Who We Are
I began showing dogs in the 1970's. My breed of choice then was English Springer Spaniels under the name of Roustabout. When my daughter, Rebecca, graduated from college she wanted a dog to show in obedience and agility and thought it would be fun that mom and daughter would show a breed together. Thus my "New Journey" began into poodles and the return to showing in conformation and performance events. Ready, an apricot miniature male was our first poodle and he became a Champion in conformation for me and has also earned his MACH 2 title in agility with Rebecca. When I started to look for my next poodle, I met Tim Garrison and David Williams from Eaglehill Poodles in New Haven, CT, and waited for 2 years for my next poodle addition. Tim and David have bred 40 black miniature champions to date. Journey, a black miniature, joined us and completed her Championship from the puppy class, owner-handled also.
Today, Tim, and I continue to co-own black miniature poodles, along with Handi Skorich, from Indianapolis, and together we have some very beautiful miniature poodles that are shown in Conformation, Agility, and Obedience. All of our girls are OFA for hips, elbows, Legg Perthes and patellas and have regular CERF eye exams and are Optigen tested for PRA (Progressive Retinal Atrophy). Certifications can be found on OFA database www.offa.org. Just search by Eaglehill name.
Handi, Tim and I co-breed together to allow us to keep just a few dogs with each of us as our housepets first and our showdogs second, and our poodles do not live in a kennel situation ever. Which is the way we feel is appropriate for our poodles to be raised.
We do not place any of our poodles until they are 10 weeks of age. We find that they need that extra few weeks here to have a wonderful start on housebreaking and sleeping through the night. I start housebreaking them at around 5 weeks old to all weather conditions and start clicker training to sit, down, come and spin at 7 weeks - this is to evaluate for possible performance prospects. Usually by 8 weeks we have chosen what we are keeping for our next show prospect and what will be available for placement. Our puppies are on spay/neuter contracts only and are not for breeding ever. We spend an incredible amount of time working with our litters so that they find just the right homes that they fit into.
I keep our website very current - so I always tell people they can check as often as they like. I post the date on top of page when I last updated my webpages also. I am starting something a bit different with the litters being born here in Charleston, SC and that is to keep in touch using my computer and SKYPE to communicate. Skype is the video conferencing program that you see many times on television. This will allow the people who are not near to me, to see the puppies much more - as I can connect with them and let them see the puppies live and we can talk for free.
Poodles are the most wonderful housepets a person could ask for - just ask us.
