Saturday, May 29, 2021

Puppy Fever is Growing and So Are The Puppies!

 All nine pups are doing well! 

We're so excited!!!!!

The puppies are just getting up on their little legs and trying to walk instead of commando creep.... their eyes are opening! They are starting to yip! yip! yip! like dogs instead of puppy whimpers and their baby voices are so cute! 

The puppies have had their first deworming (intestinal worms are a normal part of puppy life) and their second and third will be done before their six week check-up with Dr. Heidi Wendel of Erie Canal Veterinary and Apple Country Veterinary. 

We have three females, very distinctive:

Black with a white blaze, wavy  ($1500.00)

Sable brown, curly to wavy, very unusual ($2000.00)

Ivory/cream with gray overtones, also very unusual coloring. ($2000.00)


We have six males, gorgeous boys! All six boys are priced at $1500.00

One dark copper male with dark ears, he should be a dark red dog.

One with distinctive curl tendency already, dark gold with red overtones.

One husky black male with wavy tendency (looks like his daddy did at this age)

One gold with darker overtones, two white rear paws, waves already showing

One sleeker-looking gold, not much curl showing, soft and silky, big boy.

One smaller blonde puppy, white star on forehead, thick waves showing.

We will take individual pictures next week, but we wanted to wait until pups are mobile and eyes open.... Still, here are some sweet group photos!












Feel free to message Ruthy via Facebook (Either through her author page Ruth Logan Herne or her farm page Blodgett Family Farm) or call her cell at 585 455 1035. 

We are delighted to share our good news with all of you!

Ruthy for Blodgett Family Farm


Sunday, May 16, 2021

PUPPIES ARE HERE!

 We are so excited to announce a safe and happy delivery of nine Golden Doodle puppies on May 13th! 


Maggie was amazingly calm. We spent the morning cuddling and talking about the strength of womanhood (not even kidding, I had six kids, I totally get it!) and when the babies began arriving around 2:30 PM we had a crew of three here to weigh puppies, check umbilical cords and adjust, and then as the happy family grew, several surrogate "Doulas" snuggled firstborn pups to keep them warm while Maggie delivered the last five...

It was and is amazing.


Puppies are six males, three females. Color tones range from cream to black, an amazing array. We will post more pics as puppies grow. Right now we do minimal handling other than once/day bedding change and weigh-in. All puppies are gaining weight... not even first day weight loss, which is normal. Nope. Keeping Maggie calm and her sweet, giving nature seems to be a winning combination for well-fed babies.

We have two puppies that will be priced higher. 

One is chocolate brown or "sable".... Gorgeous female. She will be priced at $2000.00.

The other is a cream female, almost white, a true surprise. She's a throwback to her grandmother on one side and great-grandmother on the paternal side, a beautiful Thistle Rock ivory retriever out of Minnesota. She will also be priced at $2000.00

The price for the other seven gorgeous red, gold and black doodles will be $1500.00.

This pic is from Sunday morning, 5/16... Maggie is so calmly handling her beautiful family. Puppies with full tummies are laying out in sweet "milk comas", a sign of a happy, well-fed and tired baby. :)

$200 non-refundable deposits will be taken in two weeks. We have an interest list started. If you'd like your name on that list, email Ruthy at loganherne@gmail.com or call her cell phone at 585 455 1035. With the farm opening up and planting season upon us, calling her is the fastest and best way to get your name on the list. Ruthy will contact the people on the list in two weeks in the order in which they've expressed interest. Not all people will want a puppy, of course, but the list is already at eight people... and that was before pups were born.

All pups will be dewormed several times here at the farm. They will be vet-checked by Dr. Heidi Wendel of Erie Canal Animal Hospital the end of June and will be available to go to homes a week after Independence Day. (Apple Country Veterinary is their clinic in Hilton). We have worked with Apple Country and Erie Canal Animal Hospital for over a decade and we're blessed to have three veterinarians that were inspired by the late Dr. Dean Snyder, a man who offered advice on my books, my dogs and the common sense wisdom of being a successful owner and breeder.

As owners of both mom and dad, we are happy to share health histories that we have. Jeter (father) was bred here and his mother (puppies' grandmother) is enjoying old age retirement here on the farm. We love Libby... and her gorgeous chocolate brown coloring finally came through in a puppy. :)

Thanking God for a healthy mama and a beautiful delivery! 

Ruthy (Blodgett Family Farm)  585 455 1035

723 Parma Center Road

Hilton NY 14468


Thursday, May 6, 2021

Romance On The Farm!

 Anyone's who's seen Disney's "Bambi" understands spring and "Twitterpation"... well, here on the farm, romance is blooming in the canine world! 

Years ago we bred Golden Retrievers and Goldendoodles. It was a wonderful learning experience, but when the writing contracts began coming in, and there were still cute kids to teach and counsel and play with and laugh with, there was only so much I could handle. We kept one of the beautiful black doodles. We named him Jeter (after my favorite NY Yankee baseball player, of course!) and he's gorgeous. Sweet. Goofy. Lovable! We didn't neuter him because if he was a wonderful dog, I wanted the option to use him as a stud... if that was in the cards. I'm a big believer in keeping options open some of the time! The trick is knowing when to keep them open, right? 

