The Garza's were kind enough to sit down and answer some questions for us for our new Breeder Spotlight! I think these are quickly becoming one of the more popular aspects of the site! Everyone loves to see how other breeders think and their experiences!
***Please know this is not an endorsement of the breeder, their program, or their dogs. If you are looking to purchase a puppy/dog do your due diligence and research your breeder.
What do you breed and how long have you been breeding?
Started breeding Miniature Australian Shepherds in 2008 and expanding into the doodle/poodle world in 2018.
What made you choose that breed?
My older brother and his wife bought a blue merle Miniature Australian Shepherd male in 2007. Our whole family fell in love with the breed and in 2008 I bought my first dog which was a Black Tri female, who is still with us today, Molly! I started breeding to help pay for college and used my brothers male as my stud for many years. During this time I worked for a local bank for 6+ years and the CEO had a F1 Goldendoodle that would make his daily rounds to everyone’s office. At the time I didn’t know how popular this breed was but I knew I wanted to expand our program and take the step towards a larger breed that would be appealing to families. Because I had daily interaction with my supervisors Goldendoodle and saw how he interacted with others I knew this would be the best fit for my program. I looked at is as being able to adapt to any type of customer whether they were looking for a small breed (Miniature Australian Shepherd) or Large breed (Doodle/Poodle).
What drew you to breeding in general?
I feel the unspoken reason for breeding in general is the extra source of income. In the beginning I felt as if the Mini Aussie breed was not as popular as it is now, I wanted people to enjoy the breed as I did. I also felt it was an opportunity to help fund college in the early years. The expansion really vamped up when I got married and had kids, there was no way my wife could work and come out ahead with two kids in daycare. This has really helped supplement the income we were missing from my wife. At the same time we love the breeds we have and always look at ways to do what is best for the breeds and the families purchasing.
What’s everyday life like for you?
We live on 100+ acres in South Texas, I work full time in the oil and gas industry as an Information Technology Refining Specialist, but my wife (Jordan) stays home and during the week she has primary care of our dogs, I get weekend duties. We have two kids Tarynn (2 yrs. old) and Tathen (1 yr. old) they give our pups the socialization we strive for and that our customers absolutely rave about. Luckily enough we live around my siblings so our nieces and nephews provide lots of help with the dogs! We really couldn’t do it without all of them!
What’s one thing you wish you knew before you started breeding?
There is a list of things I wish I knew before breeding but didn’t learn until experiencing them myself and learning from them. There are definitely hard times when breeding such as a stillborn pup; puppy fading syndrome. It’s things like this that no one really likes to talk about but sometimes uncontrollable and are hard to deal with.
If you could go back in time to right before your first litter, what would you tell yourself?
Patience is key and you can’t predict every outcome.
What are you most proud of in your program?
The community of customers we have built. 2020 we started a customer group and we love seeing how our pups are doing and seeing our customers interact and give advice to each other. Also, Back in 2013 we sold a pup that went on to be the #1 Dock diving Mini Aussie in the U.S., not every day you see a small dog competing in that competition!
What makes you keep coming back for more....what’s the best part about breeding for you?
The enjoyment we put in families lives.
What’s the easiest part of breeding for you?
Spending time with the family and watching our kids interact with the puppies.
What’s the best thing you’ve purchased for your program?
Recently we purchased the feeding station that Michael Cummings sells. This station really has been beneficial for newborn puppies that need the additional supplement feeding in the beginning.
What’s one thing you’ve discovered that saves you the most time and energy when you have a litter?
Teaching pups to use litter pan, pellet shavings with alfalfa pellets. Before this it felt never ending with the cleaning. This method also has helped our customers teach their puppies to use the restroom outside.
If someone reading this is just starting out, what do you want them to know is the best part of what you do?
The community and relationships your build with your customers.
What’s one thing that just grinds your gears in the breeding community?
Breeders bashing others instead of helping.
What's your biggest pet peeve in regards to breeding?
All the scammers out there who have made it harder for breeders like us, especially during this pandemic.
What do you stress over most?
To make sure to please our customers and provide them with what they are wanting. Reputation is everything, there’s always a difficult customer from time to time but it’s how you adapt and handle the situation that will provide a positive outcome.
What’s one mistake you’ve made in your program that you wish you could go back and change?
Not knowing about genetic testing in the beginning, this could have helped tremendously.
What has been your biggest failure?
Probably one of the worst things we have experienced. We had a female that was due to have pups and we had been constantly checking her temperature and knew she was going to have them at any time. Our two year old daughter had an accident one day and slipped and fell getting out of the swimming pool and busted her nose. We had to go to the ER and of course those visit are never quick. Doctors were thinking it was a fractured nose, they also had us worried about making sure our daughter had no brain fluid leak from the head trauma. We got home around 1am exhausted, tired and scared, we checked on our poodle Reba, and we could tell she was going to have the puppies by morning. My wife and I took turns every hour checking on our poodle as well as our daughter, it got to the point our exhaustion got the best of us and we over slept two hours. Next thing we knew she had 7 puppies and all pups were still in their sacks. All we could think is that she had them way to quick and she couldn’t keep up. We rushed to remove each puppy and tried to revive them. We were fortunate enough to save 2 of them but the rest did not make it. Talk about hitting rock bottom we could not believe what had happened. We had never experienced this before, this was not momma dogs first rodeo and she had always had litters on her own and did exceptional. All we could do was learn from the situation and since have not had this issue reoccur. By the way if anyone is wondering our daughter had a great outcome, two days later went to a specialist and was cleared with just a bruised nose.
What’s the most difficult part of breeding for you?
Being Invested in a potential customers and providing everything they are wanting as far as pictures, facetiming, videos and then at the end not even purchasing.
What’s something you keep doing because you think you have to in order to be taken seriously by other breeders, but deep down really want to stop?
Becoming more and more professional with the pictures I release, I feel you have to provide professional quality.
If someone reading this is just starting out, what do you want them to know is the worst part of what you do?
Not everything will go the way you plan for it to go, learn from the experience and use it in the future to become a stronger breeder. I’ve been doing this since 2008 and to this day I am still learning new things.
What’s your goal for the next couple of years?
Revamp our setup to help make every day duties easier.
What’s one thing you wish you knew more about in regards to breeding?
Definitely Genetics and traits
How long have you been breeding with color in mind?
2019
What’s one thing you just don’t understand about genetics?
I signed up for both courses (Color Genes of Poodles and Doodles: The Basics & Results to make Predictions) to get a full understanding, because right now I always have to ask on the community group. But with life and a busy schedule it’s hard to find time to complete them.
If you could shout one thing at the top of your lungs to all breeders...what would it be?
Patience
What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen so far when it comes to breeding?
Always being the favorite house my nieces and nephews like to go because they get to play with all the puppies and dogs.
If you'd like to be featured in our Breeder Spotlight send us a message here!
