What is a Guardian Home?

A guardian home for a dog is a unique arrangement in which a dog is placed with a family who provides a loving home for her while she remains a part of our breeding program. This setup is a critical part of Endeavor so that all of our dogs get individual attention and care from their families and keeps our program family centered rather than being a kennel. We prefer our guardian homes to be within 1-2 hours of Boerne Texas because of the driving requirements.

Our guardian families receive our best quality, pick of the litter breeding dogs. A guardian home is an extension of our program and breeding family. We are always looking for families who share our love and passion for the breed who want to be involved in the breed as more than just a pet owner. Please reach out if you think that your family would be a good fit to become an Endeavor Guardian Home!

When we decide to hold back a puppy from a current litter, we offer a partnership of ownership to a guardian family. The puppy will belong to the guardian family and be their own personal pet, and will go home free of charge. There is NO purchase price for a guardian dog, which makes it so wonderful for families who want an amazing Australian Labradoodle without the initial purchase fee. Our guardian homes are responsible for everything that our pet owners are as far as routine veterinary care, feeding and training and all costs associated with such. We are partial to guardian families who want to do training and obedience classes, and even offer incentives to our guardian families who want to put extra training and titles onto their dogs. Normally guardian opportunities are for girls, but every once in a while we will have a boy available. With proper training, intact males are no different than neutered males. Issues like marking are only ever seen when he has not learned boundaries properly, and there is no expected difference in behavior since this breed is known for their easy-going and trainable nature.

When your puppy turns two years old, she will come to me to get her final health testing done. She will get her hips and elbows screened to check joint quality and for dysplasia. She will also receive her eye exam, cardiac and patellar luxuation tests. All of her genetic testing will be done before she goes home as a puppy. When she comes into her next heat the guardian home will again need to bring her back for 1-2 weeks for me to breed her. About two months later she will again be brought back to me for whelping, where she will stay until the puppies are 7 weeks. I usually plan on breeding her about 3 times, but she could have anywhere from 1-4 litters depending on many factors. Once her breeding career is over, I pay to have her spayed and she will stay with her guardian home as her pet for the rest of her life.

I also provide grooming for my guardian homes free of charge during her breeding career. I do require that she is groomed every 6-8 weeks and unless you are too far of a drive would prefer she comes to me for grooming appointments. Grooming usually costs $80-130 per appointment, so this is a great opportunity to get regular grooming without the price tag. After her breeding career I am happy to continue grooming her for a far more affordable price than you would pay in a salon.

How does the Guardian Program work?

• Live within 1-2 hours or a reasonable driving distance to Boerne, Texas. The Guardian Home will be responsible (usually, we are willing to make exceptions in specific situations but not regularly) for driving their dog to us from breeding and whelping so please make sure the distance is feasible for you personally.

• You MUST have a securely fenced yard. A male can smell a female in heat from miles away and she needs to be secure at all times. On top of this our breeding dogs are extremely valuable to us and part of our families and we want peace of mind that they will be safe and secure.

• No intact males on the same premises where the guardian dog will live.

• We take a strong stance against public dog parks for safety reasons, for both our pets and breeding dogs. Our guardian homes will be required to not use dog parks as a form of exercising their dogs since not every other dog is safe towards others. We also prefer homes who do not leave their dogs in playgroup daycares where dogs are loose together.

• Notify us immediately when she goes into heat. Catching this on day one is extremely important. Willingness to maintain open lines of communication with us on any matters relating to the dog is important!

• Feed high quality food approved by Endeavor. We feed our dogs several types of food for variety but our staple is Purina Pro Plan adult, either the beef or shredded chicken blend. Expect this to be our required diet.

• Provide routine annual vet care such as vaccinations, dewormer, and heart worm preventative.

• The dog cannot be regularly left at home for 8 hours a day for work schedules. Families who have at least one person home most of the day are required to avoid the dog being kenneled 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

• If you think your family meets these requirements and are interested, please email me at Abbywetmore04@gmail.com for more information. We are looking for families who want to be involved and we are always happy to make reasonable accommodations and exceptions for the perfect home!

Requirements for a Guardian Home:

Training incentive:

For our guardian homes who want to go above and beyond in training we would like to offer an extra incentive. Families who do Canine Good Citizen (CGC) and pass with a CGC title on their dog within the first 18 months are offered $200.

We also love our guardian families to do puppy obedience classes with their new pet. In order to encourage this we offer to pay $75 towards classes. We have trainer recommendations for 6 week duration classes (1 hour sessions once a week for 6 weeks) that are local and semi-local.