Breeder Home Care Application

Thank you for your interest in volunteering to care for one of our breeding dogs in your family home on a long term basis. 

I invite you to complete the Service Dogs Australia (SDA) Breeder Home Care Questionnaire and return it to us. This information about your lifestyle and expectations will assist us in working together to see if a puppy/adult dog from SDA is a good match for you…and us!

Our aim is to match healthy, happy, well-socialised puppies in caring, committed, long term placements that acknowledge the pups’ heritage and capabilities.

Nurturing Excellence in Service Dog Breeding for a Brighter Future

SDA is a specialized Service Dog breeding program that serves the global Guide, Assistance and Facility Dog industry. We place our dogs in loving, inclusive, safe, long term home placements if we believe the placement will be a great success for both the dog and the home. When our dogs are not giving back to our program and the service dog industry, we want them to be enjoying active, social, family lifestyles that includes loving companionship inside the home.

Our program is small, does not breed frequently and breeds Service Dog proven lines. For multiple generations, these breeding lines have had specific health and temperament traits selected for, or against, with the goal of developing an ideal Service Dog that demonstrates excellent trainability, comparatively lower distraction and anxiety levels than most dogs, natural willingness and intuition toward people and of course sound, reliable health through assessment of orthopedics, cardiac health, ophthalmic health and genetic disease testing. 

Our program breeds the purebred Labrador Retriever, the purebred Golden Retriever, and the Labrador Retriever X Golden Retriever crossbreed, which has proven to be a successful and widely accepted cross within the service dog industry for many decades.

Golden Retrievers

• Golden Retrievers are active, gundogs who thrive with a high level of recreation and outdoor activity.
•  Golden Retrievers are sensitive, loving and sociable. This sensitive nature makes them prone to separation anxiety and they require gentle, consistent training to teach them how to be alone when necessary.
•  Golden Retrievers enjoy physical contact and are prone to nudge people and jump up for attention. We discourage these behaviours and encourage excellent manners.
•  Golden Retrievers require consistent grooming to be healthy and look their best.
•  Like many retrievers, the average Golden Retriever lifespan is about 12 years. Like other retrievers and similar large breeds, the Golden Retriever is susceptible to life-threatening cancer and age-related arthritis.
•  A Golden Retriever requires top quality nutrition (the SDA program is a raw fed colony of dogs) as well as top quality veterinary care for his/her lifetime.
•  Golden Retrievers are known to have puppy-like attitudes for many years and are prone to chewing and digging. They may like to garden 
•  Golden Retrievers are loving and playful and thrive on being the center of family attention.

Labrador Retrievers

• Labrador Retrievers are outgoing, agile dogs who are intelligent and trusting.
•  Labrador Retrievers are highly willing to please and are sociable.
•  Labrador Retrievers enjoy physical contact, but in comparison, often less so than the Golden Retriever.
•  Labrador Retrievers require consistent grooming to be healthy and look their best. They are double coated and tend to drop more coat, on average, than the Golden Retriever.
•  The average Labrador Retriever lifespan is about 12-14 years. Like other retrievers and similar large breeds, the Labrador Retriever is susceptible to cancer and age-related arthritis.
•  A Labrador Retriever requires top quality nutrition. The SDA program is a raw fed colony of dogs; therefore, our litters are weaned on to and reared on raw foods. Labrador Retrievers should have access to top quality veterinary care for his/her lifetime.
•  Labrador Retrievers are even-tempered, kind and intuitive and thrive on being the center of family activities.
•  Labrador Retrievers do tend to reach maturity at a slightly younger age than other breeds. However, they are prone to chewing and eating inappropriate things due to their intense food motivation.
  

Labrador Retrievers x Golden Retriever

• The cross of these two breeds provides a particularly useful blend of temperament traits for the Service Dog industry.
•  Although variation is always found in any litter – the goal of this cross breed is to acquire the willingness, sociability and even-temperedness of the Labrador along with the motivation, affection and intuitiveness of the Golden Retriever.
•  The cross can be black, or gold (or black with brindled gold points (feet, cheeks, bottom) and often has a coat that is intermediary of the two breeds – a shorter overall coat than the purebred Golden, with feathering on the neck, ears, britches and tail.