Available Dogs

adoption pending: Brioche

Broiche service dog

Hard to believe little Brioche has grown from a 1 lb. newborn to a now 23 lb.+ 3 1/2 month old puppy. She has moved from her home of origin to join her puppy raiser to get the 1:1 attention necessary to learn her manners, continue on the realm of socialization, fun, rest, structure, training and adventures.

This mini me of her father Tito is and always has been the largest of the litter and adult weight projections, while still guesstimates due to her mixed heritage of 1/2 poodle, 1/4 English Springer Spaniel and 1/4 Old English Sheepdog, are 60-70 pounds. It may be more.

Brioche is sweet, calm, gentle, loving, fun loving, well mannered, calm and easy to be around. Everyone she meets is struck by her calm and loving demeanor. She’s also very attractive and has inherited from her poodle genes the non shedding coat.

She is social to both people and other dogs and has, in her short life, already had so many adventures. Puppy yoga at 8 weeks old, visiting babies and toddlers at a Public Library Reading Time, as well as a variety of visits with her puppy raiser.

Brioche possesses the skills that would make her a suitable partner for a variety of settings. Her calm and social nature would make her effective for both individual service dog work (for adult or adolescent) as well as a therapeutic setting (nursing home, funeral home)

If you want an all around fabulous young dog to change your life, and get the professional support to ensure a most favorable partnership, and to see if she’s the right make and model for you or someone you love, please let us know 

Serious inquiries only. Click here for sample contract. 

Please send your inquiry via our contact us form.

Brioche playing in the leaves

Brioche 8 weeks old with siblings

The Service Dog Prospects of 2023 - 2024

Follow along as we update the journey of Pinto’s Puppies. As the puppies continue to develop, I will be assessing their strengths, weaknesses, energy levels, intelligence, biddability and all the other things I observe that let me know not only if the puppy has the temperament suitable for the service dog realm, but that they are successfully partnered with the right match to ensure the easiest and most successful adventure of service dog training.

If you are interested in learning more about service dog training, please CONTACT US.

September 14 UPDATE:

The Fab Four are 6 1/2 weeks old and doing fabulously. So we thought we’d reveal their current status and share a little update.

Two males (Rye and Nickel), two females (Brioche and Poppy). All four pups are active, healthy, robust, social, inquisitive, gentle, calm, intelligent and developing increased physical skills daily. They have already begun learning basic manners, have been introduced to a crate they comfortably go in and out of on their own. They have been exposed to a wide variety of sights, sounds, scents and surfaces. (e.g, vacuuming right next to them as they eat breakfast to condition them to sounds of life in homes). They are beginning potty training, they come when called, and are now fully participating in DIPs after it is gauged safe for them to enter the fray. They are confident and curious, cuddly and collectively cute.

We’re planning some upcoming activities (including introductions to some potential partners, puppy yoga and a visit to toddler library time as well as a first vet visit). We are still taking serious inquiries for those that might be interested (scroll below for our sample service dog contract) as not all pups are spoken for at this writing.

August 24 UPDATE:

The puppies are now 3 weeks and one day old. Plumping up, eyes and ears open, learning how to use their legs, play with their siblings, navigate through their living space, nurse vigorously when offered by their mother and begin expanding on their personalities that have revealed themselves during this critical early puppy development.

We are sad to announce that we lost our second little one, Bialy, at 3 weeks of age from Fading puppy Syndrome. He was much smaller than the remaining and robust and healthy four — Rye (m), Brioche (f), Nickel (m) and Poppy (f) — and suddenly on Tuesday began to quickly deteriorate. Despite best efforts — getting him hydrated, keeping him warm, bottle feeding  and cuddling him, Bialy peacefully passed away in the early afternoon of Wednesday, Aug. 23. Deaths of puppies in a litter are not uncommon but nevertheless heartbreaking.

My fascinating of dog behavior starts early and I’m going to share a little video clip of each puppy and revealing my observation of their personality differences. We’ll see how these bear out as the next two weeks will be an explosion of firsts.

August 11 UPDATE:

As promised, we are excited to announce the news coming out from Camp A Better Pet. Pinto, my 2 1/2 year old Springerdoodle (1/2 English Springer, 1/2 Standard Poodle), gave birth in the wee hours of August 2nd to a litter of puppies. This breeding was  designed to produce intelligent, loving, biddable and sociable medium large puppies. The litter are 1/2 poodle, 1/4 English Springer and 1/4 Sheepdog which we are calling Olde English Shpringerdoodles. We expect them to range between 60-70 pounds, have non shedding coats, and be a mix of active and cuddly. They are showing some personality differences but the coming weeks will helps us more deeply understand the sort of partnerships we make here for people using dogs to help overcome or mitigate challenges to life — mental, medical and physical challenges. 

Here’s a little video introducing these now 9 day old pups.

This group are sure to pique the interests of some individuals interested in the full service dog package (raising/ training/ socializing/placing and supporting x 6 months).  We are still early on in their development.

If you are interested in learning more about service dog training, please CONTACT US.

Service Dog Contract: Click below to view our sample Service Dog Training contact.
Training Contract

Service Dogs
2022 - 2023

Shamrock and Pinto, the current canine support team of A Better Pet, have been the main supports to guide Radish and Wren (both born in January of 2022) during the critical youth stages of development — puppyhood and early adolescence. Both pups, now 18 months old and demonstrating regularly how much their early head start was the right foundation to create such a supportive partnership. They were a blast to raise and so proud of how they are helping out in ways with their people that could only unfold as they moved out and on (but come back for visits!)