06/22/2023
Edited to add: It’s really sad when the only picture you have of the two of you is from 4 years ago 🤣.
So what is the story of Homeward Bound Bernedoodles??? It sprung out of the partnership of Shari Hall at Shining Star Doodles and Bria Freeman at Selah Mountain Dogs. Bria and Shari have 7 kids between them as well as many other children that Bria has helped raise through foster care.
Bria and Shari’s partnership grew out of a deep friendship centered in integrity, faith, generosity, and care of others. Bria and Shari both have a passion for animals and people and have spent countless hours studying dog training, animal husbandry, nutrition, genetics, and puppy raising. They both share a vision to see healthy, happy, well-tempered dogs matched with humans that are looking for the perfect companion or therapy prospect. They truly believe that breeding and raising pups well can change people’s lives. They both have many testimonies of autistic support, su***de prevention, emotional supoort, hearing support, mobility support, ptsd support, and therapy dogs have tremendous impact on the lives of their owners. They have seen the dogs also flourishing in these purposes.
Since Bria and Shari have also seen how amazing a well-tempered family dog is with children, they also found purpose in placing many of their pups into homes where they can be the childhood dog that is happily recalled in family memories for the rest of a lifetime. Shari also witnessed the therapeutic qualities of dogs in her own family when her daughter was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Their dogs played a huge role in the treatment of the condition and were instrumental in the daughters improvement. Bria has also experienced this with her foster care work. Dogs often play a huge role in emotional regulation and sensory input when working through trauma, and stress. They are also a safe and non-judgmental source of love. Their own personal experiences have been huge in the desire to share their dogs with others.
Bria and Shari have both been raising goldendoodles for 7 years. While goldendoodles are very human focused dogs, Bernedoodles can often be a bit more environmentally focused. For emotional support there is often a need for a very human focused dog that will make sure their human is engaging with the world. In other cases, a dog that is more of a calming presence in a room and not as focused on the human is helpful - such as in the case of a trauma therapist that wants a support dog in their office.
Bria and Shari decided to use their shared knowledge and resources and invested in some Bernedoodle breeding dogs together in order to offer a slightly different type of therapy and support from their Goldendoodle lines. Homeward Bound is a co-op breeding program where we share the resources, time and knowledge between us. We hope to share some of our love and dogs with you as well!