The Long Version
It all began with a sweet dog named Scooby. He was our first dog, coming home to us in January 2011 — a 10-pound Coton de Tulear. We chose him for his extremely hypoallergenic coat, which we needed due to Rockey’s severe allergies to any animal that sheds. Scooby was our absolute best friend and constant companion as we both graduated from college, started our careers, and moved from Southern California to Las Vegas and finally to Hawaii.
When Scooby was 9, shortly after we moved to Hawaii, we found out he was in the early stages of heart failure. At age 12, his heart failure worsened and we made the excruciating decision to say goodbye. Our house was empty for the first time ever, and we hated that feeling.
We needed another dog with a hypoallergenic coat but could not find a single Coton breeder in the entire state of Hawaii. We found a breeder on the mainland who kept our new puppy for the entire 6 months of preparation required to bring him to Hawaii. We were sad that we missed most of Thunder’s “little puppy” phase.
We heard the same story from dozens of friends in Hawaii. We recognized an area of need and realized we were well-equipped to fill it, so we decided to start our own in-home breeding program.
You might be asking, “why breed Labradoodles instead of Cotons?” A friend of ours has an incredible Labradoodle named River, and we fell in love with her temperament — and discovered that Rockey is not allergic to her. Labradoodles are particularly well-suited for life in Hawaii because of their high energy and love of outdoor adventures and water.
So our sweet Thunder is not part of our breeding program — he is just the goofy big “brother” of Sunny and a caring uncle to all the pups that come through our home.
