OUR STORY
Have You Ever Lost Your Best Friend?
When I was six years old, after begging my parents for a sibling, I was gifted with Lari, a sweet English Cocker Spaniel. My mom got her from a showdog club breeder. The breeder was so thorough that she made my mother go through a six-month course on care and nutrition before she would approve her to get a puppy. (Don’t worry, we aren’t going to make you go through a six-month course 😉).
After over nine months of waiting we were finally able to bring Lari home and I finally got my best friend.
After being with us a few short months, a neighbor came by with their dog. The dogs were playing together in the woods across from our building when the neighbor mentioned his dog has just recovered from parvo. In Eastern Europe, where I grew up, the parvo vaccine was just making its debut and was not readily available, nor standard vaccination protocol yet.
It was already too late. Lari had been exposed and had no immunity. Within a few days she came down with symptoms and I was sent away to my grandmother’s. A few days passed and despite all my mother’s efforts to save her, Lari had passed. We buried her in the woods where she loved to run.
Through not only my own process of grief, but that of my mother’s, I saw the bond humans and dogs can share. How dogs can be there for us, no matter if we showered, if we’re in a good mood, or if we just got a speeding ticket, they still love us. They live for that time together with us. I saw how Lari filled a hole in my mother’s heart.
I have always revered the gift a dog brings to their family. As a breeder, my goal is to breed the dog that can make your heart full.
She Ate Better Than I Did…
During the detailed course Lari’s breeder had my mother go through, my mom learned how to prepare a special nutritious diet for Lari. I remember sitting at the kitchen table as my mom would carefully cut up and measure raw meats. She would slice off a piece and place it on the scale, making sure to give her enough, but not too much.
I joke that my mother fed my dog better than me, but in reality, she was very careful with my food also. I was only allowed a single glass of Coca-Cola on my birthday, candy was only for holidays, and we had to shop at the grocery store every few days because all of our food was fresh and wouldn’t last on the counter but for a few days.
I didn’t understand why it was so important to eat healthy back then, but I’m glad my mother instilled these habits in my own life. It set me up on a course to understand nutrition and lifestyle and how it can impact overall happiness.
I’m happy to say that this led me down the path to become a Doctor of Clinical Nutrition, and while I usually work with humans, I’m excited to say I’m in the middle of my pursuit of a Canine Nutrition Certificate! I love how my two interests can come together to help me breed beautiful, loving companions, who are holistically raised, setting our puppy families up for a long lifetime of love and memories with their Kismet puppy.
Axel – Our Non-Breeding Inspiration
The year was 2020, and I just lost a companion dog of 16 years, a Maltese Aramis, who’s been through my undergrad, masters, and doctorate studies with me, through ups and downs of life during that phase of life, and also was my first dog after we lost Lari (my very first dog) 13 years prior.
After doing some research on what breed would be suitable for the lifestyle and needs I had at the time, and finding the perfect fit with Australian Labradoodle (ALD), I ran into somewhat of a hurdle – it was the pandemic, and either the availability for a puppy was almost nonexistent, or the wait for a puppy was significantly long. That did not stop me, and after waiting for nine months, I flew down to Michigan to pick up a perfect bundle of joy – Axel. It was love at first sight with Axel, his sweet temperament and cuddliness melted my heart, and the rest is history. I fell in love with the breed, and very quickly realized that just one pup in the house won’t do it. So when Axel was almost a year old, I brought home Zeppelin. The amount of love and joy the boys were bringing into my world was so immense that I wanted more families to experience the joy and unconditional love that a labradoodle (or any dog for that matter) can bring. It was then that I realized I wanted to dive into the world of breeding ALDs.
By that time Axel was already neutered (per his contract), and is now part of a pack as an amazing pet to us and unrelated brother to Zeppelin and Aspen in our home.
We love Axel, while he is a registered WALA dog, he is more of our OG ALD, not a breeder.
