Welcome to Pups By Taylor

We are in Bothell - about 20 miles from downtown Seattle! Check out our everyday life on Snapchat! http://www.snapchat.com/add/PupsByTaylor

Show me more

Happy Owners

So I’ve now had my precious Felicia aka “Flea” for almost 8 months and loving every moment of it. I can’t imagine life without her. I am a brand new puppy owner…meaning I’ve never owned a dog, not even as a kid. My friends couldn’t believe I wanted a puppy, in fact they tried to dissuade me from getting one and told me it would be A LOT of work and it would eat all my shoes! I spent hours, days looking at sites researching as to what I wanted. I knew I loved the tempera…ment of a lab but didn’t want the size of a lab. Somehow I stumbled across Taylor’s site and was obsessed with her puppies. A mini double doodle seemed perfect for me. I was hoping for a dog under 20 lbs and I’m not gonna lie the whole litter training thing was intriguing. She happened to live close to my parent’s house, so I went up for a visit to “look’” just look at puppies and possibly place deposit for one I could pick up in a year. Well I fell in love…with all of them! I held the purple collar girl, she was exactly what I wanted, female and light colored. I was ready to write my check, but to my surprise Taylor wanted me to think about it for a day or two and get back to her. There was NO pressure at all to buy a puppy. Not only that, she answered all my questions and allowed me to visit several times. She even told me that if I didn’t want the puppy after I paid my deposit she would give it back. Needless to say I felt as though I was buying from a breeder that REALLY cared about her puppies and wanted them to go to the perfect homes. You can tell how much time she puts into raising the pups by all the updates you get. She shared daily pictures and videos of the pups before they were ready to come home. When I finally brought Flea home it took some adjustments but for the most part wasn’t the nightmare everyone told me it would be. Yes, she still uses her litter box but if I take her outside she goes outside. Some people think its weird but I love it! No early morning walks for me. I would never recommend a litter box for a big dog , but works perfect for my 11 lb dog. I have to say the support Taylor provides after you bring home your puppy is wonderful. For a first time dog owner like me, it took away a lot of stress. The Pups by Taylor Families Facebook page is a great resource as well. It’s a great way to share ideas or even hear about everyone else’s experiences. Taylor also has reunions. At the first reunion we went to we met Flea’s littermate, Norman, who happens to live close to us. Flea and Norman see each other at least once a week and will be having their 1st birthday party together this July. People stop me all the time to take pictures or Flea and ask where I got her. I have to say so far my experience as a 1st time dog owner has been pleasant. I wouldn’t think twice about getting a second dog from Taylor, if only my husband would let me!

We just got our sweet mini double doodle from Taylor & it has been the best experience! This was my husband & I’s first time buying a puppy so I did a lot of research, and came across Pups by Taylor. I read a bunch of blog posts and looked through her last litters. I was pretty sold after just reading about her & her experience with breeding. Our first night, which is said to be the worst, our little Zeppelin slept through the whole night in his crate. Taylor set us up to give our puppy the healthiest lifestyle & she is so helpful. I’ve probably asked her 1828484 questions & she answers them all! We are so happy with our furbaby & so thankful for Taylor

Taylor and Andru are wonderful breeders and people. You get that personal touch that you don’t get with most breeders. They have lots of love to give to their doggies and all the newborn pups. We are in love with Amelia and grateful for our new friends (both dogs and people)❤️

Puppies Need Patience!

30 Dec

Back in October, the weekend we had our 3rd reunion planned, the news started reporting about an upcoming record breaking storm. One of my families sent me this text which is just awful and at the same time hilarious (because it didn’t happen to ME I can find it hilarious) 


My first reaction was that this pic wasn’t real or just something she found on the internet but sure enough it was very real. Kim has a JLo/Koa puppy, Kingston. Kim was running errands preparing for Stormageddon 2016 and she said she left Kingston in the car alone for maybe 15 minutes MAX and came out to see this mess. He had pooped in the car and then ran all over getting it EVERYWHERE!!

I love that Kim was able to immediately joke about the situation because honestly my first reaction would probably not be laughter. 

