Our Journey

The History of Doodle Creek

Doodle Creek has become a renowned name in the English Goldendoodle owners community. The journey there has been an exciting one to say the least! There have been so many wonderful times along the way that have made this journey a success and I will endeavour to cover some of them.

Back in 2007 is when the official Doodle Creek name was established. Prior to this however, my wife, Marilou and myself were instrumentally involved with my parents’ Goldendoodle breeding program operating under the name Wagging Heart Kennels which started in 2004. This was a very exciting time for both of us to be involved with a family business but new opportunities arose and we chose to expand our horizons. Although it was difficult to leave an already established breeding program and begin a new one, our family as a whole now looks back on this as the perfect decision. We are still very much involved with each other and share genetics.

So how did the Doodle Creek journey begin? In 2007 we were very fortunate to be able to purchase a 33 acre property near Atwood, ON. The property had a newly renovated century home and a heated building which became the kennel for our dog family! This was the perfect property in every way.

First of all, it was a quiet and peaceful location which we felt was of utmost importance in order to provide our dogs with the best possible environment to live. There was a river winding through the property which added to the tranquility. We also had a beautiful walking trail with many kilometers spanning across farmers’ fields and wood lots. This was simply the perfect place to begin our breeding program.

Once we had purchased this property and settled in, we now needed to add more genetics to our breeding program. I spent many hours, weeks, and months searching for the best possible Golden Retriever and Poodle genetics in the world. This was a very difficult task as most breeders did not produce the look and personality I was looking for. It was also difficult for me to be able to trust breeders on the opposite side of the globe to really send me the high quality dog they were promising to me! Eventually I did find quality, professional breeders that I was able to put my trust and confidence in.

After purchasing quality breeding parents for our program, our work was not finished. We needed to do various health testing to ensure that we were going to be producing health offspring. As any breeder will tell you, the most painstaking thing a breeder experiences is when a prize dog that is showing so much potential for the breeding program is never allowed to produce one puppy because of failing to pass the health tests all responsible breeders put their dogs through. Unfortunately we did have a number of disappointments in that some of our dogs didn’t pass the health testing. We stuck to the plan though and found these dogs pet homes. We have always striven to produce a healthy puppy in order to do that, we only breed parents that have passed their hips, elbows, hearts, and patellas with OFA or recognized European health testing organizations.

Over the years we have continuously been adding quality lines to our genetics and we are especially grateful to our European breeder friends who have made it possible to introduce the English Goldendoodle. The English Golden Retrievers are a much sturdier and stockier dog than most American Golden Retrievers. They have that beautiful, round face that creates the Teddy Bear face that everyone is looking for. Their health has been exceptional as well and the English Golden Retriever seem not to be as prone to cancer like so many of the American Golden Retrievers do.

Being an innovative person, I was always intrigued with genetics. After breeding the typical English Goldendoodle in the traditional white, cream, gold, apricot and red colours, I wanted to try something different. I knew there were all kinds of different coloured poodles out there but how could I have those genetics express themselves in the English Goldendoodles? After lots of colour genetic research, in 2013 we were able to introduce our first litter of the multi coloured (black and white/brown and white/apricot and white) litter. It has been so much fun creating unique puppies with that same playful, loving personality as the traditional colours bring. The unique colours we produce is part of what makes Doodle Creek different.

In 2016 we began a new venture along with my parents at Wagging Heart Kennels. We’ve always wanted to create our own unique breed without compromising on the looks and personalities our wonderful English Goldendoodles had. After careful consideration we began to mix Goldendoodles with Olde English Sheepdogs and we have now created what we named the Olde English Goldendoodle. They have very similar personality traits to the English Goldendoodle and their unique black and white or blue merle and white markings have been a hit here at Doodle Creek!

When we had our genetics in place and began to produce exceptional puppies from these wonderful Golden Retriever, Poodle, Goldendoodle and Olde English Goldendoodle moms and dads, the response was overwhelming! When you begin a journey, you always have dreams of where you’d like to see it go but we never anticipated that our English Goldendoodle puppies would become this popular in communities like Toronto, Oakville, Burlington, Mississauga and literally all around the world! Many of our clients have come back to purchase a second, third and yes, even a fourth puppy from us! To us it has been well worth going through all the difficulty of establishing a respected name in the Goldendoodle world. We feel blessed beyond measure.

With the tremendous demand we were experiencing for our puppies, there needed to be some decisions made for the future. Marilou and myself talked things over many times and we knew that if we were going to meet the demand of our clients, we would need to expand. This included many new and exciting changes again! One would be to purchase a larger property and the other would be to build a new facility. We also needed to make the decision to begin hiring staff to help care for our dogs and puppies while we make sure our clients get prompt replies to emails and phone calls. We want to endeavour to maintain a professional level of service.

In 2014, we were able to purchase a 95 acre farm near our original location. We got many of the perks on this property that we had with the first one! The walking trail runs through this property as well and it is even more secluded! We had always dreamed of building our dogs a state of the art facility and having purchased this property brought us one step closer.

We spent the next number of years planning and visiting other state of the art kennels. Finally in 2017, we began construction and the project came to completion in the spring of 2018. This has been a huge advancement. Our dogs live in conditions second to none! See the video on the Facility page of this site for a virtual tour.

This is the history of Doodle Creek so far and we are so excited about what the future has to hold. We are continuously striving to bring you the best puppies we are able to produce!