A Few Breeders - Opinions/Experiences?
 

Hey everyone, looking for personal accounts/reviews for these breeders?

These two I've read nothing but great things about on YT, but would still appreciate more information:
- Clover Hill Yorkies, NH - Susan Dodge
- HiHopes Yorkies, CT - Cheryl Kroll

I would really like to know a lot more about these breeders, seeing as they are located in NY:
- Let's Talk Yorkie, NY - Susan Hertz (would really love to hear especially about Susan, I've filled out her puppy application but have yet to hear back)
- Crown Jewel Biewers and Yorkshire Terriers, NY - Joanne F.
- Dollard Yorkies, NY - Debbie Dollard

These also seem to have mostly good reviews here, but are a little farther away:
- Wingold/Tom's Yorkies, NJ - Tom Becker
- Foxfire Yorkies, CT - Rose & Bill Jenks

I'm iffy on these two:
- Smartpuppiepets, MA - Hursula Oliviera - read some questionable things on YT, but has been recommended by magicgenie of Clover Hill in one post
- Twilight Yorkies, NJ - read some things on YT, but can't find much about who exactly the breeder is which raises a red flag for me

It's quite a list, lol, so I definitely need to and am trying to solidly narrow it down. Thanks for any help you can give!

It's always a pleasure to address someone who is checking us out properly. I'm Susan Dodge, owner of Clover Hill Yorkies. I work very hard at being reputable and responsible. Cheryl Kroll, owner of Hihopes Yorkies is a good friend and quasi mentor to me. She taught me a lot. She's in northeast CT and will know who else has nice puppies in your region.
I actually know of and have referred people to everyone you name except Twilight Yorkies. I have no idea who they are.
Best Wishes.

I'm so excited you've replied. Thank you for sharing that, I'm confident I have a great list here and a good starting place. I will definitely make sure to contact Cheryl and see who else she could refer to me. Although I may have to make the drive to NH with approval of course, your babies are gorgeous. (I can't resist going to your website over and over to look at your videos of the puppies!)

Thanks again, and best wishes to you also!

Driving to New Hampshire would be well worth the trip to get a puppy from Susan.

Thank you. You're very kind. The videos are a recent idea. People love to see pictures of the pups, but I'm a very bad photographer and puppies, when awake, can be quite a handful to pose for pictures. The videos are keeping people interested while I work up the courage to try for nice close up photos.
I'll be happy to work with you if you are interested in one of my pups and could meet you somewhere if you can't get all the way here. I'm planning a vacation and these are likely the last Clover Hill puppies for this year.
I live in a great place for those who can take a weekend off for skiing or other winter sports. :)

Thank you Lisaly, compliment very much appreciated.:)

The last litter for 2015? I am hoping to welcome a puppy home in May, so maybe not right now, but one never knows what the future holds.

Lol, may not be too keen on the winter sports, I have island heritage so anywhere colder than NY frightens me a little bit. Nonetheless, would still be a great trip though. I will definitely be in contact with you if I'm interested, whether it be now or farther down the line.

Enjoy your vacation :)!

I am just intruding in on your conversation to let you know that I LOVED the videos on the Clover Hill web site. What a bunch of perfect little babies! Ok, and the smiling Mama - yeah - I'll take her and her kids. ;) Love, Love, Love her smile! and the big boy puppy - he's perfect! Oh! their all wonderful!

magicgenie, what a magnificent home, too! Just lovely, inside and out!

Susan the video is a spectacular idea! I do love to see young pup movements. I think I posted this somewhere before, but if you have a camera that you can set up on automatic shooting every 3 or 5 seconds whatever on a tripod, you can play to your hearts content on taking the *stills*.


If you look at Razzles GCH video and see the first 2 or 3 puppy shots, they were done by me on a tripod with that automatic shooting. Trust me I am no photographer although I would love to be one.

Thank you, Gail. I'll look into what my camera's capabilities are. Very busy this week but I'll get back to your post about the microchips as I'm interested in that!

The video is great. It really adds a lot to see the lil tykes in action, in addition to the still shots. Makes me want to get in there and play with them all.

Videos are nice. Especially when ppl are new and don't know the breeder. You can see the living conditions ect. Breeding dogs is hard work when done right. Nice vids.

