Policies & Procedures
GETTING ON A WAITLIST
After submitting an application, you will be notified if you are accepted to join the waiting list. We may email you with follow up questions before approving your application as well. You will have 3 days to submit your application fee via Zelle to secure your spot on the list. We accept applications on a rolling basis but do stop taking them at a certain point. If you do not submit an application fee within 3 days, we cannot guarantee we will still have a spot available for you on our list. The application fee goes toward the total purchase price of your puppy.The remaining balance will be due on selection day when puppies are 5-6 weeks old. Once your application fee is received, you will be placed on the waitlist. We add to the waitlist in the order we receive application fees.
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APPLICATION FEE
The application fee is $300. It is non-refundable and goes toward the total purchase price of your puppy. It can be submitted via Zelle and you will receive further instructions regarding what number to send it to when your application is approved.
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RESERVING A PUPPY BY COLOR/GENDER
We take note if you request a specific gender or color, but we do not fill spots on our waiting list based on those factors. On multiple occasions we have had families sign up wanting a specific color or gender who then come out on selection day and fall in love with a dog completely different than what they anticipated. We want everyone to leave with the pup they bond with most and not limiting you to the color or gender you originally requested is the best way for us to do this. See the section titled "choosing to pass on a litter" for more information.
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CHOOSING TO PASS ON A LITTER
In order to be fair to everyone on the waiting list, it is our policy that each family will get two "free passes" on litters without affecting waiting list position. On the third time a family chooses to pass, the family will move to the bottom of the waiting list. This does NOT apply to families who get on the list with a specific future time frame in mind. For example, if you submit an application fee to get on the list today for a puppy in the spring of 2023, you will not be counted as having "passed" on a litter until spring of 2023. You will use one of your passes if you choose to pass on a litter due to there not being a specific color or gender available.
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WHILE YOU'RE WAITING TO BE CONTACTED/WHEN YOU WILL BE CONTACTED
Families on our list can request the password to our "waiting list" page to keep an eye on where they are at on the list! We do not contact families before puppies are born, so we suggest watching your name as it nears the top. We don't contact before litters are born because we don't know in advance exactly how many puppies we will be having! We do ultrasounds and x-rays to confirm pregnancies, but counts are often off by 1-2 puppies (either more or less than expected). We would hate to email you, have you expect to get a pup, and end up having fewer than anticipated.
Similarly, we are working with living beings and some times, unfortunately, things go wrong. Puppies can be stillborn or die in the first few days after birth. For this reason, we wait until approximately 5-10 days after puppies are born to email everyone who is able to get a pup from the litter and announce the number of pups, colors, and genders.
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SPAY/NEUTER & RETURN POLICY
We require that you spay/neuter your pet in order to maintain the purity of the Bernedoodle bloodline and prevent unplanned pregnancies/puppies that have no homes! We also require the dog be kept up to date on vaccines, grooming, and flea and tic preventative. Other than that, we ask that you give your puppy the love and attention he/she deserves, being as good of a person as your dog considers you to be.
If there comes a time when you can no longer care for your pet for whatever reason- email us! We will help find him or her another loving family. We require dogs be returned to us if ever there comes a time you are unable to continue to care for them. We do not guarantee a refund, but we will do our best to help you recoup as much of your purchase price as possible after the pup has found a new home.
To see our full contract, click here.
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VISITORS
We do not allow visitors who are not on our waiting list. We operate out of our home, and minimizing visitors is the best way to protect our house, our family, and our puppies/parent dogs. Additionally, we often have young puppies with immature immune systems on site. The more visitors we have at our home, the more we risk exposing our puppies to viruses and/or bacteria that can make them sick and be detrimental to such young puppies.
If you're on our list, you're welcome to come visit on selection day and, of course, take home day. We cannot accommodate requests to come see your pup on additional days/weekends or requests to come meet the puppies before selection day.
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BREEDER PICK
We reserve the right to retain our choice of up to two puppies from any litter to further our program.
