Why We Choose Your Puppy

Whether sold as a “pet“ or as a “show/breeding prospect” your puppy has been bred from the best breeding stock available and is a product of a great deal of care, research, hard work and love.  He/she is a good representative of the breed and is structurally and temperamentally sound.  Your puppy is suited to be a wonderful companion for  hunting, obedience, agility or therapy work.  He/she has received lots of care and socialization from us.  We are very proud of the puppies we produce!  Our hope is that you enjoy your puppy as much as we enjoy your puppy’s parents. When this happens then we have fulfilled a large part of our goals as breeders.

Most experienced breeders will choose the puppy you get, instead of letting you make the choice.  This is NOT because you are getting the “last pick” (which many people worry about), or because we don’t care about what you want.  It is because we care a great deal that you get the kind of puppy that will make you happy, and that each puppy goes into the right kind of home for that particular puppy, that we make the choice.  Years of experience and the time spent watching them grow up gives us a much better chance of matching puppies to the proper homes.   If you want a very quiet puppy, you might visit on the one day that the quietest one is being a terror.  Or if you want an extremely “spunky” puppy, you might visit on the one day that the feistiest little munchkin in taking a loooooong snooze or has a belly full of breakfast.  I know it’s hard, but try to trust us!  Tell us as much as you can about what you want and your lifestyle, and let us do the best we can in choosing the right puppy for you.  Our potential families have always been happy with the puppies we have chosen for them.  If for some reason you don’t like the puppy we’ve chosen for you, you are under no obligation whatsoever to take him/her home, and we’d prefer you didn’t…  No Hard Feelings, your being happy with our golden bundle of fur is of utmost importance to us. Our experience is that you will actually find that it is much easier for us to choose the puppy for you, than it is for you to make the decision for yourself.

“Pet Quality” vs. “Show Quality”

The differences between pet quality and show quality puppies are not usually obvious to the inexperienced eye. Sometimes there are no differences, as most breeders usually have more pet homes than show homes available for any given litter.  And since the grading of puppies is an educated guess, even the very experienced eye is not infallible.  Sometimes the difference is something about the bite, the way the puppy moves or stands, an angle of the shoulder blade that we feel in our hands, or that indefinable “something” that makes us guess/hope that “this one is a show puppy.”  And sometimes we’re wrong!  In any case, if we want to keep something for ourselves to show and/or breed, or if we have show homes available, we take our best shot at picking the best candidates for the job.  The rest of the puppies are really the lucky ones!  They are the ones that get to go home with you and lie on the sofa and play ball with the kids instead of working for a living. This is why I like to refer to pet dogs as companion dogs.  That is there first and most important job..... to be your companion, in your house and on your bed.  They have received the same careful breeding and raising, usually look just the same, and sometimes when we see them six months or two years later we wish we’d kept them.......  It makes us very proud to have our puppy buyers come back with beautiful dogs that fit the standard and are good representatives of the breed.

Limited Registration vs. Full Registration

Responsible breeders sell puppies as pets on Limited Registration and spay/neuter contracts. This is out of a sincere concern for the overpopulation of pets and because we believe that breeding should not take place “in a vacuum.”  The dogs involved should have something to contribute to the breed, perhaps have distinguished themselves in some way (in conformation, obedience, agility or field work); and the people involved should have educated themselves on the breed standard, health problems in Goldens in general and in the various lines, and be very knowledgeable about raising puppies and in finding and screening good homes for them.  We take continuing responsibility for what we produce, and hope that none of our puppies is ever accidentally or carelessly bred.

Limited Registration is a tool offered by the American Kennel Club for responsible breeders to protect their breeding programs and their puppies.  Limited Registration is just like “Regular Registration", except that Limited Registration dogs may not be shown in conformation, and their offspring may not be registered with the American Kennel Club. They may be shown in obedience, agility, and hunting tests and can obtain titles in all of those areas.

Limited Registration is reversible to “Full Registration", but only by the breeder of your puppy.  If you happen to join a dog club, start going to shows and then get bit by the show bug;  Or, perhaps you go to an obedience class where experienced dog people see your dog and exclaim, “He’s gorgeous! This dog must be shown and shared with the world!" We can of course talk about changing the registration to a full registration.  We’d like to see your dog, talk to you about conformation classes and made sure you know what you’re getting into if you think you want to even attempt to do this.  Dog showing is not for the faint of heart, or those with limited weekend time to travel or money to spend.  You should know by the time to have you puppy spayed or neutered whether this show bug has bitten you, and we can consider amending the contract; otherwise you will be expected to fulfill its terms and spay and/or neuter your friendly companion.  If you request to have “full registration”, then upon receipt of a letter from your vet on letterhead stationery stating that your puppy has been spayed or neutered, I will change the registration and you will get a new certificate from the AKC with a purple border instead of an orange border.  (That’s the only difference for pet dogs.)

Last update:  November 07, 2003