Thanks very much. I try to be very honest and open about my dogs and how they live and not paint an unrealistic picture of 10 adult dogs, male and female, plus their puppies happily co-mingling under my feet throughout my house. This would be physically impossible. With 3 intact males and 7 intact females and all the related hormonal activity, there would be daily dog fights and constant unplanned pregnancies without some way to keep them apart. Intact dogs have to be kept segregated to a manageable degree. I have converted the basement of my house for this purpose. It's spacious an open and has all the amemities of my upstairs living quarters, and is set up for the dogs' safety and security. Expectant and nursing mothers stay in my bedroom and music studio upstairs. I do, however, spend most of my waking hours in the kennel with my dogs, whose company I thoroughly enjoy.:)

Absolutely correct! Even if you have all of one sex, sometimes separation is required. Male or female doesn't matter, sometimes two dogs just don't get along with one another.


Usually I am found in the kitchen or in my garden room (where I have our dogs crates), unless of course I am cleaning lol

I am rather pleased with the open-mindedness of this forum. I am a member of another forum that makes me feel like a horrible monster for doing the crate and rotate thing. I have toy poodles and the two Yorkie mixes for my own bed-buddies/pets, etc. I raise and rarely breed Kelpies, though. I will allow the small dogs to intermingle with well-behaved members of my 'big dog pack,' but never, ever unsupervised. The bigguns' have their own room (what used to be the master suite) with crates, grooming tables, etc. and the little ones have the run of the rest of the house unless they are in time out (as the poodle boys are now since I have a Kelpie in season and do NOT want doodles lol). They are happy, loved, groomed, played with, trained and I even took two shopping with me the other day (Half Price Books is dog friendly). But, to hear folks on that other forum.... *sigh*

magicgenie - I wish I could have a pretty basement/doggie palace like yours. I think it is well thought out and seems to accomodate the furkids nicely.
Yes, I'm a bit jealous. lol

Borderkelpie, I just want the dogs happy, healthy and loved while they're here.
I retire them young from my breeding program and do my best to ensure they go from here to life as beloved pets. Are the associated risks too high a price to preserve the breed for future generations to enjoy? I love my Yorkies more than anything.:) Animal Rights people think my Yorkies are suffering.:confused:

:)I had to look up Kelpie, as this is a breed not familiar to me. Interesting looking dog, and one, I have not knowingly seen in person.


Do you breed for show or working? The separation reminds me of Border Collies and some other breeds as well. And somewhat the divide seems to be similar in terms of at least coat color n texture, and of course mayhap more subtle things I would not know of.

And your *large dogs* are not so large in my mind, although compared to Yorkies well they are, in fact anything other than another toy breed would be.:)

I do breed a large rare breed, full grown females 85-100lbs, males 110-130lbs or so.

And we do have show and performance breeders with our breed too, although we have not created different registries for this. The issue is almost always the same, if you don't breed for performance, then you lose over time the stellar performance qualities of the breed. And the other hand would say, we need to keep structure, type, coat, and other qualities true to the breed. It is a question without a definitive answer in my mind. But I have my own personal answer, and I am like some very few breeders who breed for both. Wrong temperament, no working drive, are as important to me, as coat type, structure and health. As a breeder you must if you want to do the above, test out your breeding stock, and do working titles on your dogs. As well as all the health screenings et al. That is a huge commitment of time and energy.

Anyhoo I have enjoyed reading your posts, and am looking forward to learning about this Kelpie breed of yours :-)

Thank you, gemy. We breed for working. I would love to show a dog again someday, but I don't like what happens when folks start breeding for the ring vs performance. Just for grins and giggles, not only do we go for herding but we are expanding into tracking (because I love tracking lol).

I am tinkering with the idea of showing a dog again, and am researching Yorkies and another breed for just that someday (soon, I hope), but I have a bad feeling I will take a gorgeous Yorkie and ruin his/her coat going to Barn hunts. lol I am a little too active for a show dog's coat. :)

magicgenie, watching your videao, it's obvious to me that your dogs seem happy, healthy and from some of the posts I've read in this forum, well adjusted and cared for/much loved.

