Q: Why do you do interviews?

A question we get asked is why we do interviews with families who want to get a puppy from us.

This is a great question, and it gives us the opportunity to share a bit about our passion and what we want to bring to families through Rocky Legend Doodles!

Before we bred dogs, we worked in PR for 7+ years and photographed people’s big days and family moments. When you think about it, we’re kinda doing the same thing now, with the exception of confetti and white gowns. (cough cough, and the addition of sooo much poop.)

No matter what we found ourselves doing over the years, the people component was always really important to us.

Businesses that took time to pay attention to their customers, being intentional, welcoming, and upbeat ALWAYS stood out to us, so it was really no surprise when we began RLD that we wanted to approach the relationship between ourselves and the families we provide dogs with differently.

Integrity has always been one of our highest values not only as individuals, but as a business. Seeing how so many breeders talked one way but acted another was really frustrating to us, and we wanted to change that for our families.

We weren't very far into starting our business when we noticed a bit of a trend among a lot of dog breeders -- bad communication and little to no care for the families that adopted from them because the "product" (aka the dogs) were so highly sought after it didn’t matter if the communication/relationship suffered.

A lot of breeders like this believe in the “collect money first, ask questions later” method, where anybody can send in money to “reserve” a puppy, with no communication having occurred.

The scary thing about that is both parties are clueless to who they’re getting involved with.

This is why from the first litter we homed, we chose to do FaceTime interviews.

Both for ourselves, but also for our families.

We wanted people to feel comfortable to say “yay" or “neigh” to working with us after actually getting to meet us. Like nearly every area where a “partnership” is born, each party needs to see if they jive together, have the same values where it counts, and can work together well.

Q: Have you ever turned someone down?

It doesn’t happen often, because when something isn’t meant to be, it’s usually something both parties can feel, however, we do occasionally choose not to work with someone. With that being said, we are never flippant about turning someone down, and always try our best to offer a solution/option in their search for a furry companion moving forward.

Q: What are some of the reasons you would choose not to work with someone/a family?

1. HESITANCE.

As time goes on, one of the biggest red flags is actually quite passive -- hesitance.

With every big decision comes a bit of “what am I getting myself into?!”, however, when a family/person voices a lot of hesitance and buyers remorse before any commitment has been made, we’ve learned to pay attention to that. Down the road, it can lead to problems because the decision was always something the client was unsure they were ready for, and that can be something they carry through the lifetime of their pet.

2. UNITY.

Kinda similar to the above point, but another aspect to be aware of is if the family is in unity about the decision to bring a puppy home.

If the whole family’s on board EXCEPT one member, that can cause a lot of conflict. Dogs pick up dynamics, and the red light, green light of having someone in the family who wasn’t happy about the decision in the first place, makes for mixed signals, and difficulty in training the dog, and having solid leadership to look up to.

Having unity in your home about bringing a puppy home is KEY.

3. NO TIME FOR A DOG.

We know the “love language” of most doodles is quality time. This is why we ultimately try to home our dogs with families who will have someone around most of the time. If someone’s life is their career, and they will only be around their dog during the night, an hour in the morning before work, and 15 minutes during a lunch break, though they may have lots of love to give, we know the dog’s needs for companionship won’t be met. Separation training is healthy and needed to create a balanced dog, but not in the extreme where being on their own becomes the norm. Certain breeds thrive on more alone time, others not. If you have a very absent home life, a doodle may not be the best fit.

4. BREEDER’S ARE A NECESSARY EVIL.

It never ceases to surprise us when we talk with someone who doesn’t believe in breeders, but is “maybe” planning on doing business with us. In these instances, the family or person takes the opportunity of a face-to-face interview to begin playing 20 questions, questioning our ethics, standards, and telling us how rescuing is holy, and breeders are evil. But heck, they want a doodle and they couldn’t find one at the shelter, so I guess they have to get a dog from us!

Not like this will come as a surprise, but we don’t want to work with people who look sideways at us for breeding dogs. It’s just that simple.

5. LOOKING FOR A PROBLEM / RUDE

For good reason, we are hesitant to work with someone who makes it obvious they are looking for a problem before our partnership has even begun. The price is too high, the colouring we produce isn’t what they want, etc. Having a downer/disdainful attitude and being rude to us on a call or via email means a no from us. If we can’t please you when there’s not a puppy going through it's teenage phase in your lap, I don’t think we’ll be able to please you when there is.

6. CONSISTANCY.

It's really hard to find your balance around a client that's back and forth, up, then down. Really pleasant and lovely, and then super controlling and aggressive. This is always concerning, because what version are we going to be working with when your puppy has pooped inside for the 3rd time that day, and you're upset that we bred that dog? We do our best to raise HAPPY, BALANCED puppies. We want them to go to HAPPY, BALANCED people. As they say, knowing how people handle problems and rejection says a lot about them.

Q: What makes you want to do business with a particular family?

We have had some truly phenomenal families we've worked with, and it makes all the difference in how you feel about your "job". Clients whose children painted us cards with the sweetest messages, families who made us chocolate mousse, those who brought us flowers, gifted us with custom beers with pictures of their doodle on the front, and those who have been so kind and supportive it's made us cry.

These are some of the qualities we have loved in these families:

+ Drama free

+ Kind at all times, even when thing's are messy and imperfect

+ Thankful

+ Humble

+ Non-complainers

+ Goofy and humorous

+ Go-getters

+ Happy

+ Communicative and pleasant

+ Understanding and respectful of our time + effort

+ Really committed to training and raising their dog well

+ Being flexible

+ Good problem solving attitude (IE, when encountering an obstacle, they will be eager for tips and help, but don't attack us or try to place blame for encountering difficulty while their puppy goes through teething, potty training, etc).

AND MORE!

We know why a lot of breeders just provide a date, time and address for homing day and then never look back -- it can save a lot of physical and emotional time and energy. But each puppy that comes from our home and goes to yours is highly special to us, and has been something we've invested in personally and wish to see thrive. With that being our goal, every day we work to provide our families, new and old, with resources, information, transparency and our time and attention to help in any way we can.

We want to have a partnership that's mutually enjoyed, appreciated, and valued.

Doing interviews helps us cultivate that relationship with our clients, and we know that's always worth it.

Happy families = happy dogs.

If this resounds with you and you're looking for a furry friend, reach out to us today! We'd love to hear from you :)

-The RLD Team