About Dutch Haven Dogs | Ethical Family Cockapoo Breeders

Joe & Lydia Groen

Joe and Lydia are committed full-time to raising our dogs and our family with excellence. We have five children: Jack, Matthew, Benjamin, Elizabeth, and Samuel. We love taking road trips and often have dogs along. We are so blessed to have a large extended family and are thrilled that our kids get to spend lots of quality time with grandparents and cousins! We're a pet-loving family and our Cocker Spaniels all get along well with our black Lab Willow and Katie the cat, not to mention our leopard gecko, our hamster, and our flock of a dozen spoiled chickens. Our dogs are all great with the kids and are an essential part of keeping our lives full of fun and laughter. At the end of 2020, we fulfilled a lifelong dream of moving West, and were able to purchase a rural country estate in Oklahoma. Our connections in NH remain very strong and we make frequent trips back to New England with puppies along. Meanwhile, our whole family (including the dogs!) loves living under the big skies and making use of all this room to roam!

We take raising, training, and caring for our dogs seriously. We consider it a great privilege to share our dogs with each of the Dutch Haven clients who have joined our extended community of dog-lovers. We feel it is our responsibility to educate ourselves and stay up to date on best practices and developments in the dog world that help us ensure we're doing everything we can to make the world a better place, one puppy at a time. Some of our certifications and associations are represented below.

How it all began...

Fenton & Shirley Groen began breeding Cocker Spaniels in 1990, passing their love of animals on to their seven children. Now that the kids are all grown, a number of us have carried on the family tradition, keeping Cocker Spaniels in our homes as part of our families, and allowing our own children to participate in the miracle of raising puppies while learning about the responsibility we have towards other creatures who share this earth with us.

Four of the Groen kids holding Cocker Spaniel puppies in the 1990s.

In the early 2000's, we heard about Cockapoos from friends who have a child with allergies. After a lot of research, we decided to try a litter. The puppies were so charming and adorable, they captured our hearts right from Day One, and Cockapoos have become the primary focus of our breeding program.

We hope you enjoy perusing our site and looking at the pictures. We'd love to hear from you if you think it might be the right time to add one of our Cockapoos to your life! Come on over to the Contact Us page for more information!

Meet the Dutch Haven Partners!

Robert & Barbie Lapointe

Barbie is Lydia's sister and a full-time mom and homeschooler, while Abraham, Samantha, Marian, Timothy, Pippin, and Henry are full-time kids, walking the dogs down their quiet country road in Barrington, NH, playing in the woods or the frog pond, jumping on the trampoline, catching crickets for the chickens, and swimming at their grandparents' lake house. Barbie and Robert have been very pleased to introduce their kids to the joys and responsibilities of pet ownership, and their Cocker Spaniels have been happy to be included in this fun and exciting family!

Josh & Nicole Olstad

Josh and Nicole live in Farmington, NH on 5 acres of quiet wooded land with their four daughters Olivia, Danielle, Charlotte, and Clara. Both Josh and Nicole had pets growing up, and Nicole spent her high school years at the Groen house falling in love with their Cocker Spaniels and getting a small taste of puppy life, so it was the obvious choice for them to have a Cocker Spaniel as their first pet for their own family! The Olstad girls are so excited to help in the process of raising excellent and loving pets for others and take their job of socializing and snuggling pups very seriously. Other than actually playing with the dogs, one of their favorite parts so far has been brainstorming litter themes and future puppy names! Nicole helps Lydia answer inquiries about our puppies and you may have the pleasure of speaking with her on the phone before you meet your new pup!

Zack & Laura Shrift

When Joe & Lydia moved we knew we'd need a stud dog here in NWA. We were thrilled when the opportunity arose to bring proven stud Paddington's younger brother Chester into our breeding family. Shrifts and Groens have been family friends for over two decades now, so we were so happy when Zack and Laura brought Miniature Poodle Chester into their family, which shortly thereafter grew to include Cocker Spaniel Clover! The trip from our home to theirs in Siloam Springs, AR, is a short one and we are frequent visitors at each others' homes for cookouts and game nights.

Bruce & Pam Trefethen

Now almost two decades ago, when Lydia originally started thinking about finding a quality stud who would make a good father for future litters, it took surprisingly little sweet-talking to convince her parents Bruce and Pam that a Miniature Poodle would be a great addition to their almost-empty nest! Shortly thereafter, we were delighted to find Nico, who became our first official stud muffin. Young Anton was next to join the family, then little brother Paddington joined the crew. These boys enjoy a pretty sweet life lakeside in Barrington, NH!