A small program with a long view
We were raised by dogs. Now we raise them. This is the story of how we got here, who we are, and what we're building on the banks of the Black Warrior River.
It started with Newfoundlands in Ohio
Long before Black Warrior Doodles, there was Shekinah... my parents' Newfoundland kennel in Kinsman, Ohio, and later just outside Warren. Through the 1970s and 80s they bred and showed Newfoundlands across the United States and Canada, finishing multiple champions and producing dogs whose pedigrees still surface in the breed today.
The names came from scripture, but the dogs were family. Shekinah's Parting of the Sea was Partin around the house. Shekinah's Heavenword Bound was Bounder. My mother's favorites were Sheiba and Urchin... Urchin was a premadonna with show-ring presence and structure judges remember, finished in both the US and Canada, and a producer of exceptional puppies for years after.
I grew up in dog show parking lots. Long drives that felt like forever in the back of the car as a five-year-old, weekends spent watching my dad or our handler walk our dogs around the ring in sport coats and elbow patches. The smell of the dog food, the chalk on the white markings, the quiet between rounds. There were always four or five adult dogs underfoot at home, and a litter of puppies coming or going. You learn what good structure looks like before you have the words for it. You learn what a balanced temperament feels like. You learn that breeding is a calling, not a hobby.
My mother is still in Ohio, in Lyndhurst. My father passed three years ago. The dogs they raised together shaped both of us in ways I'm still discovering.
Why doodles, why Alabama
Newfoundlands are not built for the deep south. The heat would shorten an already-too-short life, and we wouldn't ask that of a dog. So when Dana and I started thinking about a dog of our own, we looked elsewhere... and like a lot of families, we ended up at doodles.
We're both neat freaks. We didn't want fur in every corner of the house. Goldendoodles caught our eye first, then Bernedoodles, and we spent months interviewing breeders within a two-hundred-mile radius of Tuscaloosa. We weren't looking for a starter dog. We were looking for the right dog.
Finding Arnold
We drove up to a litter outside Huntsville to look at a different puppy. We came home with Arnold.
He was the standout immediately. Boxy and thick, just the right kind of lazy, content to be held while every other puppy in the litter squirmed to be put down. I think I had him in my arms the entire visit. We put a deposit on him before we left.
He's grown into exactly what we hoped. No grooming issues, no potty training issues, no behavioral issues. He's gentle ninety percent of the time, and he knows how to play when it's time to play. He spends his days going between Dana's feet and mine depending on what room we're in, and he's perfectly capable of finding a cool tile floor in another room when he wants quiet.
We didn't set out to start a breeding program. But living with Arnold made us realize the kind of dog he is shouldn't end with him.
The promises we're building on
We wrote these down before we had a single litter, so we'd never be tempted to cut a corner later.
Health before everything
Every parent in our program will complete full OFA orthopedic, cardiac, eye, and genetic testing before being bred, with results documented and shared openly. Every puppy will go home with their own Embark panel. If the results aren't right, we won't breed. Full stop.
Raised in our home
Every puppy will be born and raised underfoot with early enrichment and gentle socialization, never in a kennel, never as a product.
Families for life
Every dog we place will come with a lifetime of breeder support, a written health guarantee, microchips registered to our program, and an open door. We'll take a dog back at any age, for any reason, always.
Honest, always
No hype, no rare-color upcharges, no promises we can't keep. We'll tell you what we can't guarantee as plainly as what we can.
Patient by design
Good dogs can't be rushed. We're planning years ahead so every pairing will be intentional and every family will know what to expect.
Building in the open
We share what we learn in the Journal, the wins and the homework alike, so families can make confident, informed choices when the time comes.
The people, and the dog, behind it
Doug
I grew up in northeastern Ohio in a house that always had four or five Newfoundlands and a litter of puppies somewhere in the mix. My parents bred under the Shekinah name through the 70s and 80s, and most of what I know about dogs I learned by osmosis... watching them work, watching the handlers, watching the dogs themselves develop from week-old whelps into finished show dogs.
After forty-eight years in Ohio, I moved to Tuscaloosa to be with Dana. I was here for a week the first time I came down to visit, and by the last few days I was looking at houses. Sweet Home Alabama indeed.
I work from home on a few different projects, which means I spend most of every day within a few feet of Arnold. That's how it'll be with every dog we raise here.
Dana
Dana and I met three years ago, on a golf course in Wisconsin.
I was working for a luxury golf brand at the time, and Dana was a customer at one of our events. We were paired together in a foursome on the final day of a three-day tournament. Late in the round she gathered everyone for a group photo... and used the moment to slip me her phone number under the pretense of needing mine to send the picture along. Smooth.
Dana grew up with whatever dog wandered onto her family's front porch. She and her father always had a few in the house, and long before she met me she was fostering dogs from the local animal shelter. Since we bought our home in Tuscaloosa in 2024, we've fostered together. The breeding side of this program is my family's heritage, but the day-to-day work of raising puppies will be something we do as partners.
Arnold
Arnold is the reason this program exists. Foundation sire, full-time companion, occasional couch hog. You'll find his story on the Our Dogs page, where we'll be documenting every step of his health testing and breeding journey.
We have the time, and we love dogs. That's where it starts. But more than that... I was trained from childhood on what to look for in a dog's temperament and structure, on what responsible breeding actually requires, on the long arc of a well-bred litter. Watching my parents do that work for decades shaped me.
Black Warrior Doodles is a little bit of a legacy play. It's also going to be a lot of fun, and genuinely rewarding work. Every puppy we eventually raise will become someone's companion for the next twelve to fifteen years. There aren't many things you can build that matter quite that much, quite that personally.
We're not in a hurry. We didn't rush Arnold, and we won't rush this. If you found us early, you found us at exactly the right time.