Meet Erin Lucadamo | Dog Breeder & Trainer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Erin Lucadamo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Erin, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Deciding to start a business is always a risk. Deciding to start a dog related business is a risk. Deciding to start a dog related business in a new non-existent market…is living on a prayer and lots of sleepless nights. We could have chosen Golden Retrievers that could have been so much easier but we know that we have something special and we want to share it with the world. We breed the kinds of dogs that we enjoy and if other people enjoy them, we are happy to share them. Although figuring out whether other people would like what we liked was a scary process of course as much as we would like to the reality of breeding dogs is that you just can’t keep them all! We dreamt of nothing more than the best homes and the most exciting lives for our dogs. Luckily, our message has landed with the right folks and our puppies are not only well loved and adored but a few of them are even active service dogs and competitive sport dogs.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Our work and our brand requires us to hold ourselves and anyone associated to The Ausky Club to a higher standard. Of business ownership of dog ownership as trainers and educators. It is our responsibility to set these dogs up for success by any and all means possible. For us that means starting an advanced service dog curriculum on day 3. The process is incredibly hands on and there is an enormous amount of data collected from each individual puppy in order to create a complete temperament overview by their 8th week of life. This is when we upload their final assessments to YouTube to match each individual puppy to their appropriate home based off of the applicants’ previous interview answers. This is not at all how you picked out your childhood dog. It was probably a couple of well loved neighborhood dogs that got together accidentally and you picked the cutest one to take home out of a cardboard box. Instincts serve us well. We find that data can help serve us even better when selecting our next best friend.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
When in the valley I always encourage people to appreciate just how much we love our desert. How much we integrate our landscape into our daily lives. As a community we have a deep understanding and reverence for the desert. For the monsoon rains that bring flowering life. The Botanical Gardens are a must to really appreciate our native plant life. Getting outdoors is how I most enjoy the valley. A day spent in relaxation beside one of our powerfully charging mountains – poolside at the Phoenician. A trip around the elegant Tempe Town Lake at night. Savoring the fine dining experiences we have to offer with a local loved classic like The Capital Grille. This is how I would recommend experiencing this city for a day.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The Ausky Club just simply would not exist without the incredible puppy parents that have come into our lives and our dogs’ lives. Some people wait on reservation lists for years just for a chance to own one of our puppies…that’s dedication! And they are. They are so involved in our process from the very beginning when we send out a litter arrival announcement to joining us for Instagram Lives as they watch the pups grow from sleepy little beans to rambunctious fluff balls. Our Puppy parents show an immense amount of commitment by studying our guidebooks, using our Amazon puppy wish lists to prepare their homes and asking great questions. Once our pups have gone to their homes their puppy parents really become the best advocates that we could ask for by investing an incredible amount of time and energy into making their lives magical and exciting. The lengthy, thoughtful and high praising reviews we receive afterwards are what make every second of sleepless nights all worth it!

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGEymYXVpyfRW5Dp_p9iX5A/videos