I just wanted to share because I do expect something like this to happen to every new dog owner. It might not be this extreme but I want to be sure you know that in addition to all of the adorable pics and cuddly moments with your new dog there is bound to be a little chaos too and I need you to be prepared for that. Keep in mind that I will be here for support and when you are ready for it – some laughs. 

It Takes A Village! Looking For Guardian Homes

12 Oct

SEPTEMBER 2017 UPDATE- Blue Ivy has been placed and I am not looking for any additional guardian homes at this time. Currently I have Rihanna, Mariah, Adele, Gaga and Blue Ivy in guardian homes and none are old enough for puppies so we are all set for girls in the next few years. I might consider another male but don’t have any set plans at this time. Thanks for your interest. 

AUGUST 2017 – I am looking for a home for Beyonce’s daughter, Blue Ivy, that is within 20 miles (approximately); close enough to have our girl back to visit at least every 3 months so she can feel comfortable here in our home since this is where she would have her puppies.

Blue Ivy will come back and live here in our home for the final 7-10 days of her pregnancy and for at least 6 weeks after puppies arrive – this means that your dog will be here for a total of 7-ish weeks. You can come visit but I know for some (myself included) that would be really tough to be without your dog for over 2 months so I know this is not for everyone.

Just to give you an idea of how frequent it would be here’s the schedule from Shakira, she’s retired but I did back to back litters. Puppies were born:

  • August 18, 2014
  • March 15, 2015
  • September 25, 2015

So if Shakira was in a guardian home I would want her here with us August 10-Sept 29

Then she would go back to the guardian home with a few short visits and return to us again just a little over 5 months later and be gone March 8-April 26

Then she would go back to the guardian home with a few short visits and return to us again Sept 18-Nov 6

This schedule is just an example, every dog has a different schedule but I want to give you as much information as possible so you can decided if that schedule would work for you and your family.

If you have a male dog in your home now this would NOT be a good fit and I will ask you to contact me regarding a pet only and not a guardian dog. I would not place an intact female in a home with a male even if he is neutered and my concern is his behavior once the female is in heat. I would assume you would not be happy if your boy started peeing in your house. I also think if you have young children in your home this may be difficult as the dog will be gone for 8 weeks, three different times, which can be tough on a child that has bonded and might even sleep with the dog. I also get a lot of responses from those working at Amazon but you cannot bring an intact female in to the office once she has reached sexual maturity it would create a huge distraction in an office full of dogs. The best place for our girl would be somewhere she has a human home with her and no other dogs in the house.

Still think you’d be a good fit? Great! You would pay a deposit equal to the cost of a puppy so this is not a free dog INITIALLY however you will receive your deposit back with each litter with additional financial compensation as well. So it does take about 3 years to receive your money back, this is not immediate as she doesn’t even have her first litter until she is about 2 years old. Puppy will have 3 litters and then I will pay to have her spayed at the amazing place we took Shakira (recovery was AMAZING) and by 4 years old she will be 110% YOUR DOG with many years of life to enjoy. We’d love to see her again if you travel but there would be no obligation to bring her back to our house if that doesn’t work with your plans.

There are definitely more details to discuss. Please contact me if you are within 20 miles of 98012 and want more information! Thanks

 

Shakira Has Gone Off To College!

01 Oct

Shakira is all grown up and has moved to Seattle for new adventures. I like to think of it as going off to college. We love this little girl dearly but she’s outgrown our boring lifestyle,  at home all the time out in the burbs and she is ready for new adventures. Shakira has done amazing with the training we have done with Anna from Paws With No Flaws as well as Zoom Room and she is a fantastic mommy but she’s retired from breeding and is looking for a little ME time. As we have added to our pack we could tell she was feeling unhappy and started the process of finding guardian homes for the younger pack members, Fergie and Rihanna. I have mentioned my friend Karen in at least one previous post and you have probably seen her posting and sharing on our Facebook page because she has been over to visit every litter of puppies we’ve ever had. Karen and her spouse Katy had 2 adorable Cocker Spaniel boys for over 10 years that passed due to natural causes and they have been without a dog for over a year and were ready to add to their family. While discussing the possibility of caring for either Fergie or Rihanna, our trainer Anna came over for another session and based on what she saw (and how well she knows our pack) she said she felt the best fit would be for Shakira to be in a home where she was the only dog. We discussed other options because letting go of my first puppy EVER didn’t feel like much of an option but in the end we decided to go with what is best for her and not me.

