Meet the Heart Behind Boise Doodle Co.

Laura & Rick’s Story
A Family Rooted in Hard Work and Heart

Hi, I’m Laura — welcome to Boise Doodle Co.

Several years ago, one of my best friends was over at my house in Meridian with her daughters. Her youngest, not even a year old, had recently been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes — a diagnosis so rare at that age that she’d almost lost her life in the ICU. While the kids were playing on the floor, my silver mini poodle Louie kept walking over to her, then back to me, pawing at my leg, then back to her. He wouldn’t stop. Something in me said to speak up, so I turned to my friend and told her, “Maybe check her blood sugar — Louie doesn’t usually act like this.” Her sugars had crashed. Her continuous glucose monitor hadn’t caught it yet, and wouldn’t for another fifteen or twenty minutes.

That moment changed how I understood what these dogs really are — blessings from heaven, with instincts we can’t fully explain. In the years since, I’ve placed roughly a dozen diabetic and seizure alert service dogs with families who needed them, and watching what those dogs do — what they notice, what they prevent, the lives they steady — is some of the most meaningful work I’ve ever been part of.

But I came to breeding by a longer road. I grew up on a farm and ranch along Idaho’s Snake River, and the lessons of that life — show up, work hard, take care of what depends on you — shaped everything that came after. Twenty-five years ago I bred champion-line Golden Retriever hunting dogs alongside some exceptional studs, and I had my first poodles back then too. When I came back to poodles about nine years ago, it felt like coming home. Their temperament, intelligence, and low-shedding coats made them the right fit for my family — my daughters have allergies, and for a stretch I did too — and I quickly fell for the doodle crosses as well: Goldendoodles, Bernedoodles, and Cavapoos, each with their own personality. In the last couple of years I’ve also added Cavalier King Charles Spaniels to our program — they shed a touch, but their sweet, gentle temperament has me completely obsessed.

I built Boise Doodle Co in part because I wanted something I could pour into from home, with my kids beside me. I spent more than fifteen years in real estate, where I was consistently among the top-tier agents in our area and came to love my clients dearly — it was work I was great at and proud of. But it kept me away from my family more than I wanted as a mom. Breeding gave me a way to do meaningful work without missing the parts of my kids’ lives I didn’t want to miss. They’re part of this with me now, learning the same lessons about responsibility and care that the Snake River taught me.

None of this would work without Rick. He’s my husband, my best friend, and my full-time partner in Boise Doodle Co. Rick came from a different path than I did — no Snake River childhood — but he brought a Bachelor’s in Operations Management from Boise State University and an MBA, and the business and operational backbone of what we do is largely his. We married in 2017, joined our two families into one, and building this together has been one of the great joys of our marriage.

What I care about most is breeding with purpose, and I try to run this business the way I try to run my life — God first, family second, business third. That means honesty, transparency, and ethics in every interaction, not just the easy ones. Every parent dog goes through comprehensive health testing — PennHIP and OFA hips, plus OFA evaluations on elbows, eyes, cardiac, and patellas, with full DNA panels through Embark or Animal Genetics. Every litter is raised in our home with early neurological stimulation and socialization, and every family is carefully matched. I’d rather place fewer puppies in the right homes than more puppies in the wrong ones. When you take a puppy home from us, you’re not closing a transaction — you’re joining a family I plan to stay in touch with for the life of your dog.

If that sounds like the kind of breeder you’ve been looking for, I’d love to meet you.