We have built a good reputation for producing beautiful, healthy, happy puppies with great temperaments and as such, they tend to be reserved quite far in advance. Occasionally, we might have a puppy available that is a good match for you almost immediately, but usually the wait time will be anywhere from a few months to a year. The more flexible you are with regard to size, colour and other physical attributes, the shorter your wait will be.

The price of our puppies reflects our knowledge, experience, reputation, and quality of the puppies we produce. We’re confident in the quality of our puppies and the service that we provide – many of our clients return for their second and sometimes even a third puppy!

We have a lot invested in our breeding programme – financially and emotionally, not to mention the time and effort we dedicate 365 days a year. We go to great lengths to make our breeding programme the very best it can be.

We do thorough health testing – including DNA and hip/elbow x-rays – on our breeding dogs. And our puppies all go with a health check and certificate from our vet.

Our puppies are raised in the very best facilities which are kept in immaculate condition by our hard-working team. We work around the clock to ensure that our puppies thrive. We use fantastic vets who provides the very best veterinary care. Our mums and puppies receive the very best high-quality food, supplements and preventative healthcare. We spend hours and hours socialising our puppies and preparing them for their adventure in the big wide world. We truly work tirelessly to produce the very best puppies we can.

We provide a very high level of service to our clients during the purchase process, and we’re always here to support clients. All questions are answered to the very best of our abilities, no matter how long ago you collected your puppy from us.

We’ve achieved a 5-star licence from Somerset and West Council recognising the excellent processes and procedures we have in place and the high welfare standards that we achieve.

Our prices are reflective of everything we do. If you are looking to buy a puppy from an alternative breeder, please consider some of the points raised in the many ‘choosing a breeder’ articles available on the web, and consider if they offer everything we do, to help you make an informed decision.

This terminology comes from Poodle size classifications. Dog size is measure from the floor to the top of the dog's shoulder (highest point of the back). Miniature Poodles are 11-15" and Standard Poodles are anything over 15".

Most Cheristone puppies grow up to be 18" or over, meaning they're standard size - which is around knee height or above. It depends on which litter you choose whether they are at the smaller or larger end of this range. Please have a look at the size estimates on the Puppies page - we do have a variety of sizes.

We offer Puppy Reservation Consultations with you by phone (or video call on request), but we don’t offer visits to our home at this stage of the process.

The reservation fee is non-refundable - we view reservation fees as our clients’ commitment that they want to add a Cheristone Doodles puppy to their home and are willing work alongside us until that happens. Non-refundable reservation fees also help people to decide whether adding a puppy to their family is a good decision, prior to their name being added to our list.

After placing your reservation fee you gain immediate access to our resources – Puppy Hub and the Owners’ Community.

By placing a reservation, you have the security of knowing you have a puppy coming, and it enables us to plan litters knowing that homes are secured in advance. We run a structured and well-organised breeding programme and this is very much aligned with that.

After committing to a particular litter, the reservation is non-transferrable unless there aren’t enough puppies born in your chosen litter. This is to enable us to plan litters knowing that we have homes secured in advance, manage other enquiries and availability on our reservation lists.

We’ll send you invoices for all payments which contain the payment options available. We can accept card payment for the initial reservation fee only. The puppy payment and balance can only be accepted via bank transfer. We do not handle cash or cheques. We do not offer any form of credit or payment plan. The payment schedule can be seen on the ‘How it works’ page of the website.

We use knowledge of what colour genes the parents carry make reasonable predictions on what colours that could be expected from a litter. The starting point when considering how many of each sex will be in a litter is that approximately 50% will be boys and 50% will be girls, however this isn’t always the case in practice.

During your initial Puppy Reservation Consultation we’ll discuss your preferences of colour and sex but we do appreciate our clients having a degree of flexibility. If you’re super-focused on attributes such as sex and/or colour – it’s probably better for you to join a reservation list where you can be at or near the top, or where colour is likely to be similar for all the puppies (speak to me during your Puppy Reservation Consultation).

The more flexibility in terms of colour and sex you can work into your expectations, the less likelihood of disappointment, and the more choice of puppies you give yourself. If we can, we’ll let you know once the puppies are born which sex you’ll have available to you. We won’t know which individual puppy/puppies will be available to you until you come for your puppy choosing visit. Families are invited to meet the puppies in order of reservation placed.

It’s just not possible to guarantee how many puppies will be born, what colour or sex they’ll be, or that your first preference will be available for you. Even with absolute best efforts and intentions, when working alongside nature, some things are just beyond our control.

Families are invited to meet mum and puppies when they’re about 5-6 weeks old. I’ll give you advance notice of when I think this will fall, once mum comes into season or has honeymooned, so you can plan your diary and keep the relevant weekend/s free. After the puppies are born, I contact each family and we firm-up the day and time for your visit. This is a private appointment just for your family. Families are invited to meet the puppies in order of reservation placed. To avoid disappointment please don’t fall in love with a particular puppy from the photos provided before your visit!

