Breeding Philosophy
Dedicated to perfecting the F1 Standard Bernedoodle
This page is dedicated to explaining why focused standards are the only way to produce and improve the best dogs possible. We take the quality of our program very seriously, and breeding the best Bernedoodle puppies possible takes a lot of research, patience and effort. Whether you get a puppy from Haystack Mountain or another breeder, we highly recommend using the information below to make educated decisions on your future family member!
A Jack Of All Trades Is A Master Of None
There are many variables that go into breeding dogs. Great programs have a comprehensive understanding of their breed’s specific conformation, temperament, lineage and health, and effectively apply that knowledge to refine their program. To do that well with one breed is hard enough, let alone the two required for Bernedoodles. That is why we are perplexed to see other programs with an array of different Doodle mixes that span several breeds.
An array of crosses and sizes, most commonly doing Mini, Micro Mini, MultiGen Mini, MultiGen and Australian Bernedoodles, are available. To claim their puppies represent the best of each breed, these programs would need a comprehensive knowledge and experience with Bernese Mountain Dogs, Australian Shepherds, Standard Poodles, Miniature Poodles, Toy Poodles, and Bernedoodles. Not only that, but they’d need ample access to high quality purebred programs to ensure their breeding dogs are truly the cream of the crop. Even then, having such a large combination of breeds and generations makes it impossible to know what traits the puppies will have.
A jack of all trades is a master of none, and that holds especially true in breeding. For a program to claim they “specialize in” and “have perfected” multiple breeds is paradoxical. We know the effort and expertise it takes to get the right Bernese Mountain Dogs and Standard Poodles to breed top quality first generation Bernedoodles, and that is where our dedication lies.
We’re Committed to a Bernedoodle Standard
A program’s breeding dogs are its foundation, and where those dogs come from is incredibly important. Quality purebred breeding programs dedicate all of their focus towards producing dogs that best represent the breed standard. Given their effort towards this goal, purebred breeders tend to be very protective over their bloodlines and preserving them. In this way, many purebred programs do not like the idea of Doodles, and have no interest in selling their dogs to Bernedoodle programs. It is very difficult to find reputable breeders with quality purebred dogs that allow not only breeding rights, but mixed breeding rights. Instead, many Bernedoodle programs opt for the easier solution of holding their own Doodle puppies back for breeding. That is one reason many programs have a splattering of different MultiGen puppies available, and why so few specialize in first generation Bernedoodles
We love Doodles, and do not share the sentiment held by many purebred breeders that all crosses are bad. However, we also very much believe in maintaining a breed standard, and, in this way, we think that MultiGens and MultiBreeds dilute the Bernedoodle Standard. Calling a third generation dog from multiple different lines a “Bernedoodle” is not the same as a puppy born from purebred, champion lineage parents. At some point there needs to be a Bernedoodle Standard, and to us that means breeding the most beautiful, healthy purebred dogs possible.
Enter Haystack Acres, my mother’s Bernese Mountain Dog program that, for the past two decades, has refined the breed and proven her lineages. We are blessed to hand pick our breeding females from the litters we prefer, and proud to display their purebred beauty and conformation for our puppy families. They go above the breed standard for Berners, which we’re happy to point out is atypical for Doodle programs. And that’s not to say our Poodles don’t possess the same high purebred quality. We have spent years working with many different breeders in order to find studs who check our many required boxes. We are proud to have three stunning males that are perfect crosses for our Haystack girls.