Frequently Asked Questions

It depends. We speak to clients daily, and those conversations are scheduled according to the date/time your application is received.  When we receive an email question about puppy availability, we direct any contact to fill-out an application to get on our calendar for a call-back time.  An available puppy now may be sold in 30 minutes, so we never give updates via email about puppy availability.

Our lists fill up quickly! The most up-to-date listing of our available puppies is on our Facebook page. Go to a particular litter’s photo album where we list how many picks are still available.  Usually, we have a very limited number of puppies that are available before they are 8 weeks.  Over 99% of our puppies are reserved before going home day. However, if you want to speak with someone about availability, we invite you to fill out an application and schedule a call with one of our Client Representatives.

You can also check our website for any planned litters. We sell puppies everyday and keep a master list in our office.  Our online lists are updated frequently, but the best way to check availability is to fill out an online application and respond to us about scheduling a phone call.

Trained reservations are made by clients many, many months in advance. Clients reserve a puppy, and then select to add training on.  You may read about training reservations on our website.

To reserve a puppy that you may have trained, please begin our process by filling out our application.

A full description of our process can be found here.

In short, as soon as you decide you want to bring a Crossfield Doodle into your home, start by filling out an online application. We will contact you about scheduling a call, and go from there. Our lists are about 75% full by the time puppies are born. The first half of our lists are full well in advance of 6 months in most cases. If you have a size, color or gender preference, we recommend you begin as early as you can.

After you fill out your application, and we give you a phone call to determine what list you want to be on, we will send you a contract AND invoice. Returning your contract and deposit of $500 will hold your spot on the reservation list. If, we have not received your deposit and/or signed contract in a timely fashion we will remove you from our reservation list.

Deposits are non-refundable, but they do transfer to any current or future list within either Crossfield Doodles or Crossfield Doodles down South. We accept Venmo or a personal check payment for a deposit as well as future payments.

At Crossfield Doodles, you not only find a puppy that will far exceed your expectations, you will also find our customer care to be far above that which you will receive from most any other breeder.

We work diligently with each family. Your first interaction with Crossfield usually begins when you submit an application.  Office staff process your application and schedule you for a call.  Our client managers, Rochelle or Christy will then give you a call to find out what questions you have.  We then seek to assess your desires and situate you a reservation list that matches your situation.

We return your information to the office staff, to draw up a contract for you and invoice you for your deposit. It is not uncommon for clients to have further questions which they send by text or email and we engage our time each week answering these questions.  These initial steps have already taken hours of time on the part of our paid staff, but until you submit your deposit, those costs are free to you.

We believe that the $500 accurately represents the amount of time our team has spent with each family, in various way, prior to the puppy’s arrival.   Therefore, we have decided to keep the deposit at what we feel is a very fair cost of $500.

At times, clients will need to make the decision to withdraw from a list due to family situation, or merely a change in mind. While each client is certainly able to make the decision as best suits their families’ needs, we feel it is a fair consideration that paid staff has engaged in hours of service to just maintain a high quality of customer service.  Therefore, the deposit is non-refundable.

The first thing to consider: Has the pair had a successful breeding? Each female has a cycle that we have to wait on. While we know on average, every female cycles anywhere from every 4 to 9 months, we have to wait on Mother Nature with each female. Breedings, generally take place anywhere from the 7th to the 20th day of a girls’ cycle. We cannot start any sort of official clock until breeding has occurred. Once breeding occurs, we notify everyone on the reservation list within a week with projected dates for puppy arrival, 6 week picks, 8 week going home, and Trained going home. Many times, the season affects these cycles, so we may be breeding several females over a space of a couple of weeks, depending on swings and shifts in the weather. Please use this helpful guide when calculating on your own:

• Breeding Day: Day​ ZERO
• DUE (Arrival can be +/- 5 days from this date): Day​ 63/Week 9
• 6 week visitation: Day​ 105/Week 15
• 8 week going home: Day​ 119/Week 17
• Trained going home: Day​ 140/Week 20

We all like to plan! As you can see from the timing above, we can only provide you with a 20-week planning guide. Before Breeding Day, all our estimates are just that, an estimate based on your girl’s history. We track everything, so we know when to project, but our projections are usually based on a season or a one-to-three-month window (i.e. “April to May” or “Spring of 20__”). Once a girl has a litter, we will project when her next season will be, but we are only basing that on what she has done in the past. Sometimes seasons come VERY early; sometimes they come VERY late. If we could control them…well, we’d be doing more than breeding dogs with that hidden talent!

We are often asked about planning for vacation during the season your puppies are expected. We wish we could provide you with more certainty, but if we have not had a breeding, we cannot give you anything more than our informed projections. We recommend planning vacations according to the 17-to-20 week guide. Has your girl bred yet? If she has NOT, you have at least 4 months to get a vacation in before you must think about bringing home a puppy. If she has, the clock is ticking!

Buyer agrees to never relinquish dog to an animal shelter, rescue organization or puppy mill.  In the event that the Buyer needs to immediately rehome dog, Buyer agrees to ship puppy to Breeder at Buyer’s expense.

