent dogs, and our families—a risk that Grace Wood Farm is not willing to take.
Every week, you can see our sheepadoodle puppies on Instagram and Facebook; they might just be the cutest things alive! The thought of something happening to them is unbearable, which is why we’re willing to do whatever it takes to ensure they make it safely into your arms one day. Until then, we are so sorry, you can’t come over to visit.
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