Meet your next best friend.
Looking for a friendly, well-trained puppy? You’ve found the right place.
At Schaffer Goldendoodles, our mission is to provide friendly, quality, well-adapted goldendoodles to loving families. We’re located in Central Illinois, and many of our families come from Chicago & the suburbs. However, we are willing to work with people across the country.
We’re the Schaffers.
We raise healthy & happy goldendoodles in central Illinois.
We both grew up in the Bloomington-Normal, Illinois area and continue to call it our home. We have been married since 2017, and so far, our dogs are our only "babies." Our dogs are Mya (Golden Retriever), Sophie (Goldendoodle, Spring 2020 litter), Theo (Moyen-sized Poodle), and Haven (Goldendoodle, Summer 2021 Litter). Mya, Sophie, and Haven are the moms of our litters and Theo is the dad. Theo is also available for stud service. Trevor is a farmer & electrician, and Katrina is a teacher.
Meet our dogs.
Learn more about the parents & their puppies.
What we call the “Schaffer Goldendoodle Experience”:
We provide daily pictures and videos of your puppy from birth to the day you take him/her home
We provide you ongoing communication and are willing to answer questions and prepare you for puppy ownership
We provide extensive socialization to people (including children) and dogs during your puppy’s time with us
We provide neurological stimulation and desensitization to a variety of objects, surfaces, noises, and situations during your puppy’s critical socialization period
We work with your puppy to promote early potty training and crate training
We invite you to meet our adult dogs, the litter of puppies, and the environment they are raised in during your scheduled “puppy picking” visit
We treat your puppy as an extension of our family while they are being raised by us
We invite you into a lifetime of connection and community with other Schaffer Goldendoodle families through a private Facebook group and get-togethers
How we raise puppies as home breeders:
Good genetics and early socialization
Do you want a puppy that is well on its way to being potty trained, learns healthy habits for getting attention and teething/chewing, and easily “bounces back” from scary or new situations rather than becoming aggressive or withdrawn? The key to this is two-fold: good genetics and early intervention in socialization/training.
Good Genetics
Goldendoodles are a mix of two incredible breeds: Golden Retrievers and Poodles. Both of these breeds are known for their intelligence, friendliness, trainability, affection, devotion, and a moderate energy level. They make exceptional companions and family dogs.
In addition to the mix of these breeds being an excellent choice in general, our parent dogs have wonderful temperaments. A huge reason we started breeding is because we are convinced that Mya (our Golden Retriever whose bloodline is the starting point of our breeding program) is the most amazing dog in the whole world. Our dogs are eager to please, have low fear and aggression, and are everything we could have dreamed of when it comes to having great dogs. We love that these temperaments are being passed down to the puppies we breed and we get to “share” our dogs with the world!
Early Socialization
Did you know that scientists have identified a puppy's critical window for socialization to be between 3-12 weeks old? That means that we as breeders have the great blessing and responsibility to provide approximately 5 weeks of critical formation of your puppy's levels of fear, anxiety, and aggression towards people, dogs, objects, and situations that will leave a permanent imprint for the rest of its life. We are using the major elements of what is called the "Puppy Culture method" for breeders, which includes early neurological stimulation, desensitization to different objects/surfaces/noises/etc., and early potty training. This will set your puppy up for a lifetime of success. We want you to know that we don't take that responsibility lightly and we are so thankful that you have put your faith in us as breeders to provide you a happy, healthy, furry family member!
Baxter & Bella Membership
We recommend all of our puppy families to buy the Baxter & Bella Online Puppy School Lifetime Membership. It includes a course called “Preparing for my Puppy” that covers what items to buy, how to prep your house, how to work on crate training and potty training, and much, much more! Click here to find out more.