In the event that re-homing the dog is not an emergency situation, Buyer agrees to keep the dog until the Breeder can find a new home for the dog. This is a much better situation for the dog, so that it only needs to make one transition.

Please be advised in the event that Buyer needs to re-home a Crossfield Doodle, Breeder will work diligently to find your puppy the best next-home and another Buyer who is willing to pay the agreed puppy price. Breeder will then agree to refund any proceeds (minus any expenses that are incurred by Breeder for the dog during the re-home process: i.e. training, boarding, vet care, grooming, food, etc.) from the re-home to the original Purchaser. Additionally, if original Buyer purchased training through Crossfield Doodles, training costs will not be refunded.

My mom had a saying, “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset!” Ultrasounds can show us a beating heart and spine, but we do not know what genders we get till puppies arrive. We have had a litter of all 7 males…a litter of 8 females and 1 male…and everything in between! We do not write contracts for particular preferences expressed by clients such as: “Brown and White parti” or “Black, Female” or “Calm, Chocolate, Male.” Our contracts are written for the pick number. If we have sold picks 1 and 2 to clients that contacted us before you, your contract will be written for “Pick 3.” If, when the litter is born, you do not like your options, you are free to move your deposit to any available current or future list. If, at six week picks, you are not happy with your available selection, you are free to move your deposit to any available current or future list. Deposits are non-refundable. We are confident that at some time in the near future you will find exactly what you are looking for.

If there are, we have not seen them. Properly bred and well-socialized doodles are instinctively a companion driven breed. Once spayed/neutered a male will not act out his male-ness unless there is a female (in season, thus un-spayed) around. Spayed/Neutered doodles combine well with any other sex canines. Doodles are very smart and because we keep our doodles with other older dogs till they go home to you, they learn proper socialization from other canines.

When considering adding one of our Doodles to your home populated with one or more other canines, the best mix is either a male + female OR, a male + male. Our third choice would be female + female.  This works when you have a very submissive female (and many of our doodles are because their moms have taught them to be.)  But we would suggest this choice as a last preference.

• We do have several dogs that have worked long and hard to become service or therapy dogs.
• We DO NOT train or sell service or therapy dogs.
• We will work with your selected trainer to begin a selection process. Your trainer is the best person to advise you of your needs. We will speak with your trainer about a selection process that works for your needs.
• We do not begin working with clients on selecting a size or reservation list for a suitable service/therapy dog until we have spoken to the trainer.
• We will do one initial 15-minute consultation for FREE with your trainer to determine if we will have something available to meet your needs and your timeframe.
• We charge an additional $500 for assisting trainers. If your puppy price is $2800, we will charge $3300 in order to defray the costs associated with the additional time we will spend in assessment and evaluation in conjunction with your trainer for puppy selection.

So are we! We get it! Yes, we are happy to work with allergy clients. Here is what we offer: All families who have an allergy or suspicion or concern, must agree to do an allergy test. Once we identify which litter you are most interested in, we can ship you a T-shirt specific to the litter dander and saliva for a $150 fee. This includes the T-shirt, procuring the sample and shipping. This arrives prior to the 6 week pick time. 

We also include a special clause for allergy clients in our contract. Here is the wording: “All clients with an allergy suspicion or concern must do an allergy t-shirt test for their reserved litter ($150 allergy test fee). In the event that the Buyer needs to return the dog due to an allergic reaction to dander or saliva by someone in the immediate family who resides in the home, Buyer has 10 days to make arrangements with Crossfield Doodles to return the dog.  The dog must be in a health condition equal to that which it was purchased in.  Upon return of a healthy dog, Buyer may either ask for a refund of the dog (minus $300 of the original deposit) or to transfer all monies to another litter.  

Usually we do not have adults immediately available. However, we are happy to speak to you to find out what size and timeline you are looking at. If you would like to schedule a call with us, please begin by filling out our online application and indicate you are looking for a Trained ADULT. If you are interested in putting your name on a waitlist, we are happy to discuss this option. We have had at least one adult available on average every 6-9 months, so chances are, if you want to be on the list you may see availability.

As a follow-up, where do these older dogs come from? For years, Crossfield Doodles have sold 100% of our puppies at 8/11 weeks of age. Occasionally, we have had the opportunity to work with other breeders who may not be marketing their litters as well as we do or who have gotten behind due to a health issue or family emergency, and therefore, they have older puppies available. We have, in the past, purchased older puppies and spent several weeks training them to become great pets. We only work with breeders we have bought our own breeders from, or to whom we have sold our breeders to so that we are comfortable with their genetic testing and temperament.

Sometimes we retire our breeders. Most often, those retired breeders are already in their guardian homes. However, if we have one available, we could let you know about that opportunity.

A final opportunity we may discuss with you, depending on availability, is a re-homing opportunity. We ask all our clients to reach-out to us in the event of a family decision to re-home their Crossfield Doodle. Most of the time, an emergent need within the family has been the reason (health diagnosis or life event.) Again, we cannot plan on these opportunities, but they do transpire, and we usually have a client waiting for a trained doodle ready to match when it does happen.

If you would like to inquire about an older dog, submit an online application, and indicate you are most interested in speaking about an older dog. We will schedule a call with you and we will be happy to discuss what if any options are available to you.