A momentous occasion at Kingscote

At nearly six weeks old, Indie’s seven Australian Double Doodle puppies here in Devon made an important discovery this week. After much deliberation, the pup committee voted unanimously in favour of grass.

Grass is, apparently, brilliant! It smells of things. It crunches when you bite it. It hides leaves, and leaves are the single greatest invention in the history of the universe — narrowly beating sticks, which came in second.

While the pup committee continues its grass research, the rather more important business of the week is happening behind the scenes. This Saturday, Lynn will be matching each puppy to their forever family.

How Allocation (Matching) Day actually works

The seven families on Indie’s reservation list submitted detailed application forms many months ago. We’ve had long conversations with each of them — about their work patterns; who’s home during the day; whether there are children in the house and what ages; whether there are other dogs; what their previous experience with dogs looks like; what their exercise habits are; whether they’re planning international travel; whether the garden is secure; and a hundred other details that matter far more than people realise when they’re choosing a puppy. We also ask each family for their shortlist of preferred puppies and what is important to them.

We hold onto every word of those conversations. They form the backbone of every matching decision we make.

On top of that, we’ve now spent nearly six weeks with these puppies. We’ve weighed them daily, watched them solve problems, observed how they handle novelty, noted who recovers quickly from a startle and who needs a bit longer, who plays hard and who hangs back to think, who’s bold with new objects and who’s gentle with the other puppies. We know this litter intimately.

Saturday is when those two streams of information — what we know about each family, and what we know about each puppy — come together. Lynn and I sit down together and work through every pairing carefully, matching temperament to lifestyle, energy to household, personality to family dynamic. It takes hours and we don’t rush it.

A small caveat, because we believe in honesty: a six-week-old puppy is not a finished dog. Their personalities will continue to develop and shift for many months to come. What we’re matching is the foundation we can already see — the tendencies, the early indicators, the ‘default personality shape’ of each puppy — against everything we’ve learned about each family. It’s an informed judgement, not a guarantee. But after years of doing this, we’re rather good at it.

 

 

“We were so lucky”

A little story, because it captures what we’re trying to do better than anything else we could say.

A few litters ago, we had a message from one of our puppy families. Their pup was around four or five months old by then, and they were writing to tell us how brilliantly she was settling in. She was calm in the house, confident on walks, gentle with their children, easy with visitors — everything they’d hoped for. And then came the line that has stayed with us ever since:

 *”We feel so lucky to have been given her.”*

We were delighted to read it. But we also smiled, because there wasn’t actually any luck involved.

We’d matched that puppy to that family on the basis of dozens of small pieces of evidence — the family’s calm household, the ages of the children, the slightly anxious older dog they already had, the parents’ wish for a steady companion rather than a whirlwind. And we’d watched that particular puppy from her first week — the one who paused before acting, who recovered quickly from surprises, who chose to lie down quietly when the others were tearing about. She wasn’t a random doodle puppy who happened to turn out well. She was a deliberate choice.

That’s the whole point of matching day. The families don’t see the working out — they just see the puppy who, somehow, fits them perfectly. The “luck” is the visible bit. The planning is everything underneath.

What the puppies think they’re doing

The puppies, for their part, believe they are in charge of this process.

Each one is currently weighing up considerations of their own:

– Does this human have a lap of appropriate dimensions?
– Are they the kind of person who carries snacks?
– How is their stamina? Will they keep up?
– Do they seem likely to allow furniture privileges, or are they going to be difficult about it?
– Crucially: have they brought a tennis ball, and if not, why not?
When the families have visited, the puppies have made their preferences extremely clear. We note their reactions carefully — they’re useful data, particularly around shyness, confidence and affinity. But the matching decision sits with us, because we’re the ones who can hold the full picture: the family’s circumstances, the puppy’s developing temperament, and how those two things are likely to play out across the next twelve to fifteen years.

It would be easier to allocate puppies in deposit order. It would also be lazy, and we don’t do lazy here.

Why we go to this much trouble

The honest answer is because it matters.

 

A puppy mismatched with their family is a problem that compounds. The energetic puppy in a quiet household becomes the destructive teenager. The sensitive puppy in a chaotic household becomes the anxious adult. The bold puppy in a nervous household becomes the dog nobody can handle. Most rescue dogs aren’t there because anyone did anything wrong — they’re there because nobody thought hard enough about the match at the start.

Matching well is the single highest-leverage decision a breeder makes for a puppy’s life. It’s worth doing properly.

This is part of what Puppy Culture means in practice for us. It’s not one single thing — it’s a hundred small things, done deliberately, week after week. Daily weighing. Early Neurological Stimulation

in the first sixteen days. Box problem-solving exercises. Surface introductions. Sound desensitisation. Gentle handling. Recall games before they’ve even left their mum. And, at the end of it all, sitting down with a list and a lot of notes and matching seven puppies to seven families on the basis of evidence.

Meanwhile, on the grass

While we do the serious work, the puppies continue their socialisation curriculum. So far this week the litter has tackled:By the time they leave Kingscote, every Australian Double Doodle puppy will have a solid foundation…

– Grass (verdict: glorious)
– A pair of glasses, briefly stolen and paraded around like a trophy
– Cardboard tunnels
– The hairdryer
– Their auntie Athena, who is being magnificently patient
– Each other, repeatedly and at high speed
Still to come before they go home at eight weeks: short car rides, vet visit and microchipping, gentle lead introduction, crate familiarisation, and one-to-one time with their new families.

By the time they leave Kingscote, every puppy will have a solid foundation in confidence, curiosity and human connection. And they’ll be going to the family we genuinely believe is the best fit for them — not the family who paid their deposit first.

A quick note on our Australian Double Doodle puppies in Devon

For those wondering: Indie is one of our cherished Doubledoodle girls, and Bandit, who travelled down from Bury St Edmunds to sire this litter, is a beautiful health-tested 100% Australian Labradoodle boy with a calm, confident temperament to match. The result is seven Australian Double Doodle puppies with brilliant coats, sharp little minds, and the gentle, family-friendly nature that makes doodles so loved.

We’re a fully licensed breeder (Licence 008407) with a five-star rating from Torbay Council, based just outside Torquay in beautiful Maidencombe. Every puppy we raise becomes part of a wider family — one that includes our previous puppy parents, their dogs, and our private Facebook group where the journey continues long after the eight-week mark.

Considering an Australian Double Doodle puppy of your own?? Want to Contact us

Indie’s current puppies are all spoken for, but our waiting list is open for future litters. If you’d like to be considered, we’ll ask you a lot of questions. Some of them will feel quite personal. That’s deliberate — it’s how we make sure that when a puppy from one of our litters comes home to you, they’re the right puppy, and you’re the right family. And, with any luck, you’ll write to us a few months later telling us how lucky you’ve been.Our Australian Double Doodle puppies are raised in our home here in Devon, with a five-star licence from Torbay Council.

We’ll share Saturday’s pairings as soon as they’re confirmed. The puppies will be entirely unsurprised by the outcome, of course. They’ve been planning it for weeks.

These are the moments that make this work the privilege it is.