During your visit you’ll meet and interact with mum and pups, we can discuss the available puppies and their personalities, and you’ll decide which one you’d like to join your family. Occasionally there may be a puppy that may not suit your family so well, and I’ll tell you this.

The visit is 30 minutes long which I’ve found is plenty of time to meet the puppies and make your decision and avoids over-tiring the young puppies.

Not necessarily. The puppy that is the first to run over to you is the one who’s feeling more energetic and social than his siblings at that time. It’s not because he has or is going to develop a special bond and be perfect for you, give it a few hours, a different puppy would come running first! Every one of our puppies is capable of developing a special bond with you as their new family.

I’d like to reassure you that there’s never any particular reason why a puppy is left until last - they’re all happy, healthy, loving puppies and none are ‘better’ than others. Puppies sleep a lot at this age, and it could just be that this puppy was sleepy or relaxed when other families were here, therefore not showing off their personality to full effect! You can see some of the ‘last’ puppies to be chosen on our Owners’ Community and they’re full of personality!

The number of reservation slots per litter is based on a combination of average or previous litter size, and what the pregnancy scan shows. Pregnancy scans on dogs can be complex due to the conformation of the female’s reproductive organs and multiple foetuses. We use experienced sonographers to try to ensure predictions are as accurate as possible, but it’s just not possible to guarantee how many puppies will be born. I wish we could!

I suggest you manage expectations carefully (especially any children’s) to avoid disappointment as we’re at the mercy of nature, and it sometimes doesn’t all go as we’d wish.

Whilst we do our very best, have a Plan B where possible, and manage our clients’ expectations appropriately, sometimes a mother will not conceive, or will have a smaller litter than expected and there’s just nothing we can do about it.

Should there not be enough puppies, we'd work together to move you to a future suitable litter. Should the mother not conceive, we’d try again at her next season. We always appreciate your pragmatism and good spirits in such situations as we don’t like to let you down either.

We encourage you to be patient, as hard as it is, because the few months to a year that you will wait now will be well worthwhile and pay dividends over many years to come with your new family member! You can use the waiting time to educate yourself and your family and get everything organised and prepared for your puppy’s arrival.

Date estimates for puppy births and collections are given on the Puppies page of the website. These are best estimates and will be refined as more information becomes available, such as the date of the mothers’ rest season (where we’re not trying for puppies) and the mothers’ season (when we are trying for puppies).

Key dates are very fluid when looking well ahead of time, and only start to become more certain when the mother comes into the season where we’re trying for puppies. At this point I’ll refine dates, including estimated birth, visit and collection dates so that you can plan your diary.

Dates will all be finalised once puppies are born. Please bear this in mind when planning holidays and annual leave, I appreciate you keeping flexible when you’re on a reservation list for a puppy, as we can only work with what nature presents us with.

Puppies can’t leave their breeder before they're 8 weeks old - this is a requirement of the Animal Welfare Act legislation. This means we can’t let puppies go before they turn 8 weeks old.

Raising a litter of puppies is very all-consuming, so keeping puppies for additional time isn't something that we do. This is because we don't have very long gaps between litters and try to have some down-time to catch-up and spend time with family and friends in between. If you need a couple of extra days beyond the identified collection date, that can usually be made available, but our preference is for puppies to be collected on the identified day (please keep some annual leave free if needed!)

Jersey and Guernsey – puppies can travel to these locations at 8 weeks of age and can travel by ferry or private aeroplane. We have a private airfield very close by and can support you by putting you in touch with transport providers.

Puppies usually can’t travel further afield until they are older than 8 weeks due to the legislation and requirements of the country they’re travelling to. This would mean keeping a puppy longer than 8 weeks which isn’t something we do (please see the FAQ above). If you look into the travel requirements and puppies can travel at 8 weeks of age – and you can collect your puppy –  that should be fine.

For this reason we can’t export to the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Book a Puppy Reservation Consultation for our initial chat. After that email is the best way to contact me. This helps me keep track of our communications and provide a good service to you. Social media messages can be unreliable, and we can end up with communications in different places.

Our email inbox is monitored during the week and we aim to return all emails within 24 hours. Emails received on a Friday or over the weekend will be returned on Monday.

Sometimes if we have puppies being born, hands full or at peak times, responses may take a little longer – thank you for bearing with us.

Cheristone Doodles is a family business run from home, and we have a round-the-clock job with dogs and puppies. We run office hours for communications and the admin side of Cheristone Doodles.

Monday – Thursday: 10am – 5pm

Friday: 10am – 2pm

Weekends: Office closed

Visits are by appointment

The payment schedule can be seen on the ‘How it works’ page of the website.

Our puppies have travelled quite far afield – to Scotland and the north of England – they travel very well. We can support you with pet transport if required.