Contents
Reimagining Doodle Patch Farm
January 14, 2025
Contents
Getting some perspective and looking to the future
Today is January 11th , 2025 and I am sitting in our upstairs bedroom. If I look straight ahead through the north facing window, I have a view of our dogs romping through snowbanks as they follow my high-stepping son trudging through 16” of snow. I turn my head to the right east facing window to gaze at our blanketed horses lazily eating the hay that has been strewn over the snow-covered ground. Southwest Ohio has received over a foot of snow since last Monday. As one of the many perks of being a teacher, I have enjoyed three snow days as a result! Although I prefer warm weather, growing up in the snowbelt of Northeast Ohio gave me an appreciation for quiet white winters.
January 11th, this second Saturday of January, is also “National Vision Board” day.
I don’t think I have ever created a formal vision board, although I have seen them; collages of magazine snips, boldly printed words of inspiration, post-it notes with lists, and written goals. The value of creating a vision board is undeniable, but creating one worth looking at for an entire year seems like a time-consuming and tedious task. What I value more than the snipping and glueing involved in creating a vision board, is the contemplation, reflection, ruminating, and goal setting that leads to the actual vision board. I have an alternative to that labor intensive project. As many of my friends and colleagues have done, I try to distill my imagined vision board into one word for the year. This takes a lot of thought.
I ask myself these questions over the period of several days:
What has been successful this past year?
What steps will I take that reinforce my core values?
What core value(s) do I want to prioritize this year?
What are areas for improvement?
After asking myself these questions since the end of December, I arrived at the word “reimagining.” I am considering retiring from my 30 years of teaching. I need to “reimagine” my life without the teacher label and that well-worn label, quite frankly, brings me pride and comprises much of my identity. Retirement scares me on a deeply personal level. Will I still know who I am beyond what I do? Retirement is a monumental life change.
The Doodle Patch Farm Mission and Vision
I have also asked these questions in the context of Doodle Patch Farm. I am reminded of our mission: To breed the healthiest, well-structured, trainable, and emotionally balanced puppies that provide families with years of love and companionship.
In 2024, our program grew. We have more waitlists and people willing to wait longer for our puppies. If we were to measure our success by numbers of puppies placed in happy homes and five-star reviews, we’ve had a very successful year.
In 2024 Our facility grew. We insulated and painted our folksy yet comely dog barn so that it can be more efficiently heated and cooled. We added more outside dog runs so that every dog plays outside every day.
But, with the increase in the demand for more puppies, I feel we moved away from one of our core values of providing all our dogs with the best life possible with loving touches every day.
With the increased number of breeding stock, we simply don’t have the time to take every adult dog on errands, run on the bike path, play fetch, and fine tune obedience training. Every dog needs a family, and every family needs a dog in my opinion. The Doodle Patch family has grown. The business has been successful, our puppies have reinforced our mission, but our breeding dogs deserve the very best life experiences too.
We are reimagining Doodle Patch Farm. Although we have provided each of our dogs with excellent nutrition, a comfortable and clean environment, and exercise and recreation daily, we want more for them. This is our 2025 area for improvement. To provide every breeding dog with a family of its own, we will expand our Guardian Home program. Each of our breeding dogs will have the best life possible by having its own family.
This has been a tough decision. We know each of our dogs well. We are well-acquainted with their personalities, quirks, and idiosyncrasies. We adore each of our adult dogs and consider them part of the family. It is difficult to transfer control of the daily routines and care of our dogs, but we believe it is in our dogs’ best interest to have its own home/family apart from our farm.
In a previous blog, we described the Guardian Home program. In short, the Guardian Home program is win-win. Our Guardian family receives a quality dog or puppy that is maintained as if their own dog, but is also maintained in our breeding program. There is no cost the family for the dog or puppy. The cost to the Guardian Home is the expense of raising a dog or puppy. Because the dog is part of our breeding program, the expenses involved in breeding (pre-natal vitamins, ultrasound, progesterone testing, and possible c-sections) are the responsibility of Doodle Patch Farm. When the dog’s breeding career has ended, the dog is spayed or neutered at the expense of Doodle Patch Farm and ownership is transferred to the Guardian Home. Our dogs have their own homes, and families receive a high-quality, pick of the litter, dog or puppy forever. It’s a Win-Win.
Like every other new year, change is inevitable. In 2025 I am reimagining my life as a retired teacher. What will that look like? What will that feel like? I am reimagining many of our dogs in Guardian Homes and building more relationships with Doodle Patch Families. What will that look like for our dogs? What will that feel like for our families?
Although there is a sense of clarity in expanding our program, I am also ambivalent. I will miss my dogs. I love seeing my adult dogs every day and hearing the unique pitch of each dog’s bark. The features I love about each dog are too numerous to count. However, I also feel a great deal of satisfaction knowing that our dogs will be living their best lives when they are placed in that perfect-fit Guardian Home. Our mission will be fulfilled and our vision can continue to grow. We will build a mutually beneficial symbiosis for all our adult dogs as well as continue to breed the healthiest, well-structured, trainable, and emotionally balanced puppies that provide years of love and companionship.
Pearl or Sherman are the next dogs available for our guardian home program . Pearl and Sherman are beautiful AKC Cream Golden Retrievers. They are housetrained and obedience trained. You can read more about these dogs here: https://www.doodlepatchfarm.com/our-dogs/
a previous litter from this pair
Doodle Patch farm is located in SW Ohio. There are specific requirements in order to participate in our Guardian Home program. Fist off, you must live within a reasonable driving distance of our home so that we can have easy access to the dog when breeding and whelping seasons occur. Please review our pages about our Guardian Home program. If you feel that this would work for you and your family, then fill in an application and let’s talk.