Then two years ago we went to Gap, Pennsylvania to buy Maggie May. She's a gorgeous red/gold Goldendoodle from a very busy breeder in the heart of Amish country.  A breeder who is right now charging over $3000.00 per puppy... which is fine, but we wanted to give folks a chance to have a gorgeous Doodle with an easier price tag.


Maggie's dad is a dark red Standard Poodle. Her mom is a blonde Golden Retriever... 

Jeter's mom is our Libby... a medium brown standard poodle.... and his dad was Mick , "Hearthside's McDreamy" a red over gold Golden Retriever we traveled to Minnesota to get. 

So what color will these sweet puppies be? We have no idea, but we're excited to welcome them to the farm. We are so blessed to live on this fifty-acre spread, a place for kids to run free, for pumpkins and mums to grow, for donkeys to hang out and be cute and for our three dogs... the young couple and the aged grandma dog, Libby... to raise their beautiful puppies.


We have an "interested" list started. If you'd like to be on that list, all I need is your name and email. You can call me at 585 455 1035 OR leave me a comment here. Once the puppies are safely delivered in a couple of weeks, we'll take deposits from folks who are ready... but we're not in a hurry.

We're ready to kind of relax, have a great birthing, and welcome a whole bunch of little Goldendoodles to the planet.

Here are the answers to some questions, and feel free to ask more below:

Price: Asking price for each puppy is $1500.00 cash, Paypal or Venmo.

Size:  Mom and Dad are full-sized dogs. Jeter weighs in around 65 lbs. and Maggie is around 55 pounds. They are tall and beautifully proportioned. Neither one has health issues.

Guarantees: Well, life doesn't come with guarantees, but if your pup suffers from a genetic problem in the first year, we will refund your money and bring the dog back here. All shots and veterinary records must be up to date to validate this guarantee. (Standard of care applies)

Gender preference: We don't know what the mix of boys-to-girls will be, so we can't make promises we can't keep... but the sooner people commit to putting down a deposit after birth, the better chance they have of getting the gender of choice and the color of choice, but with dogs of many colors, we don't know what that will be. They may be black puppies, gold puppies, red puppies, or brown puppies... or some of each. Our crew of puppy lovers will be standing by for that very important phone call in ten days or so, letting them know that it's time to gather and greet these babies as they come into the world!

Health history on our side: Like a lot of older big dogs, Jeter's father "Mick" developed seizures when he was six-and-a-half years old. He was put on medication (cost about $10/month) and that controlled them. He lived a full life until passing away in 2019 at the age of 12. He was a wonderful boy, a kind and gentle-hearted dog that loved attention. Jeter is much like him in that regard. Seizure disorders like this aren't unusual for big dogs and Goldens in particular. Jeter is seven years old and has had no health problems at all. He has never had a seizure.

Jeter's mother "Libby" developed mammary gland cancer at age seven. The cancer was removed. A small lump returned three years later. That was also surgically removed and Libby is still prancing around the farm, living her best life as a retiree at age 13. We did not opt to do chemo at either time. 

Our Veterinarians: "Apple Country Veterinary Hospital" and "Erie Canal Veterinary Hospital" two local practices staffed by three wonderful and knowledgeable (by the way, that's one of the few words that doesn't lose the "e" before adding the suffix... in case you wanted to know that.) veterinarians, all of who were inspired and influenced by Dr. Dean Snyder, a wonderful man who followed his dreams and passed that inspiration on to the young people who worked for him and with him.

The nice thing about knowing the dog's lineage is that these are our dogs. Our pets. We've raised them and know their temperaments, their idiosyncrasies, their personalities. To us, the main thing about breeding dogs is niceness. Kindness. Affinity for people.

We don't need or want guard dogs. We're a family farm, we have fourteen grandchildren, and I like big, goofy dogs that love unconditionally. A dog's disposition says more to me as a parent and grandparent than physiological tests that may or may not be indicative of what a dog's future might be. That's my personal opinion and I'm fine with other folks wanting or needing different standards.

Give me "Old Yeller" type dogs any day.

While we started this with Golden Retrievers (a breed I love) we moved to Doodles because of the hybrid vigor a first cross brings. The first cross of two purebred dogs lessens the chance of genetic flaws finding a match because it opens the gene pool. The lack of shedding is another nice thing for folks with allergies or those who wear non-farm clothing on a regular basis. :) You know who you are! 

We'll keep you posted here and on Facebook. For now we're praying for a happy, healthy delivery! We'll let you know! 

Ruthy

Blodgett Family Farm

585-455 1035 

& lovable but somewhat bossy author of over 60 books.... 



Multi-published, bestselling author Ruth Logan Herne owns a pumpkin farm in Western New York with her husband of a whole lot of years. When she's not writing beautiful stories of overcomers and dreams coming true, she's working on the farm, spending time with dogs and donkeys and sharing bits of bossy wisdom on Facebook.