About Us

Let me tell you a little bit  about our family and our philosophy on raising good dogs.  Steve and I have been married for over 28 years. We met and married in Alaska . Washington has been our home most of our married lives and Eastern Washington became home almost 12 years ago. We have 7 children, 5 of which are boys.  Having a whole house full of boys has always made our home a busy and active one. Our daughter Amy who will be 20 in August is a special needs person so has added many challenges to our lives. Our children range in ages from 27 to 4, we have a beautiful bumper crop who lights up our lives. We have 5 grandchildren so our lives are truly blessed.

We moved to the mountains of Eastern Washington for the beauty and open spaces and the atmosphere for our children.  We have built our home ourselves and enjoy hard work and believe it has helped our boys to become good hard working people.  

We have always had lots of animals in our lives. I guess we raise the dogs in the same way we have raised our kids. They give you what you put into them, we care for them and “ask” for them to be gentle and loving back, even as puppies they need to know their limits and we try to be consistent with that. If you let your puppy jump up, your dog will jump up, if you let your puppy sleep on your bed your dog will want to sleep on your bed and so on.   We handle them from the time they are born, putting our fingers in their mouths and petting them all over, they are handled several times a day from day one. As they get bigger we play with them more and have all ages of our family be involved so the puppy is used to being handled in different ways by different sizes of people. We mess with them as they eat so they will not become possessive of their food. We try hard to have a puppy that is ready to join a family whether there are small children or just adults. I also don’t feel I need to have you fill out pages of information on yourself to place a puppy in your family. I trust that you have done your homework and if you are paying the big money to buy a good dog you will treat it right. So I guess what I am saying is that I try to give you the best possible puppy and it is yours from there to treat with kindness and teach it to be a good dog.  

Amy plays a big part in our wanting to have the Golden Retriever and Standard poodles. Never has one of our dogs ever been aggressive towards her even though at times she gets a little rough or stumbles on them. Amy is usually in the company of one of the dogs, they just know that she needs them.  

Well that is a bit about us. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.  

2006 update

WELCOME TO HUCKLEBERRY KENNELS! It has been a very busy year here at our place, many things have happened. Our biggest one is we, decided to move. We are still in the Huckleberry Mountain range but now we are at the foothills, and not way up in the hills. We decided to move for several reasons. But children and dogs were very high on the list. We have been wanting to build a modern, heated, bigger facility for years. It was either build where we were or find a spot that was closer to town, the airport and still had the space and seclusion that we need for the dogs. I also was spending lots of hours on the road transporting our kids to activities and we felt that time would be a lot better spent being with the kids instead of driving the kids. We purchased 35 acres in 2005 that suited our needs and moved in the spring of 2006 and began to build. It has been a lot of work, and we are not where we would like to be but it is getting there and will be a good move for all of us, dogs, and people alike. The dogs are safe and comfortable although the kennel is not complete. The people are in a travel trailer, and shop while we build a house that fits our special needs and the make up of our family.  

Some of the other things that have changed in our family… 

Two boys, ages 3 and 5 joined our family in 2005, in July of this year, 2006 the adoptions became final. Now the boys outnumber the girls 7 to 2. The boys have been a blessing and a challenge all at once but what child isn’t.  

A new grandson was added in January and he has grown healthy and happy and is always ready with a smile and a snuggle. That brings the Grandkid total to 5, we couldn’t be happier with the role of Nana and Grandpa except the kids need to live closer so we can spend more time at baseball games and overnighters to spoil and cuddle.

Susan and Family