The History Behind Stasia’s CutiePoos

Hello! I wanted to start a blog (we’ll see how it goes!) because I receive questions everyday on grooming, training, feeding, purchasing, breeding… you name it! So I thought, maybe I should start a blog people can read with my personal tips and tricks on bringing up Cockapoos. But to begin with, I should probably start with how I became a breeder….

I grew up in a breeding home. As a child we had and bred Labrador Retrievers. When I was in 4th grade my parents gave me “my” own puppy/ dog, Jente, (pronounced Yenta) a beautiful yellow lab. Two years later we bred her to our black lab. By this time I had helped with the birth of  puppies for several years, and her first litter my parents said; “Laura, she’s your dog, you got this”. And went to bed! It was amazing. I was so proud of her and myself. I loved every part of the puppy birthing and raising experience.

As our breeding grew so did the amount of dogs in our house. We started with a yellow female, then got a male, added in a chocolate female, then my yellow female, kept one we didn’t sell… soon there were 5 dogs in our house. That SHED! (did I mention I have severe asthma and am allergic to dogs??) It was a bit of a mess. The dogs ran off, didn’t listen, ate the neighbors beloved chickens, left their fur EVERYWHERE and were completely lost in the sauce. My parents had the best of intentions and truly love(d) dogs, but when you become out numbered by dogs, its hard to keep things sane. Eventually the dogs began passing away due to old age or health issues. The last dog standing was my Jente. She was the dog love of my life, beautiful inside and out and we all adored her. She was supposed to be in my wedding as our ring bearer, but to my devastation she passed a few months before the wedding just after her 10th birthday. Oh the heartbreak! I cried for weeks. It hurt even to go home and walk into the house that suddenly felt so incredibly empty without her happy face waiting, tail frantically wagging with joy that I was home. I truly believe that dogs are the only creatures on this earth that love us more than they love themselves.

15 years later and I had a little girl of my own who desperately wanted a puppy. I resisted. I didn’t want to have to live through the heartbreak that inevitably comes when owning a dog. Plus… the shedding and my asthma. I was finally able to live without using steroids everyday! And I knew we couldn’t afford a labradoodle. If I did ever got a dog, it would HAVE to be a labradoodle! I knew and loved labs! Just not the shedding. My mom finally was able to convince me when she sent me a photo of a friends cockapoo puppy (ADORABLE!) that she had purchased from a local breeder. At the time cockapoos were not nearly as popular and a fraction of the cost of a labradoodle. So I went and instantly fell in love. I picked out our beautiful, wonderful Anastasia when she was just 3 weeks old. I told/ asked the breeder that I may be interested in breeding her one day. Just for fun so my children could have the same experience I had as a child. Typically breeders don’t like to sell to other breeders, its a lot more red tape and hassle and they usually charge a small fortune for their troubles… but amazingly she said that was fine! Two years later I contacted her and asked her if she had a special boy (NOT related) that I could use for our Stasia. And the rest, as they say, is history!

This is at Bella’s birthday, shortly after she opened her special box with this baby girl inside!

There she is! Little did we know how this baby girl would change our lives.