Farmington Valley Golden Retrievers

We are very happy here in dogville that the sun is finally out and Spring is starting to blossom. The Nor’easter we endured last week dumped enough water on us to make our dogs think they were amphibians rather than Goldens. It’s a toss up between what is harder to endure: a week of constantly muddy feet or wet dogfur. Still, these little crosses make the good times feel all the sweeter.

I took Riley and Solo to Vermont over the weekend to see how much damage we had suffered up there with this last monster storm. Both females are about two years old and best friends. Usually we have the whole Golden family with us, and the older ones keep the younger ones in line with obedience and response to commands. Riley and Solo alone though, pretty much acted as two year olds with lots of spirit, adventure, and doing what they wished rather than what I wanted. The snow melt was in full force and there was ponding wherever there was a patch of level ground. They loved running through the woods sniffing for game only as much as exploring the new water features. Still, they made me laugh with their antics. The weak sunlight shone off their golden coats in an amazing way, and I just marveled at how beautiful they both looked in nature’s backyard.

Of course back home we had Lucy our four month old also following her instincts to swim and explore. We had so much rain last week that there was a pool on top of the pool cover as well as below. Lucy took full advantage.

Only a golden puppy could find so much adventure hunting a floating leaf!

We also got great news today! Riley passed her OFA clearance. All her credentials are finally in place and now we just await her next heat for the breeding to occur. That heat should be arriving in several months. Our fall litter hopes now seem much closer to reality. Solo turns two in June and then she will have her OFA clearance done to complete her credentials.

We are hard at work sorting out the potential mates for our Riley and Solo. This will be the first litters for both of our females. Presently at the top of the list are three most excellent males with great personalities. All have top of the line medical clearances.
The first is “Rudder”. He resides in the Eastern CT area and is owned by the breeder of Goldenjoy Kennels, Cindy Jones, who sold us our first golden over twentyfive years ago.

Next is “Abbott” from Pebwin Goldens at Cape Cod. Berna and Peter Welch do an amazing job with their very large family of retrievers.

Third up is “Mr. T”, also of Pebwin Goldens at Cape Cod. These two photos taken from a distance do not do him justice.

And then next winter we will return to the amazing “Mulder”, the Westminster Winner of 2004 and the Eastern Regional Champion of 2006. He was the sire of our Emma’s last litter and is now the father of our last nine beautiful goldens.

So for all those folks who are awaiting our fall and winter litters, be rest assured we are proceeding with the utmost care to assure you a beautiful golden in appearance as well as health and personality.

Tomorrow is our younger daughter’s 24th birthday. She now lives out of state, and so we were celebrating it here this weekend. Not being a shopper, I was trying to think of some way to make this birthday special for her. So, after she left, I pulled out the old photo albums and lost myself for awhile in the memories that resurfaced from years past. I realized how our goldens have intertwined themselves into all our outings, adventures, and big occasions over those same years. They always managed to bring a special element to everyone and everything whenever a crowd gathered. Kristen, being our youngest child, was around the most when we started breeding as a serious hobby. Our older children were already away at schools. So we have lots of photos of her helping with the pups.
I have picked out some of those special moments with our different litters. If you will bear with the sentimentality of a father looking back on those long gone years, I think you will see how special our goldens have been to all of us here. Along with the work that Kristen put in to help.

I hope Kristen will be pleasantly surprised (and not mortified) to read this blog episode tomorrow morning.

Mom and dad wish her a birthday filled with “golden” moments, and happy reminiscences of the memories these photos have brought to us.

And to our readers, we hope that sharing our photo moments with you will trigger thoughts of your own adventures with your goldens. Whether already cherished memories or dreams of adventures to come, they all start with the love of this amazing breed.

Yesterday I had a nice adventure that turned out very well for all of us here who want puppies again soon! Our Riley is now two years old, which is the magic age for getting her hip and elbow clearances for breeding. Barb and I co-own Riley with Sydney Waller our mentor, and Donna Talbot a breeding colleague and close friend. We took Riley along with her sister Ebby that Donna and Sdyney own, and a cousin golden, Haley, that Sydney owns, to get their hips checked. There is a special vet in Warren Rhode Island that Sydney has used for years. He is able to get good XRays without the use of anesthesia which is what most vets do. The purpose of the films is to weed out those dogs that might be carriers of whatever genes express hip dysplasia. Dogs with unacceptable scores will not be allowed to be bred if you are a responsible breeder. This test should then theorectically decrease the incidence of this undesirable finding in dogs of large breeds.

The XRays are sent to a national clearance house called the Orthopedic Foundation of America and are graded by their people so that the results are uniform and there is no cheating. We will all get our OFA clearance report in the mail in about two weeks. Here are Riley’s films:

Happily Dr. Mello, thought that all three dogs would have no problem passing their OFA’s. So we had a pleasant and happy ride home. At least we won’t be on pins and needles awaiting the scores. This is the last clearance test for both Riley and Ebby and then we will have two moms to be waiting for their next heat and their chosen male companions.

Both Riley and Ebby are offspring of our original Abby. When you get together with breeders and discuss lineage lines, it quickly gets complicated and mind boggling sorting out who is related to who and where different parts of your line came from. Thankfully, there is now a computer program that helps you do that. Before we left Rhode Island we plugged Riley and Ebby into the Linneage Manager software and came up with several potential males in the New England area that would complement the size, color, bone structure, and personality that we are trying to achieve with our breeding. If you look at the faces of Riley, Ebby, and Haley, you can see they are very similar due to their parentage.

Happy holidays to all.

Hello again! After a short timeout to recharge our batteries from Emma’s last litter, Barb and I were hit this past week with a bout of the flu. So we haven’t been up to a lot of photo taking or blog writing. Plus we are new puppy owners ourselves (Lucy: formerly Miss Pink), so that has added an extra dimension of work onto the usual chores.

However, we were able to get everyone out today for some exercise. My least favorite sub- season is this mudtime here in New England. The dirt and wet hair along with all those wet feet make house cleaning a chore that I imagine ranks right up there with mucking out horse stalls. All credit to my Barbara for keeping her sanity during these next few weeks.

We have been getting some great pictures from some of our new owners that we would like to share. No problems reported with any of the puppies in any way and so that leaves us beaming as proud grandparents.

Thanks to all who have been sending us their photos. We wish everyone a quick end to this mud season that is upon us. And what better photo to end today’s blog than this one that sums up the blessings of a puppy’s life.

Thanks for the great photo Ken!