Animal rights people can kiss my, uh, Yorkie - that's it, that is exactly what I meant to say. ;)

[QUOTE=BorderKelpie;4520579]Thank you, gemy. We breed for working. I would love to show a dog again someday, but I don't like what happens when folks start breeding for the ring vs performance. Just for grins and giggles, not only do we go for herding but we are expanding into tracking (because I love tracking lol).

I am tinkering with the idea of showing a dog again, and am researching Yorkies and another breed for just that someday (soon, I hope), but I have a bad feeling I will take a gorgeous Yorkie and ruin his/her coat going to Barn hunts. lol I am a little too active for a show dog's coat. :)

magicgenie, watching your videao, it's obvious to me that your dogs seem happy, healthy and from some of the posts I've read in this forum, well adjusted and cared for/much loved.


Well you should see my GCH video of Razzle. I will link it here. http://www.yorkietalk.com/forums/my-...ospective.html


You can see here that my show Yorkie did dock diving but he also did agility and hiked everywhere with us.



I am not sure what Barn Hunts are and how they would compare...

https://www.youtube.com/user/BarnHuntVideos

Razzle is wonderful! What a fun little guy! Magic is stunning, too. Lovely dog!

Maybe Barn Hunts would be ok, I just figured the hay could damage a Yorkie's coat because it can sure be a nightmare when my poodles get into it. lol (My poodles are in modified Continental clips, so the hay really gets tangled in it).

I have some wonderful hiking trails locally, too. Can't wait until the weather picks up a bit again. :)

Videos
 

Susan,

As you know I'm a big fan of your videos - particularly because I get to see our Shelby's lovely mother Lacy, dad Ray, and her new siblings!!!!

Alec

Wow - it's been a while since I posted!

Alec, How nice to run into you here! I check in once in a while to see what's happening outside of my own little Yorkie world.
For those who don't know, Alec and Stephen came to my home about a year ago to pick out a little Yorkie of their own. She's now a very spoiled adult Yorkie named Shelby and Alec has been wonderful about keeping me up to date on her development into an adult.
I think it's very important to choose a breeder who wants a relationship with you after the puppy goes home. This can be helpful to you when you need expert advice about something, and provide invaluable information to a breeder who wants to know how their puppy is maturing. :)

My breeder has ha puppy cam set up. I can watch her anytime of the day :)

excellent idea!:)

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...psdf1abbce.png

Is nice. All live feed. I can look on my Phone ect.. Bad pic. Sometimes the web cam isn't put back right but nice to see when they look like gerbils till they move ect..

That's a nice setup! I think I have cameras that would be suitable for this, now to figure out the technical aspects... :)

Just a question for everyone, & magicgenie especially. When you first call a breeder, what did you ask your breeders/ what questions are breeders expected to be asked ?

A call to a breeder did not go too well; my questions were kind of laughed at and they just weren't receptive which caught me off guard, so when they asked questions I was sort of frazzled. I kind of feel like all my research on "buying your breeder" and asking them questions, and not just coming right off the bat saying you want a puppy and when can you get one was pointless. Maybe I took it too seriously....?

Goodness, I can't imagine what you asked that someone would think is laughable. I think it's essential to develop some kind of rapport with a breeder before either of you commits to uprooting a puppy. I expect any good breeder to be happy to exchange information. Please PM or email me about this, especially if it was someone I recommended.:confused:

I look at the initial conversation, as somewhat like a dance. If I were the purchaser, I would introduce myself, and early on in the convo, find some true compliment to say to the breeder. I would then explain why I love breed xyz and what I hope to find in a puppy.


Then I would ask about their breeding program, what they hope/desire to accomplish with it.


Just like dancing sometimes the first few steps can be awkward. As much as you want to find out about the breeder, so too the breeder wants to find out about you.


And I agree with Magic Genie I never would laugh at a potential purchaser for any question they asked.

Stopping to say hello...
 

Since the OP asked about us, here we are stopping by to say hi and to make our selves available to any questions. We admit that we do not come here so often so it takes us a while to see conversations, but we are always available through a direct email or call. Anyway, we wish everyone a great summer , days in New England are delightful this time of the year.
To all the wonderful breeders, dog owners and future dog families,
May the happiness, and cheerful joy of sharing our daily lives with these amazing creatures be with all of us 😍.
And to the OP, Shaelo, welcome !
Xoxo