Shakira started going over to Karen and Katy’s home in Seattle on September 2nd for just a weekend at first and then a longer weekend and we just gradually increased the time. I felt relief and joy to see how happy she is at their home and honestly a little pain and heartache that my girl is happier in another home. I started to worry that I wasn’t a good dog mom but I do recognize that just like humans, every dog is different with a unique personality and needs. To be honest I felt a positive shift at home with the other dogs as well; now we have Beyonce and her baby and JLo and her baby. Shakira still comes to visit often, sometimes just for a day if her new mommies have work that will take them away from home and we’ve been able to have a few overnights too. This is a tough situation but I tried to put her needs before mine.


I have gone over to Shakira’s new house and must say…it is FANTASTIC! It really does feel like she’s gone off to college. Before I met Andru I lived in downtown Seattle, maybe 5 blocks from Pike Place Market and I loved it. The city has so much to do! She lives in Fremont and has a private rooftop deck for sunbathing and/or people watching. She has gone kayaking and boating and it turns out she loves going to bars (see, I told you it is like she went off to college). 


She has graduated from Agility level 1 at Zoom Room and will move on the level 2. 


She is going to take swimming lessons, although I think she was happy to jump in the lake without any lessons while kayaking, and her new mommies are going to take her through the program to work as a therapy dog visiting senior homes. Shakira’s other mommies work from home so she is not alone during the day and they’ve even got her set up with her own Facebook account (again, COLLEGE GIRL…..look out!). My heart feels good with this choice. For my Shakira families, please know that she WILL be at the reunion in 2 weeks and future reunions as well. Just like the young adult that moves away and goes off to college, she will stay a part of our pack in our hearts even if she only visits on occasion.

I have a shared album (my puppy families know all about the shared album – love it) and Karen has already added 53 photos. 


I want to post every single one but I’ll keep it to a few so you will give her a like and follow her on Facebook!

This is new to us and I still have a hard time talking about it or even writing about it without crying. Before sharing on the website I wanted to tell Thom, Shakira’s (retired) breeder and human grandpa and the person that allowed me to start this whole adventure. Thom said “GREAT JOB on placement! I know it’s hard but look at those smiles”, I sent him several of the pics from Karen’s album. He was also happy to say – “we can now say one of our dogs went kayaking” which made me smile! And the words I needed to hear….”I enjoy your updates and I am always proud of you”.

 

 

Our Experience Getting Shakira Spayed

01 Oct

Before we had doodles, I had one other dog, Apple, and when it was time to have her spayed I took her to the local humane society in Bellevue. The price was low and I assumed that since their specialty is dogs they would probably be experts and the best place to go. I don’t want to post a review of that experience but I will say it was bad.

We have a private Facebook group for our families and while no one has posted about a BAD experience, I also did not see any posts of a GOOD experience. I was getting worried as we got closer to the time to get Shakira spayed. I researched an ovary sparing spay (OSS) and went to a $150 consultation with a surgeon.I liked the idea of keeping the dog’s ovaries because I felt like it would be beneficial for the dog’s health but I just didn’t have a good feeling about the surgeon that I met.

I started to feel nervous. I didn’t want Shakira to have another heat cycle however I also didn’t want to settle on a surgery or surgeon that I wasn’t totally comfortable with. I spoke to one of my families and found out they actually had an AMAZING experience but didn’t want to post about it because the cost was higher than the average spay. I believe the average cost to get a female spayed is around $200 and neutering a male is a little less. The great experience that my family had was at a place call Animal Hospital of Newport Hills which is in Newcastle….about an hour each way from our house. I went to Yelp to check out their reviews and they were mixed so I decided to make an appointment and check it out for myself. Round trip for this was about 2 hours of my day but I wanted my girl to have a good experience because ultimately that means you too will have a good experience. No one wants to be up all night worrying about a sick family member.

