Four registered breeders make up Tennessee’s ALAA roster, stretching across the southeastern part of the state from Chattanooga up to the Nashville suburbs. Three of those four have already earned an ALAA Paw distinction, with one reaching all the way to Platinum.
This article covers exactly where each of the four programs is based, what it offers, and what Tennessee buyers specifically need to check before reserving a puppy.
Tennessee’s Four ALAA-Registered Breeders
Tennessee’s ALAA membership spans Hamilton County in the southeastern part of the state, Dickson County west of Nashville, and both Williamson and Rutherford Counties in the Nashville metro area. That puts an ALAA member within reasonable driving distance of most of Middle and East Tennessee.
Australian Heritage Labradoodles
Mandy Massengale operates Australian Heritage Labradoodles out of Chattanooga, holding an ALAA Silver Paw. She’s the only one of Tennessee’s four ALAA members based on the eastern side of the state, giving Chattanooga-area families a local option instead of a drive out to Middle Tennessee.
Location: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Website: Australian Heritage Labradoodles
Registry: ALAA (Silver Paw)
Cabin Hill Labradoodles
Marcus Peters runs Cabin Hill Labradoodles out of Vanleer, a small Dickson County community west of Nashville, and holds an ALAA Golden Paw.
His program follows Puppy Culture protocols and relies on Paw Print Genetics for DNA and health panels, with breeding dogs cleared through OFA for hips and elbows.
Litters at Cabin Hill tend to land around the holidays, with medium puppies typically ready before Thanksgiving and standard puppies before Christmas in a given year. Red and white parti coloring has been a regular result of the program.
Location: Vanleer, Tennessee
Email: cabinhilllabradoodles@gmail.com
Website: Cabin Hill Labradoodles
Registry: ALAA (Golden Paw)
Best Life Labradoodles
Janis Bautz operates Best Life Labradoodles near Nashville and Franklin in Williamson County, and the program currently holds ALAA’s Platinum Paw, the association’s top health-testing distinction. Best Life also carries WALA membership alongside its ALAA standing.
Puppies out of Best Life have come in caramel and chocolate-and-white parti coats, and the program manages interest through an email list rather than posting open litters directly on its site. A deposit reserves a spot once a matching puppy becomes available.
Location: Arrington, Tennessee
Website: Best Life Labradoodles
Registry: ALAA (Platinum Paw), WALA
Pure Bliss Labradoodles
Sammi Roberts breeds multigenerational, health-tested Australian Labradoodles as Pure Bliss Labradoodles in Christiana, a Rutherford County community between Nashville and Murfreesboro. The program is Tennessee’s newest ALAA member, having joined the association in early 2026, and hasn’t yet had a breeding dog reach Paw-level testing.
Location: Christiana, Tennessee
Email: pureblisslabradoodles@gmail.com
Website: Pure Bliss Labradoodles
Registry: ALAA
Tennessee’s Platinum Paw Breeder
Every program in this article already clears a real bar before it shows up in ALAA’s own directory: submitted pedigrees and minimum health testing, a written purchase agreement and health warranty, registered litters, and adherence to the association’s code of ethics.
Three of Tennessee’s four programs have gone further and earned an additional Paw distinction on top of that baseline.
Best Life Labradoodles near Arrington is the only Tennessee program currently holding ALAA’s Platinum Paw, its highest health-testing tier. Cabin Hill Labradoodles in Vanleer holds a Golden Paw, one step below Platinum, and Australian Heritage Labradoodles in Chattanooga holds a Silver Paw, the entry-level distinction.
Pure Bliss Labradoodles in Christiana simply hasn’t been an ALAA member long enough yet to carry a Paw designation, which is normal for a newly joined program rather than any kind of red flag.
Because ALAA revises Paw status roughly every 24 hours as breeders retest their dogs, buyers should confirm a kennel’s current standing directly on ALAA’s own site rather than relying on a badge image on a breeder’s own page.
Tennessee’s Breeder Oversight Gap
Tennessee did pass a Commercial Breeder Act years ago that required high-volume breeders to register with the state and submit to inspections.
