We recently connected with Randall Mast and have shared our conversation below.
Randall, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?
As a dog breeder, we get a lot of heat from Humane Societies and groups who are advocating for no more breeders. I don’t think those people understand breeding in general, let alone how much work it takes. I agree with the fact that there are thousands of animals that need homes and that pets should be kept from breeding. It’s up to the owner to spend the money to get their pet neutered, and you can keep them from breeding without neutering or spaying an animal. We are producing top quality pets, and do all kinds of health testing on the parents to ensure healthy, happy puppies. If someone goes to the Humane Society to pick up a pet, they have no idea what that animal has been thru and how it will react to certain situations. By choosing a good reputable breeder, you can be ensured that the puppies are well socialized and ready for most any normal situations. Also, reputable breeders will have a couple guidelines for the potential customer and can guide them to find the breed and puppy most suitable for their situation. At a shelter, the options are limited, and the regulations are high for the potential family and most families cannot get a puppy from a shelter because they do not meet all the requirements. As a breeder, we require that if the customer for some reason can no longer care for the puppy, it comes back to us and we take care of it. Also, if they want to have puppies in a shelter, that means a breeder somewhere has to be breeding puppies to supply the shelter. So in order for there to be quality puppies available to be some childs companion, we as breeders need to keep up the hard work and do what’s necessary to produce happy healthy puppies.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I, Randall, got started breeding dogs in 2004 when I had 2 black labs. Things were a lot different back then and my vet was a good old guy that helped me get started and taught me a lot. Obviously things are different now, and there have been major advancements in medicine and health testing available to us as breeders. We health test all our adults, or keep stock back from tested adults to ensure great bloodlines for the future. If you stop by our website and check out our puppies, don’t be alarmed by the amount of puppies on our website. We are setup as a Co-op and have 30 families working with us here locally, raising puppies and we handle all the marketing and meeting with the customers, etc. We also help with health testing on the parents and selecting potential future stock as well. Each family has their breeds that they specialize in, and that way we can offer a great variety of high quality puppies and they are all well socialized. Too many other breeders have big facilities and the dogs and pups don’t get proper socialization and care, and we feel thats what sets apart from the average breeder.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
We kind of got pushed into the space we are today thanks to a former coworker of mine. I had been in the puppy industry for years, but not on a big scale. We’re talking 2 litters a year, just enough to stay in the industry and put some extra cash on the table. My coworker had a litter of Pomeranians and he didn’t want to mess with selling them, he just enjoyed raising and taking care of them. I finally gave in after he begged me for 3 weeks, and it blew up from there. He had some family that were in the same situation, and within 2 years, we had 40 families we were working with. We never advertised, it was all word of mouth, and we were using a couple different websites for marketing. At that point, it was January of 2019, and something had to change. I was working 50 hours a week at a welding job, and helping my wife, Laura with the puppies and customers, as well as trying to help each other raise our 3 children. We had a meeting with the families, and cut it down to 30 families, not a fun time, and started our own website in April of 2019. April 13, 2019, I walked away from my full time job, and have been home full time raising puppies and taking care of customers. It was. a little slow and scary at first and had a bunch of hurdles to overcome with marketing etc. The catalyst for our business was definitely the covid shutdown. Our local area never fully shutdown since we are a farming community, and have to keep going to keep the animals alive. Demand was 300% of what is was before, but we maintained our prices, production, and quality, and I believe that is why we are still in business today after the supply finally surpassed the demand and has forced a lot of people out of business. The good reputable breeders will stay in business, because we have proved ourselves earlier. Too many people took advantage of the demand and price gouged, and today they are no longer in business.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I think I have to credit my dad for my resilience. Growing up for us in the late 80’s wasn’t easy for my family, and I watched my dad go thru things that I didn’t want to. Little did I know, Laura and I would have it even harder than my parents did. We went thru a foreclosure that forced us to central Illinois close to her family to try to get a new start. I had bounced from a couple jobs trying to make more money and the last one didn’t work out and put us farther behind resulting in the foreclosure and moving. I got a welding job here in IL, and worked there until April of 2019 when I was able to walk away. We had some close family members on my wifes side telling us it will never work and we won’t be able to make it. That alone made me mad enough to make sure we make it. The other thing that is probably the biggest factor in our resilience, is our Faith in God. As a Christian and an elder in the church, the situations we went thru were tough, but they also deepened our Faith. Looking back, those things seem like small things, but when we were going thru them, they were giant mountains that we couldn’t see around or over.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.windyacrespuppies.com/
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