My experience with Animal Hospital of Newport was great and if you are able to get their office then I would suggest considering making the trip. Our surgeon was Aspen Davidoff and I requested her because she also did my grandbaby’s surgery however I’m sure all of their Drs are great. What I think really made a difference was the laser option that they offer instead of a traditional scalpel (there was an additional fee) and the option to have an IV of fluids during the surgery. GET THIS IV!! There was an additional fee, I cannot remember the breakdown but it was something like maybe $30-40 extra. I encourage you to do a google search on the benefits of an IV during surgery.

Shakira as spayed on July 27th and we were sent home with medication to help sedate her if she had a hard time settling down and also a mild pain medication similar to use taking a Tylenol for pain, soreness and swelling. I did not need to give her the medication for sedation because she was really fine. She had a line about an inch long on her abdomen but no visible stitches and nothing that I had to clean. I put her in a baby onesie the first two nights to make sure she did not lick but she was only interested in her front leg where the IV was; I think maybe she had a razor burn or it just itched. Other than licking that front leg, we had no complications and no down time. This was an amazing experience! Shakira was supposed to avoid stairs for a week and we tried our best to carry her upstairs when we went to bed and keep her calm but she obviously felt great. I felt incredibly nervous before the procedure and cried when I dropped her off but everything went fantastic and I will definitely make the trip for my other girls when it is time.

We went to the office for a consultation and we did a blood panel for a cost of $129.50 and then when she had her surgery the bill was $402.10 so total I spent $531.60. The experience was priceless.

If this location does not work for you then I would suggest requesting the IV fluids during the procedure – I think that really helped a lot and if you search online it seems to be pretty routine for human surgery.

 

 

JLo/Koa Puppies Are 3 Weeks Old

15 Jul

Puppies were 3 weeks old on Thursday July 14 and will be moving downstairs in the next few days and starting litter box training. I post everyday on snapchat and move to YouTube but thought I’d add to my website. I’m sorry we do not have any puppies available and will not until Spring 2017 when we do a repeat of this litter. 

Here are pictures of the green collar boy. He was 1 pound 10 ounces…


Here is the blue collar boy. He was 2 pounds 2 ounces 


Here is the purple collar girl, she was one pound 6.7 ounces 


Here is the red collar girl, she was 1 pound 10.4 ounces 


Here is the yellow collar boy, he was 1 pound 9.1 pounces 


And here is the black collar boy, he was 1 pound 5.8 ounces 

JLo/Koa Puppies Are 4 Days Old

This gallery contains 36 photos.

We started taking JLo’s temperature on Tuesday of last week to get an idea of when she would go in to labor. On Tuesday she was 99.9 which is on the low end of normal however Wednesday night she was 98.6 which had me concerned because a drop to 98 usually means labor within 24 […]

JLo is expecting 5 Puppies

22 Jun

We took JLo in to see Dr Raja on Friday for an X-ray and he said she should have 4-5 puppies but he feels pretty confident that it is 5. She is due right around Monday June 27th but I’ll update once puppies arrive. We are excited!!! 

Beyonce Is Take A Break and We Currently Have 2 Available Puppies

04 Jun

*** UPDATE – the two puppies pictured above have gone home and we do not have puppies at this time however I believe we will have one JLo/Koa puppy available to go home in late August, they are due in just a few days.

Shakira is now retired! Not “officially” since she still has puppies here at the house, they will be 8 weeks old on Tuesday so she’s still assisting me with their care but she’s close.  I haven’t decided on an appropriate gift for retirement because massages and diamonds have no value to a dog and she gets bones and treats all the time. I’m open to suggestions to if you think of something let me know.

