Farmington Valley Golden Retrievers

As the summer progresses, some of our new flower beds have developed colorful changes. Our goldens are happiest when by my side, so whenever I am doing yard chores, they are very close by and make excellent company. But I also have to accept their canine nature to chew and taste anything that interests them. As you may have read before, most things with color and texture are fair game. (“Planting Flowers“, “Weeding Chores“). A little thing like fences doesn’t seem to stop them.

They seem to have a particular fondness for geraniums, coneflowers, and daisies. Of course humans also use ecchinacea for herbal remedies, which comes from the coneflower family. So the dogs may know something about herbal health that we don’t.

Solo has also taken a personal interest in the few pumpkin plants that I grew from seeds. I planted five different kinds of pumpkins, but only three plants of one kind came up. So my vision of a large Charlie Brown pumpkin patch this fall has gone the way of many another summer dream. But as anyone who gardens seriously knows, you are always planning at least one year ahead in your mind. Will try harder next year a little wiser in the way of seeds.

Breeding News: Today we had excellent initial news about Solo’s hips and elbows. Dr. Steve Feldman took the required XRays on his machine, and using his new digital processor, we got to see the films on his laptop instead of the standard XRay viewing box.

His wife and able assistant, Lisa, will then send the results by email. This saves the inconvenience of having large XRay films being handled and mailed to the Orthopedic Foundation. I was amazed at the security features Lisa explained that are in place with this digital email system. All to prevent fraudulent dog results from being certified. Because of my profession, I always assume folks are as honest as we are. Sadly, especially in the dog world, many are not I was told. We will await the official report, but based on Dr. Feldman’s experience, it looks like Solo will join Emma and Riley as fully certified to be mothers of purebred golden pups. We still await the start of our Riley’s summer heat. Hopefully, any day now?

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.

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.

Today was another first for the pups. Semisolid food out of two community dog dishes. The start was a little slow while the pups sniffed and tried a taste. Before too long though they were eating with gusto. And when stuffed, they did their usual group cuddle and probably had some very pleasant puppy dreams.

We also met more special golden people today who have reserved a pup. Several more families are coming this weekend. Will put everyone’s photo on line with the next post. I’m on call again this weekend so no more posts until Sunday.

The energy and movement in the whelping box is increasing dramatically every day now.

They still don’t interact that much with each other yet but that is soon to come. When Barb cleans the whelping box, the pups are now crowded into the little white box. As little as four or five days ago, they fit there nicely.

As you can easily see, they want to move and see the world now. These energy episodes are still fairly brief, and they fall asleep soon after to nap and then want to eat again. We will be starting the puppy food this weekend. Then the mess and cleanup work really begins.

We had two future golden retriever lovers visit yesterday from Barbara’s school. At this stage of their lives, the puppies are so cuddly and small that they don’t intimidate even the youngest children.