We DO NOT accept offers of extra money in any amount to get first pick from a litter, move up the list, or jump the list all together. Organizing the waiting list in order of reservation fee received is the most fair way we have found to organize our list. We take our commitment to each family on our list seriously and do not think it is in everyone's best interest for us to allow people to move to the top if he/she is able to offer a higher dollar amount than someone else.
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LITTER UPDATES
Once you have been contacted about the birth of your future puppy, follow along on our Instagram (@lonestarbernedoodles) and/or Facebook (Lonestar Bernedoodles). For the first three weeks, this is how we will share pictures and updates. They will primarily be group pictures or random kandid shots of puppies in their natural habitat... aka sleeping or nursing on mom. Once pups turn three weeks old, individual pictures will be uploaded to our website once a week. You will be emailed each time new pictures are uploaded. We do not upload formal individual pictures on selection week because you will be coming or FaceTiming and will see your puppy that way. We also do not upload formal individual pictures at eight weeks old, because you will be picking up your puppy that week.
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ASKING FOR ADDITIONAL PICTURES/VIDEOS
Please do not email, text, or Facebook/Instagram message us asking for more pictures of a litter/your puppy. We understand you are excited and love seeing the pups! We want you to see them, too, and we want you to be kept as up to date as possible. However, raising puppies is A LOT of work. We love it, but our priority is making sure puppies are healthy, growing, and receiving the curriculum we have in place for neurological stimulation/socialization. We are spending time watching puppies to keep them safe, doing our ENS program, doing other handling/exposure exercises for socialization, bottle feeding, cleaning up after the pups, doign puppy laundry, obtaining daily weights, taking care of moms, and monitoring everyone's health. Pictures are an extremely lengthy process because we can't exactly ask the pups to sit still for their photoshoot. Taking individual pictures of a litter of 10 puppies can easily take 3-4 hours, and that's without the process of getting them onto the computer, fixing any lighting issues, and uploading them to the website. While we want you to feel you have received adequate pictures of your pup, our priority is and always will be the physical and emotional well-being of the puppies and moms in our care.
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SELECTION DAY
We host selection day at our home when puppies are 6-7 weeks old. You are welcome to come select your puppy in person. If you are unavailable to come in person, we also offer FaceTime appointments. Each appointment will last for 45 minutes. Appointments are scheduled in order of the waiting list. You are not required to select a puppy if you choose to come to selection day. If you don't connect with a puppy and see him/her fitting into your family, you can still choose to pass and wait for the next litter.
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GOTCHA DAY
Our puppies go home no sooner than eight weeks old. We typically schedule gotcha day on the Saturday after the puppies turn eight weeks old. We will NOT let puppies go home before they turn eight weeks. We believe this is the earliest time it is acceptable for puppies to join their new homes, as they need a full eight weeks with mom and siblings to learn appropriate puppy socialization skills. Additionally, it is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act to sell, trade, or give away a puppy prior to eight weeks of age.
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KEEPING YOUR PUPPY WITH US PAST GOTCHA DAY
We are willing to keep your puppy past gotcha day in unique situations if needed. We will keep your pup with us for one night for free. After that, each night the puppy stays with us is $25. While no lengthy formal training will occur, pups who stay longer will move inside and start sleeping in crates at night, working on potty training, and eating with our adult dogs.
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PRICE CHANGES
If our prices changes after you get on the list, this change does not apply to you.​ We will honor the price quoted to you when you joined the list. The only exception to this is people who use their passes/are on the waiting list for more than one year despite being offered a puppy. If you use both of your passes and are moved to the bottom of the list and have been on the list for a year or more, the updated prices will reflect the price you are required to pay.
We try not to increases prices often, but in the past 1-2 years the price of studs and the price of buying dogs with breeding rights has doubled. We have had to raise our prices some to accommodate the increased cost of producing puppies.
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METHOD OF PAYMENT
We accept payments via Zelle, check or cash.
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STATE TAX
A 6.25% state tax will be added to the total purchase price of every puppy.
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PAYMENTS DUE
If paying via Zelle or with a check, final payment will be due when you come to select your puppy on selection day. If paying cash, final payment must be received by the time you take your puppy home.
Lonestar Bernedoodles
THE FINEST BERNEDOODLES IN TEXAS