Beyonce will have one more litter and she will also be retired. I had originally planned for her final litter to be in October, going home in December however I have decided to give her a break and skip a heat cycle. My vet does a full blood panel on our moms after puppies are born and before we breed them the next time and every time our results have been great, very healthy dogs! Our girls are still very young, Beyonce just turned 3 years old on May 20th and she has already had 3 litters, her first was born December 14, 2014 when she was 1 yr, 7 months old). I’m basing my decision on Shakira’s final litter which was tough on our little girl and she ended up spending the night in the ER on Mother’s Day. After discussing with our regular vet, Dr Raja from Finn Hill Animal Hospital and the vets we worked with at Veterinary Specialty Center of Seattle, there was nothing that we did wrong, no indication prior to puppies that this would happen and the only improvement that was suggested was to do a 2nd blood test when puppies were 2 weeks old since Shakira had such a large litter. The issue was that the nursing puppies were taking all of her calcium which resulted in eclampsia (eclampsia is different in humans). If we had not been home and caught the early signs when we did, eclampsia can be fatal in dogs, which obviously was scary and very upsetting to us! If we have another large litter we will definitely do a second blood test. All of the veterinarians that we spoke with agreed that Beyonce is healthy, based on exams and lab work, and it is fine to breed her with this next cycle but I’ve always said these wonderful animals are our pets FIRST and this is more of a passion project than a job, I actually have a FT job and have worked for my employer for 13 years so this isn’t something that I do to pay the mortgage. I want to give my girl a break; she gives me so much joy, I want to be sure I’m keeping her best interest in mind. Females dogs can safely have puppies up to 6 years old so I’m going to breed Beyonce for her final litter when she goes in to heat in March 2017 which will mean a due date of approximately May 28 with puppies going home July 23, 2017. I realize this is 13 months away and red minis are VERY hard to find but we are using Beyonce’s son Koa with JLo so there is a good chance we will have more reds in our future. I am sorry to disappoint people but I hope you will understand my reason.

 

Beyoncé/Chewy puppies are 8 weeks old today

01 May

I feel like I say this with every litter but wow, the time has flown by! Beyonce’s puppies are 8 weeks old today and it is time for them to head out to be with their families. Now that my litters are reserved so far in advance I haven’t been very good at updating my “available puppies” page since I actually don’t have any puppies available but since I’ll be doing a repeat breeding with the two dogs I wanted to show these cuties off.


What Is The Best Dog Bed

20 Mar

  
I made new covers today! Sunday fun day!

I’ve been asked about our dog beds a lot and wanted to share my tip to having the best dog bed. I buy ours at Fred Meyer around Christmastime for maybe $25 per bed but I feel any bed will work the secret really is the garbage bag inside and the homemade cover. 

Inside of the beds, the stuffing, is kept together in a fairly flimsy mesh type of pillow case but as long as the stuffing is kept in some type of case it will work. Take the case out and put a large, yard waste size heavy duty trash bag around the stuffing or “guts” of your dog’s bed – our beds are large enough that I end up using two bags. This way if there is ever a situation like an accidental pee, throw up, etc you aren’t scrambling to salvage your bed from absorbing the smell/liquid. Now put the store bought cover back on the bed, this is almost always washable and I do wash ours from time to time. I go to goodwill and buy a twin size flat sheet for around $3 and make another cover to go over the original and see a few strips of Velcro at the top to close it up (that part is optional). This keeps the dogs from chewing at the bed to get the stuffing out and makes it easy to clean up when I give them marrow bones which can be very messy (a little bloody even) or if JLo brings some of her raw food over to her bed to eat. Beyonce unexpectedly had her last litter on the dog beds and everything washed out just fine. The only reason I replaced the covers today is these were about 2 years old and I bought some bones from Chewy dot com that were a little greasy and the spots on the cover looked like pee spots when they were caught on video or in pictures (especially the darker pink on the right in the before pic). These covers should last you for awhile, they really increase the life of the dog bed and the ability to clean the bed. Many visitors have commented that our house doesn’t smell like dog and I think that is mostly the raw food diet but I’m sure frequently washing their beds helps too. Don’t buy a white sheet because you’ll be surprised how dirty it will get and the reason I get the twin size is because it is less work for me because I’m not very good at sewing. 

Also…don’t be disappointed if your dogs prefer the cold, hard floor instead of a nice fluffy bed. That happens a lot here! 😃