Farmington Valley Golden Retrievers

We’ve been getting some great photos from the owners of a number of Emma’s puppies from her litter last December. I thought it would be fun sharing them with everyone.

First, Ken Muccino forwarded some images of Rosie with her older buddy Holly.

Then Janet and Andy sent a photo of Logan enjoying the end of the summer and their pool.

And my cousin Ron and his Barb just forwarded a few action shots of their Maggie and Sandy at the Newfield Dam.

Three of our friends/clients were able to take advantage of Cindy Jones’ litterful of girls. It won’t be long before these young ladies are enjoying their new homes.

As for our Riley and her possible pregnancy, the wait continues. I expect to do an ultrasound at the end of next week before I leave on my mission trip. Puppies in the basket would make such a nice departure gift.

Coming home this morning after call, I had made plans to meet our neighbor, friend, and fellow golden lover, Ken Muccino, at the high school. He left his twelve year old golden, Holly, at home and brought his almost one year old, Rosie. She is a littermate of our Lucy, and one of our Emma’s daughters. Emma is our five and a half year old, and the super alpha of the bunch. Despite our vigilence, she nipped Holly the first chance she had and actually drew a little blood.

Both Ken and I marveled that when you see how protective a mother is of her new litter, it is amazing that once the pups are a few months old, all recognition of their former young seems to vanish. I guess the instincts are put there to insure survival of the newborn, but once everyone is grown, as adults they all compete in the wild for a limited amount of resources, and so survival of the fittest becomes the law of the land.

As humans we have our multi generational family structure, and it is definitely a little sad to see a mom not recognize the animal she has given birth to!

Anyway, Rosie seemed to have fun with the other dogs despite the little nip. She has grown into a beautiful young lady. She was the smallest of the three females in Emma’s last litter. As you can see from the early and more recent photos below with Ken, she has certainly caught up in size.

Hopefully, with more runs together, Emma will become a little more friendly towards Rosie. Then Ken and I can relax, and share some good conversation on the high school fields while the girls romp.

With our dog family here being so young in age, extra energy is always in abundance. And the girls have gotten very good at teaming together and distracting me enough that a run is a necessity even when I’ve just gotten home after a 24 hour call shift. If I can’t reduce that energy, then some destructive behavior is usually the result, especially with Solo and Lucy. So off we go and a good time is had by all once we are all out in the open.

Now that we have been going on these runs regularly, the dogs are in very good shape. Riley is still a little chunky, but we are working on that. The energy required to keep everyone on leash and behaved until we get to the high school, and then be sure they stay out of trouble off leash on the fields is quite demanding. When holding all five on leash, they outweigh me in total by about 150 pounds. They are usually quite civilized, but occasionally group think seems to rule about a particularly close squirrel or other possible treat and then the going gets a little tougher.

I noticed today that despite five quick miles for the dogs, they came home with the same amount of energy that they left with. That means they want to go further, and that is not a good thing for me or my aging body!

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The weather until this week has been unseasonably warm, so everyone works up quite a thirst. The kitchen tile is cool to come home to, and it doesn’t take long for everyone to stretch out around the water bowls and start to relax.

Coming home, if nothing pressing is on the agenda, a short nap is just what everyone needs. If anyone has ever had a dog on their bed or cuddled their pet, you know how relaxing that can be. Of course when you have five big dogs that want to rest with you, there are some unusual configurations that result. Twenty paws, five tails, and five noses all must find a comfortable spot.

With over three hundred pounds of fur next to you, a blanket is certainly not needed. It takes about five minutes for everyone to find their space. Jockeying and jealousy occasionally happens. Each dog must be in contact with some part of your body before everyone settles down. For the dogs I think this brings back memories of the cuddling that went on in the whelping box as pups. Then the rise and fall of everyone’s breathing becomes a relaxing background noise that is unlike anything else I’ve found. Once everyone drifts off, the only interruption is the occasional short bark or growl with someone having a particularly vivid dream. I recommend this experience highly, although realistically who lets five dogs sleep on their bed? Only here in dogville with us crazies I imagine. Still I would add this to the list of the 101 things you must do before you die if you are a golden lover.

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PS: Berna of Pebwin Goldens of Cape Cod has again so generously and graciously agreed to let me take her GRCA 2007 Golden Retriever Dog of the Year, Mulder, for Emma’s insemination when she comes into heat. The only conflict would be if he is already has an engagement with someone else at the same time. So while we wait to find out about Riley, we are still looking forward with further plans. Of course this would mean another marathon trip to the Cape of back to back eight hour segments. A small price to pay though for the very rare opportunity to use a sire of this unmatched quality.

PPS: Congratulations to those who contacted Cindy Jones of Goldenjoy kennels regarding a female pup after the recent blog posting. Some excited folks will be taking home a new puppy in the not too distant future!

It was a very busy weekend trying to successfully achieve a good breeding for our Riley. Kudos to Cindy Jones of her Goldenjoy Kennels in Killingworth, CT., and my Barbara for all the time, driving, and stress involved in keeping the dogs safe and comfortable. “Natural breeding” is not at all like the romantic view portrayed in the movies like in “101 Dalmations”. It is a hot, sweaty, time consuming, and exhausting process for all involved. In comparing this past weekend with what happened with my efforts with Emma and Mulder a year ago at the Suffield Vet Clinic and their artificial insemination, I would say we are definitely leaning now toward doing things in the future the scientific way. Like in horse breeding, there is just too much left to chance, and too much of a danger to the animals to depend on the natural way. (My opinion, of course!). And since this is a blog read by young people, I will just say that the scientific way is similar to the natural in most regards, except that it is done in controlled circumstances with the help of a doctor.
Here is Riley today during her five mile run. Dirty, and wet equals one happy golden retreiver, and you can see just how happy she is despite the drizzle.

Still we won’t know if we have any puppies on board for about three + weeks.

I think I may have mentioned before that Cindy sold us our first golden retriever over twentyfive years ago. Our “Peaches” was a special friend to our children who were little then. Cindy’s facilities for her dogs are amazing. Here are a few photos taken of her indoor kennels with Barb and her husband Richard.

Cindy was off with one of her dogs doing agility training, so I can’t share her photo with you.

She has a beautiful litter at the moment of 7 females by her “Chloe”. The photo attached does not do Chloe justice. She is much lighter and prettier in person. And the pups are gorgeous.

Cindy told me that not all the young girls are spoken for. So for those on the list who are getting impatient and want a female, I invite you to email her at “[email protected]” or call her at 860-663-2953. We are certainly praying for a successful breeding with Riley, but with our recent difficulties with Solo, I want to give you all a chance for a quality puppy now.

While the weather stays summer like, the calender says fall. So the pool is closed for the year and the trampoline antics with the dogs have restarted. We had to replace the pool cover this year so it is much bouncier than our prior one. We don’t really want the girls running all over it and possibly damaging it, but there’s not much for an alternative. There is not enough room around the edge to place an electric fence so …

Still, everyone looks good from their frequent exercise runs. Riley is hopefully nearing her breeding time. The progesterone level pending from today will tell us if this weekend will be the moment! In the photo below, she is to the far left laying down.