About Lakeside Farm Puppies

Welcome to Lakeside Farm Puppies! We (my wife Joyce and I with our 5 beautiful  children) are a second-generation farm family in southern Illinois. Our family has been producing and selling fish on our farm for decades.

Our family adopted our first Australian Shepherd, a red tricolor named Buster, in 2006. We have had Aussies on our farm ever since. They play their part well by keeping  raccoons and deer out of our gardens, but best of all they are wonderful companions and pets.  In 2013 we bought 50 acres from my Dad and have been working on developing our own homestead ever since. We feel blessed by God for having the opportunity to raise our family in a quiet, family-friendly setting.

Our five children spend hours playing with our dogs as well as our puppies. We feel this is very important in developing puppies that are friendly and well socialized. At the present we have two miniature Australian Shepherd females (Roxanne and Kandi) plus we also sell puppies for my Dad (Vernon) who has four females his twin brothers Joel & Josiah each have one. They live on adjoining properties to ours. Once the puppies are weaned we take them to spend time with them and sell them. Currently most of the puppies we are raising are mini Aussiedoodles. We have varying sizes of females, including standard and miniature.

Customer satisfaction and communication is very important to us. We very much enjoy getting to know each one of you on a personal level. Our goal is to provide the right puppy for the right home.  We strive for healthy, well-socialized puppies. If you are serious about adopting a puppy that is healthy and not from a puppy mill, give us a call. We’d love to hear from you. or better yet, have you come visit our farm.  We’d be delighted to meet you in person!

Best wishes on your search for the perfect puppy.

–The Raber Family

More About Lakeside Farm Puppies

Josh and Joyce Raber, along with their extended family in rural southeast Illinois, are experts at raising Aussiedoodle puppies. Today, they are eager to share their sweet-tempered canines with families all over the United States.

“These are super smart, loyal dogs,” Josh described the breed he and his wife raise with his five young children on their fifty-acre farm. “They are a hybrid cross between Australian shepherds (highly intelligent herding dogs) and Poodles (known for their soft, curly, non-shedding coats). This gives their resulting puppies a low-shedding, hypo-allergenic coat you just want to dig your fingers into, along with an intelligent but easy-going personality, making them excellent housepets.”

Josh and Joyce have three breeding females, while Josh’s parents and brothers have long enjoyed breeding their own personal Aussiedoodles as well. Like Josh and Joyce, Josh’s father Vernon Raber has four breeding females and his twin brothers Joel & Josiah each have one. As you can imagine, this makes raising Aussiedoodles a full-fledged family affair. Josh does the marketing for the entire family.

“Ours is not a typical dog-breeding operation, where dogs are kept in cages and only see humans at feeding time,” Josh continued. “With the exception of whelping season, when the females are actively involved in giving birth and nursing their pups, our dogs have the full run of our farm. They roam all over with our kids (Michiah Daniel age 13, Eric age 10, Larita age 8, Amy age 6 and three year old, Lanelle). As a result, our Aussiedoodle puppies are well-socialized and ready for a home with children when they leave us.”

Josh added. “We do most of our marketing over the internet, although we sell some locally. We can ship our puppies all over the country, from California to New York and Chicago to Florida. We do our best to get our dogs on direct flights, that way their new owners can easily pick them up right at their local airport.”

Josh characterizes their Aussiedoodles as very smart, sociable, easily trainable dogs. “It’s funny,” he continued. “My first experience with a dog involved a puppy and I wandering down a road in rural Ohio (where I was born) and getting lost. I was only two or three, but by that time, family members had been looking for me for some time. When I was found over a half mile away, I was throwing rocks at my dog. My mother, right then, said ‘no more puppy for you’ and a new home was found for the dog!”

Fortunately for Josh, his family and all of his current clients, his next experience with a dog at age 10 was a better one. “I’ve had a dog ever since,” he added with a laugh.

In addition to dogs and kids, the Raber farm is home to chickens, a goat, horses and a 29-year-old semi-retired pony. Located between two rivers, they also raise goldfish, bass, bluegill, which they sell to those wishing to stock ponds, as well as a substantial number of baitfish. When not on the farm, Josh works with his father and brothers operating Country Lane Hardwoods Lumber Mill in Flat Rock, Illinois, providing furniture-grade lumber.

Joyce Raber added, “As a family, we enjoy our dogs and other animals, camping, fishing, gardening, and our Amish church family.”

The Rabers’ Aussiedoodle puppies share that joy of life with others around America as they make their way from the farm to many new families across the country.

Article by Laura L. Valenti