Guardian & Co-ownership

 Guardian Home

The guardian home is one where the family has no other intact pets of the opposite sex and no interest in breeding themselves. However you would be loving, caring for and providing a forever home for one of the girls or boys in a responsible preservation breeder’s program.

Its important to me that my poodles get lots of love and individual attention, so I may occasionally keep a puppy to add to my program or purchase one, but place them in their forever home under a guardianship. They would live with their future owner as their beloved pet, but I would take them to occasional handling or training classes, shows for earning conformation and/or performance titles, for show grooming if local, health test them, and if they work out, use them in my breeding program for a short time. If guardian home is interested in earning conformation or performance titles themselves, I do have stipends and reimbursements for certain titles. On occasion, I may place an adult that has been titled already.

This is a great way for me to make progress in my breeding program without having to rehome breeding dogs when they retire and for the guardian to get a beautiful pick puppy or young adult at very minimal to no cost. The guardian would be responsible for typical pet costs and responsibilities, such as recurrent vaccinations (minimal vaccination protocols required, titers preferred), quality food (approved by breeder), basic and intermediate training, regular grooming, and spay/neuter when the time comes. The breeder would be responsible for any costs associated with breeding, any additional training needed, showing, health testing, and puppy costs.

So how would the actual breeding work? They would come to my house for breeding then back again for whelping puppies and go back to their home after the litter is weaned. Families are welcome to visit when their guardian girl or boy has a litter. After about 2 litters for females (depending on the breeding goal) the poodle would be spayed by the guardian family and full ownership would turn over to the guardian. For males, their visits would be much shorter and they would remain intact for longer, especially if genetically diverse. I also may decide not to use the dog in my breeding program for various reasons and in those cases, ownership would turn over earlier.  If I agree to a guardian that is not local to me, then the guardian is responsible for getting the female in heat to me for breeding. In some circumstances the girl will be returned to the guardian family during pregnancy, and returned to the breeder for whelping and raising of the litter. In some cases, the bred female would stay with the breeder until after pups go home. Its a lot more complicated and more expensive when a guardian family is not fairly close.

If you live in or near Colorado Springs and might be interested in becoming part of the guardian program, please contact me, and then fill out my puppy application and indicate that you are interested in becoming a guardian. If we move forward, I would send my typical guardian contract for your review, although each contract is tweaked for particular circumstances.

Co-Ownership

There are three types of co-ownership. The first type of co-ownership is for those interested in showing and breeding, who are very responsible and trustworthy, and only have a very small breeding program where breeding poodles are family members. I will generally only do this with folks that I have really gotten to know very well.  All puppies sold with full rights on a show contract will be on a co-ownership until all show titling, health testing, and age requirements are met. Once requirements are met, then I would sign over sole ownership to the co-owner.

The second type of co-ownership is similar to the requirements of the first one, except that the puppy is sold at pet price, rather than full price, and the breeder expects a puppy back from a future litter with an approved stud. Full ownership is turned over after all requirements are met and breeder gets the puppy back.

The third type of co-ownership is one in which two or more people will have an interest in showing, titling, and breeding the poodle and will cooperate to share expenses and benefits, that may include offspring for each co-owner’s program or sharing stud fees.

Co-ownership contracts are by private treaty only.

***In most cases, it would be my preference to put any phenomenal pup in a guardian home for future use in my breeding program. If there is an additional phenomenal pup, and a trustworthy co-owner who shares my goals and ethics, I may consider placing it on a co-ownership. Otherwise, puppies are placed in pet homes on a spay/neuter agreement.