The Begininng

Welcome to Lighthouse Labradoodles. We are new to blogging so this should be fun.

A little about us:

Tom & I ( Martha) are breeders of Labradoodles. Have been since 2006. Love what we do and plan on doing it until we are well too old to keep up with the demands.

How did we become interrested in breeding? The following story will fill you in on that very topic.

Back in 2003 before the general public learned about the labradoodle breed, we purchased Killian. We had done a bit of research, actually looking at Bichon's at first and then discovered by chance the "labradoodle".

Hmmmm what is that...when we first saw them we instantly fell in love.
The photo above is "Simon" a labradoodle pup from our first litter of labradoodles.

We thought they were so adorable and learned that they were non shedding...oh wow...can it be true ?
Looking in the local newspaper we saw some for sale...drove and went to "Laughlin Kennel's", and so the nightmare began.

There were other families at laughlin Kennels looking at various different types of breeds...I thought wow, how cute , looking at those adorable pups not really being aware of what was hiding in the basement.

The ugly truth is this business sells many many variety of pups and they keep them in a basement in cages stacked up.... where do the pups come from?
They come from puppy mills...and so the story unfolds.


Our entire family became so attached & naturally fell in love with him, as you do when first getting a new puppy. But 4 days went by and he suddenly became extremely ill....
We rushed him to our vet whom we had just seen 4 days previous for his first puppy exam and they
diagnosed "Parvo". A fatal diagnosis for any puppy.

Puppy warranty, is a very vague term,phrase whatever...it is something that one takes and reads through before acquiring a pup.

Laughlin Kennel had one and this is what it was.
"If for any reason within 30 days ... RETURN the puppy for a full refund."....

8 years ago , the sum of 800.00 was alot of $...
We wantedhim in our care, at the hospital close by. We wanted a refund to pay our Vet. When we tried to phone, the owner wouldn't come to the phone to discuss any of this. A High School Girl who worked there said the owner doesn't like to talk to customers.
We were heart broken. They reassured us "Our vet will take a look and start an IV and give him the meds"... so we drove him all the way back with high hopes they would heal him"....
The next day was Halloween, a happy day usually especially for children, not so in 2003 at our home. We received the phone call that "Killian" had passed that night. It was a horrible news to tell the family. Quinton only 6 years old had to learn the ugly news on Halloween.

There were no Labradoodle breeders in Rhode Island or Mass. or in Newengland that we knew of. We found a forum and told our story. A kind breeder piped in and told us they had just had a litter of F1 Labradoodles born on Halloween...They were located in NC.
In December of 2003, we brought Kelsey home with us. her mother was a black english Labrador and her Father was a white standard poodle. She was a fluff muffin.
Our Little F1 Labradoodle was adorable. So smart. So easy to train. Heaven on Earth. As she grew we became more aware of her demeanor. Her love of children was ever present in her every day world. She wagged her tail at all she met. Young old,male female. She was a delight in every way.

Tom & I both had many many dogs in our families as children. We both knew we had a very different one in our midst.

We never had one as friendly and smart as Kelsey. We decided to explore the breeding world.

The rest of our story can be seen on our web site:
www.rilabradoodles.com

We hope to update new information as it unfolds on here.
The moral of our story is read the fine print and do research to ensure you are getting a healthy dog by a breeder who can inform you and be a source of support for the life of your new puppy.
PUPPY STORES ARE NOT THE PLACE TO GET A HEALTHY PET FROM.