OUR PROGRAM…….. It all began in 2010, with our first therapy dog after a two week intensive training course. We enjoyed many, many years of help, love and support for our son with Autism and ADHD. In 2021 we lost our beloved Thomas. We decided we wanted to share what we had learnt, the latest research and our knowledge of the neuro diverse and disability community as well as those with mental ill health, PTSD and other disorders where a dog can be of help with others. And so began the acquisition and training of our mother dogs, increasing our knowledge and skill of breeding. Through a mentor breeder and a mentor trainer, lots of reading, much research our first litter of future therapy and assistance doods was born in June 2024. We’re proud of the program, proud of our parent dogs and their guardian families where they live and can not wait to meet and work with more families who need a Titch Dood in their lives, weather for support, assistance or simply the unconditional love found in a dog.
We work with AppleCross vet, for all our vet care health needs and reproductive health. We love Lousie at K9 Pats for all our training support and we’re verified with RightPaw who are pioneering matching ethical breeding practices with ethical puppy buyers.
Our Progam
The Australian Labradoodle
The Australian Labradoodle was born from a spcial request of a vision impaired woman who needed an assistance dog but whose husband experienced allergies to dogs. Wally Conron who worked with the Royal Association of the Blind Australia answered the call and made the cross between the Labrador and a Poodle in 1989. The Labradoodle with a hypoallergenic coat, low-shedding coat was born. Since then these balls of flouff have grown in enormous popularity mostly becuase they still have the smart, gregarious personality of a Lab, but the convienience of a non-shedding or low shedding dog. The Association for the Blind Western Australia has since introduced Labradoodles in their program, with the first graduating in 2010. They are also highly intelligent which means they require alot of stimulation to keep their smart brains working.
The Labradoodle is one of the most popular choices for families who need therapy dogs due to their temperament and disposition for human contact and interaction.
We focus on medium to standard size as they are more confdent, robust and suitable for small children. Smaller dogs can become easily intimidated and shy due to the overwhelming size differential between them and the big wide world.
Our program focus is on therapy and assistance dogs, and dog welfare is at the core of what we do. We want to set up the dogs and our fur-malies for success from the very outset.
“Seeing how well cared for the puppies and your mature dogs are made us feel very comfortable getting our Titch puppy”
Assistance - Therapy - Companions. What’s the difference?
An Assistance dog is one that performs specific tasks for one person, like a guide dog or a seizure alert dog. These dogs require full public accredidation to be allowed in all settings.
A Therapy dog provides general calm, support and interaction with a broader audience, they’re highly attuned to human needs, have a great deal of empathy and undergo high levels of obedience training and temperament testing. This is the kind of dog most people with neuro diversity, anxiety, PTSD and mental ill health will choose.
A facility dog is a dog who can visit school, hospital or other settings where support might be required these dogs require specialist training.
An emotional support animal is one that provides comfort to its owner, they do not have public access rights under the law.
A companion dog is dogs who are pets for people and families and receive a standard level of training from puppy classes.
The NDIS will, in some cases assist with the cost of training a Therapy Dog after owners acquire them.
Our training and temperament testing develops puppies and their predispoisiton for working in one of the areas above. At 7-weeks they are tested and we’re able to place the puppy in the home best suited to their temperament.
The Critical First 8-weeks
We follow the Empowered Breeder curriculm for the first 8-weeks of life focusing on interaction, desentisation and exposure from 3-days of age.
Dog time is different to human time and ALOT happens with brain plasticity and its plyability before you even get to meet your puppy at 8-weeks which is why, if you are looking to have a therapy or an assistance dog, their first weeks of life are a critical time for them to learn, how to learn. Even if you are just looking to adopt a well breed, well raised, brave and calm dog as your pet this development and curriculum is essential for a dog who displays desireable traits.
Our program introduces pups from 4-8weeks of age to other adults, lots of children, other dogs, sights, sounds, surfaces and loads of distractions.
We conduct temperament testing at 7 weeks to match the right puppy with the right owners, from here we know our puppies who are suitable for therapy, active or inactive retirees, a home with no kids, a home with kids over 10 or kids under 10. We call it our perfect-pup-match and we look to get everyone off on the right paw to begin with.
The following 8-12 week period is where your dog goes through their fear period, its another critical time. By 16 weeks the plasticity of the brain is starting to set, in human children this is usually around age 7. Continuing to expose your pup to other dogs, pets, people is critical during this time. Providing the other dogs are vaccinated and yours if kept off the ground until their 12-week vaccination and two weeks after while it ‘converts’ to give puppy immunity.
At six months your puppy should increase their formal training, we strongly recommend and prefer Louise at K9 Pats, who is an accredited trainer, uses only the scientific research and positive reinforcement punishment free and cruelty free training.
Choose your breeder carefully.
“We wanted a Labradoodle, for a long time but wanted to ensure it came from a reputable breeder. Once we found Titch Labradoodles I knew we found the right person”
- Izzy’s humans Emma and Cas
What is an Ethical Breeder? And how do you do it?
Parent dogs and puppies are at the centre of all we do from breeding selection, to breeding, to puppy raising and placement into homes. We ensure our dogs your future best friend and their welfare is paramount.
TESTING TESTING TESTING! All dogs who are bred from undergo DNA testing, using certified collectors (blood test from the vet!), this is to ensure hereditary traits, which are easy to detect and breed out are. Its possible to have a DIY DNA test but which dog is testing is anyones guess. Look for ceritifed collector.
Hip+Elbow scoring should also be undertaken and dogs who are outside the acceptable scores should be discharged from any breeding program.
Both parent dogs vet, tested information should be readily available to any puppy buyers, ours is.
We use artifical insemination to create pups, its less stressful on the mother dog, and its up to her how the pups will ultimately come out.
Temperament, the quality of our Mum dogs is alot about temperament and all of our Titch Mums have undergone training, some are working in therapy roles and any of our parent dogs unable to achive this are discharged from the program.
Perfect-Pup-Match, it is critial that dogs who are active and display traits which indicate they’re active are placed with active people. At 7-weeks we temperament test to ensure our puppies go to their forever home, the first time.
Lifetime support. As an ethical breeder, we provide a heath guarentee and also work with families long after the puppies go home.
We are RightPaw verified and will never ask for payments outside that platform.
Dogs health, temperament development and quality future homes are our priority.