CENTRE COUNTY — Stellie Doodles and Berners of Central Pennsylvania not only provide locally-bred Bernedoodles to the Centre County community, but they also provide fun stress-relieving events for students and the community.
Stellie Doodles and Berners of Central Pennsylvania breeds, trains and provides customers with most of the things they need to take care of their puppies for the first few weeks.
“I do the Bernedoodles, so you get that wonderful, friendly, happy personality of the Bernese Mountain Dog, and then you pair it with a poodle, who are so smart, so human-focused, so easy to train,” Nicole Spear, the owner of Stellie Doodles, said.
Spear’s caring personality and her experience as a mother and an elementary school teacher have led her to open and run Stellie Doodles and Berners of Central Pennsylvania.
“I’m an elementary teacher, so raising puppies really just fits. It was a perfect fit for me because I still got to do what I love. I got to take care of little puppies who needed me and raise them to be wonderful pets for wonderful families,” Spear said.
Spear begins by hand-selecting parents for the litter. After Spear delivers each puppy, she takes eight weeks to train them. When the puppies are three days old, she starts doing gentle handling exercises. However, the training does not end there. Spear works on socializing with them and so much more.
“We have kids of our own, which is perfect for socializing these puppies because they are around children. They are around kids a little bit older,” Spear said. “They’re around adults too; we have both of our parents come to our house, so they’re just around people of all ages.”
This is also why Spear holds events where her puppies get to socialize with students around Penn State’s campus. Like she did on Monday, March 3, at the OLive Highland, an apartment building in downtown State College.
“The puppies are very happy to see a whole bunch of people who are ‘ohing’ and ‘awing’ over them, so they’re going to get to interact with them,” Spear said.
Spear also explained how important it was to give back to the community that has supported her. Along with this, she explained how important it is to her to help de-stress college students.
Spear takes reservations once a litter is planned and delivered; whoever puts down their deposit of $500 first. Then families are able to come and visit the litter to see which puppy they bond with the most.
“It’s always really nice when you can see like them, sort of picking each other. The puppy gravitates toward them, they kind of gravitate toward the puppy,” Spear said.
To see available puppies, visit the Stellie Doodles and Berners of Central Pennsylvania website at stelliedoodlesofpa.com.
