When she is not developing young minds at kindergarten, Beck Sampson is busy with her other passion: cavoodles.
The Sampson family farm at Warramboo is a usual hive of activity you would expect on an Eyre Peninsula property.
Headers roll through the vast landscape as the brown earth develops and forms until harvest comes around – signalling the culmination of another year’s hard work.
While all this is happening, the farm is home to another bustling family enterprise, run by Beck Sampson.
A preschool director by trade, Beck runs her own business – Glenroy Cavoodles – which breeds the popular dog ready to send out to new homes across the state.
When she is not nurturing the learning of children, you can find Beck – no matter the time of day or night – raising her next litter of puppies in her home.
What started as the purchase of a first, family, cavoodle more than a decade ago, has grown into something Beck thoroughly enjoys.
“At the time we had a kelpie and I liked how smart they are, but I wanted something that didn’t shed and we could take easily to the beach or on holidays; a Google search led me to cavoodles,” she said.
“They were quite new at the time and hard to come by.
“We bred our first litter 12 to 18 months after that.”
A teacher for more than two decades and currently the director of Wudinna RSL Memorial Kindergarten, Beck said she could apply what she did in education to Glenroy Cavoodles.
“Being a teacher myself, I am able to apply – and not apply – things I know about nurturing the development of young humans to young animals,” she noted.
Glenroy Cavoodles breeds two sizes of cavoodles, which can range in weight from four kilograms to more than 10kg.
The puppies are raised in the family home for eight weeks – and Beck is involved in the enrichment, socialisation and training every step of the way.
Ten years as a breeder has given Beck plenty of insight into what is involved and during that time she has worked to build her breeding stock and understanding about genetics.
“I monitor the DNA of my puppies and I pick those with clear health checks and lovely temperaments to continue on my lines,” she said.
“I am aware of bringing in new genetics and the importance of diversity in my lines.
“During Covid I connected with a group of experienced cavoodle breeders. I have grown my understanding of breeding with other like-minded breeders who are great thinkers, keen to see the breed develop positively and to educate buyers on all things cavoodles”.
Beck is also involved with the Theodore Project, which is working towards a purebred cavoodle. This has meant additional health testing and evaluations, and more conformity in the breed.
“Cavoodles weren’t particularly sought after when we first started breeding, but we loved their temperament and felt they were good for people with allergies.”
Demand for cavoodles continues to grow – “I have a reasonably full wait list,” Beck said – but for her it is about finding the right family for the right puppy.
She takes pride in ensuring the right match is made.
Beck works with Rightpaw, a company founded during Covid dedicated to ensuring buying a dog is done in a simpler and safer way online.
She is one of more than a thousand verified breeders on the platform, but is proud to be the only cavoodle breeder in SA rated as “outstanding” by meeting exceptional standards across health, socialisation and customer service.
Potential dog owners can apply to be on Beck’s waiting list and can tell her what they are looking for.
Beck will gather information about the family – whether there may be allergies, children in the home or special needs that require attention – and she can work out the puppy best suited to that family.
With many of her puppies going to homes in Adelaide, Beck sends weekly videos of a litter to new owners to get an update on how the puppy is developing and the training, enrichment and socialisation that has occurred each week.
During the first eight weeks, new owners are supported on what they may need to buy for their puppy, while they can also access online training modules and chat with Beck.
“I can do a temperament test and tell people how the puppy is developing, what its traits are,” she said.
“I can tell them if the puppy is human-focused, confident or tender-hearted and then what type of further training and socialisation the puppy will need based on this – we can tailor the advice we give people.”
Beck said all of the puppies find wonderful homes and she prides herself on ensuring puppy homes are well educated and prepared.
“The joy of being a reputable breeder is that people come to me based on ethics and word of mouth recommendations, it means we always find really suitable homes for our puppies.”
Glenroy Cavoodles also supports local causes such as Wudinna Area School’s pedal prix team in 2024, while last year it raised $3000 for the Black Dog Institute by collaborating with families of its “black puppies” from Reba’s litter to pay their deposit directly to the institute.
Beck said there were characteristics which made cavoodles the “most popular breed in Australia”.
“People are attracted to their intelligence, loving nature, and the low-shed coats,” she said.
“A cavoodle is an all-round good choice.”
Glenroy Cavoodles runs a guardianship program, in which families across the state – at the moment there are about 15 – welcome a future breeding dog into their home until they reach breeding age.
At that time they return to Beck for breeding/whelping.
Recently, only three of Glenroy’s dogs were living as family pets, with the rest as guardians.
“Guardianship is win/win, the dog gets a loving home and the guardian family enjoys a high-quality cavoodle at no cost,” Beck said.
“At the same time, we maintain access to top breeding genetics without overcrowding, ensuring best welfare for our dogs and diversity in our program.”
Closer to home, Beck also gets plenty of help from her husband and kids Archie and Sadie.
In the early days, the kids were pivotal in the socialisation of the puppies.
Now that they are older, they help with other tasks such as training, clean-up, marketing and photography.
These days, the puppies still play with kids – with visits to Beck’s ‘other’ children at kindy.
“The kindy children love having the puppies come to visit,” she said.
“The last two litters have also visited the Wudinna hospital to see the residents up there, so they are meeting all walks of life and bringing joy wherever they go.”
The demands – and joys – of Glenroy Cavoodles means Beck spends plenty of time on puppy patrol.
She could be delivering puppies at all hours of the night, crate training at 11pm or toilet training at 3am – plus 6am feeds and playtime.
It can, at times, be a challenge for Beck to juggle the demands of teaching, raising puppies, farm and family life, but she said working part-time as kindy director has helped, and she was grateful for having a “supportive” family.
“It is a team effort.”
She is taking a year’s leave from kindergarten duties in 2026 with her kids at school in Adelaide, and as Beck said, the dog business was coming with her.
“We will always look out for EP applicants though, even when I am in Adelaide, and we offer an ‘EP discount’ to local families.”
