A Little Bit About Us
A Little About Us
Hi! We’re Gregg and Laura McClelland, and McClelland Doodles is our small, family-run breeding program here in Gastonia, North Carolina.
Our love for Goldendoodles started with our very first doodle, Allie, who joined our family in 2010. Laura grew up with Golden Retrievers and always loved their sweet, loyal personalities, so when we discovered Goldendoodles, it felt like such a good fit for our family.
Allie was smart, loving, easy to train, and just an all-around wonderful family dog. She grew up right alongside our two children, Madison and Jackson, and she is really the reason McClelland Doodles ever began.
We were blessed to have her for almost 15 years, and she will always be such a special part of our story. We hope her sweet spirit lives on in all of McClelland Doodle puppies. :)
Life Around Here
We live on several acres with a pond, and there is usually some kind of animal activity happening around here besides the dogs. Over the years we’ve had ducks, chickens, goats, cats, and plenty of other little visitors around the “farm.”
Our two children are grown now, but they’ve been part of this from the beginning. Laura’s parents also live right next door and have joined in the puppy fun over the years too.
Our adult dogs either live here with us or with carefully chosen guardian families, where they are first and foremost loved family pets.
It’s definitely not fancy around here, but it’s home, and we really enjoy the life we’ve built with our family and animals.
How We Raise Our Puppies
We intentionally keep our program small enough that we can really be involved with each litter.
We don’t want to simply care for puppies as a group. We love getting to know them individually and watching their little personalities start to come out. Some are cuddly, some are adventurous, some are more laid back, and there’s usually at least one that keeps everybody laughing.
Our puppies are raised in our home and are handled, loved on, socialized, and introduced to different sights, sounds, surfaces, and everyday experiences as they grow.
We also use many of the ideas from the Puppy Culture program, which focuses on age-appropriate socialization, problem solving, confidence building, and helping puppies learn how to handle new experiences.
During the puppies’ first couple of weeks, we also incorporate Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS)—a short series of gentle exercises done during a specific developmental window. It’s just one small part of the early foundation we try to give our puppies, along with plenty of normal handling, care, and socialization.
You can read more about Puppy Culture here.
We put a lot of thought into health, temperament, genetics, and the pairings we choose. Our parent dogs receive genetic and coat testing through companies such as Embark or Paw Print Genetics, and we work closely with our veterinarian to help keep our dogs and puppies healthy.
Our goal isn’t to create a “perfect” puppy. Our goal is to give each puppy the best start we can and a strong foundation before they leave for their new homes.
Families are also welcome to contact our veterinary hospital as a reference:
Lineberger Veterinary Hospital
704-824-8451
Helping Families Learn About Their Puppies
One of our favorite parts of what we do is getting to know the families who come to us.
Bringing home a puppy is a big decision, and we want families to have as much helpful information as possible when it’s time to choose.
As the puppies grow, we pay close attention to their personalities and also do temperament evaluations before puppy selections. We’re happy to share what we’ve observed about each puppy—their energy level, confidence, play style, and other little personality traits that begin to show as they grow.
Of course, puppies are still very young when they leave us, and their personalities will continue to develop. Training, consistency, socialization, routine, and their experiences in their new home all play a very important role in the dog they become.
Our goal is simply to give families another helpful piece of information as they make their own puppy selection.
And we always love getting updates after they go home.
Some of “our” puppies are now grown dogs we’ve been able to watch through pictures and stories for years, and that is pretty special to us. We’ve even had some of our McClelland Doodle families come back for family romps here on the property.
Why We Do It
There’s a lot of work that goes into raising puppies well, but there’s also a lot of joy in it.
We’re there from birth through go-home day, which means we spend a lot of time feeding, cleaning, cuddling, observing, introducing new experiences, and simply being with the puppies.
And yes, we get attached!
Go-home day is always exciting, but it can be a little bittersweet too. When you’ve watched a puppy be born and cared for it every day for eight weeks, it’s hard not to.
But we also love seeing the excitement on a family’s face when they finally get to take their puppy home.
At the end of the day, we’re not trying to be the biggest breeding program. We just want to raise healthy, happy, well-loved puppies that we’re proud to send home.
We hope families can feel that these puppies mattered to us before they ever became theirs.
We’re very thankful for the families who trust us with such a big decision, and we never take that responsibility lightly.
— Laura & Gregg McClelland