That law was allowed to expire and was never renewed, so Tennessee currently has no active state-level licensing or inspection program for commercial dog breeders.
Some online sources still reference a threshold of ten or more breeding females as a trigger for state registration, but that figure traces back to the lapsed law rather than any rule currently in force.
In practice, oversight in Tennessee now falls to individual counties and to federal USDA licensing, which only applies to breeders selling sight-unseen with four or more breeding females.
None of the four breeders featured in this article appear to meet that federal sight-unseen threshold, so buyers are relying primarily on the Australian Labradoodle Association of America’s own membership standards rather than a state inspection regime.
That makes checking a breeder’s current ALAA standing directly through the association’s own website especially worthwhile for Tennessee buyers.
Ehrlichiosis Risk in Tennessee
Ehrlichiosis is the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in Tennessee, and the aggressive lone star tick is the main carrier behind it.
Unlike many ticks that wait passively in brush, the lone star tick actively seeks out hosts, and the CDC reports that cases climb through March and April before peaking between May and July.
In dogs, the form carried by lone star ticks tends to cause lameness that shifts from limb to limb, along with stiffness and muscle pain, while the form carried by brown dog ticks produces fever, lethargy, and bruising or bleeding under the skin.
A tick generally needs to stay attached for several hours before it can transmit the bacteria, so same-day tick checks after time outdoors meaningfully cut the risk.
First-time owners picking up a puppy from any of the breeders in this article should start year-round, vet-recommended tick prevention right away.
They should also check in with their veterinarian about testing if a dog turns up lame or lethargic after time outdoors in spring or early summer.
How the Australian Labradoodle Began
The Australian Labradoodle’s story actually starts in Hawaii, not Australia, with a woman who needed a guide dog but couldn’t have one because her husband’s allergies ruled out every breed her local guide dog school normally placed.
Wally Conron, working for the Royal Guide Dogs Association of Victoria in Australia, crossed a Labrador Retriever with a Standard Poodle in the late 1980s to try to solve that exact problem.
The resulting puppies had the right temperament for guide work, but their coats still shed more than hoped, so later breeders folded in Cocker Spaniel, Irish Water Spaniel, and Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier to fix that.
Australian kennels Tegan Park and Rutland Manor spent the early 1990s stabilizing that mix into today’s Australian Labradoodle, and those same foundation bloodlines still turn up in the pedigrees of every breeder featured in this article.
Frequently Asked Questions
Four programs currently hold active ALAA membership in Tennessee, based in Chattanooga, Vanleer, Arrington, and Christiana.
Best Life Labradoodles near Arrington currently holds ALAA’s Platinum Paw, the association’s top health-testing designation, while Cabin Hill holds a Golden Paw and Australian Heritage holds a Silver Paw.
Not currently. Tennessee’s Commercial Breeder Act has expired and was never renewed, so there’s no active state-level breeder licensing or inspection program in place. Only federal USDA rules apply, and only to breeders selling sight-unseen with four or more breeding females.
Ehrlichiosis, a tick-borne illness spread mainly by the lone star tick, is the most commonly diagnosed tick disease in Tennessee, with cases peaking between May and July.
Verify the breeder’s current ALAA membership and Paw status directly through ALAA’s own website, ask about OFA hip and elbow evaluations for both parents, and get any health guarantee in writing before putting down a deposit.
Yes. Best Life Labradoodles near Arrington carries WALA membership alongside its ALAA standing, while the other three Tennessee programs are ALAA members only.
Conclusion
Four programs are registered with ALAA in Tennessee, covering Chattanooga and three communities in the Nashville area, with health-testing distinctions ranging from Platinum down to a brand-new member still building its own testing record.
With no active state breeder licensing program currently in force and a real seasonal tick-disease risk to plan around, Tennessee buyers have a bit more homework than buyers in some other states.
Still, with four verified, ALAA-registered programs to choose from, there’s no shortage of legitimate options across the state.
Australian Labradoodle Breeders In Other Places
| Alberta | British Columbia | Nova Scotia | Ontario | Ottawa |
| Australia | New South Wales | Queensland | Sydney | Victoria |
