Farmington Valley Golden Retrievers

Today we all had a lot of fun. Sydney our mentor from Jamestown Rhode Island brought Maureen, Donna, and Karen to assess our puppies. Each puppy had about seven tasks to react to, and then was graded on bone structure and conformation to the golden standard. Almost 100 hundred years of golden breeding was present in our kitchen, and Barb and I realized we have so much to learn yet.

All the puppies scored well with no major deficiencies of any kind. It was obvious from the way the nine pups reacted to the various tests that although they are grossly uniform in their coloring and size, there are definitely personality differences when looked at closely. We were able to contact some of our potential puppy owners with their choices, and the rest will be called tomorrow. Barb started her day early with bathing and drying all the pups by herself, as I was still away on call. Everyone here in our household is very pooped tonight and we shall all retire early.

Many thanks again to Sydney, Maureen, Donna, and Karen for sharing their time and expertise with us on this Saturday afternoon.

Our big dog family is very comfortable now with the parade of people in and out of here on almost a daily basis.

Lily and Solo have met one of two of the female pups that we have carried upstairs, but we haven’t put anyone on the kitchen floor yet. That will be where the testing is carried out this weekend, and the pups are not supposed to be familiar with the setting. Part of the test involves stressing them a little to see how they react. Riley is the only one who has ventured down into the whelping area to see what all the noise is down there. Emma doesn’t seem to mind anymore, but when we are upstairs with a pup, she doesn’t take her eyes off it. Their lives will soon change with the addition of another junior member.
Downstairs the puppies are definitely wanting more attention. They are probably getting bored with the same scenery and want some distractions. I sat in the box tonight and served as a chewing board for some very sharp teeth. This morning I was surprised to find that three or four of them had torn up the linoleum in the patio area and were busy trying to destroy more.

So when people ask, how can you give them up, they are so cute?, it gets to be very easy when you consider their needs and how much energy and love they are waiting to share with their new families. It’s almost time.

So as we all start this final chapter of Emma’s Magnificent Litter, everyone is anticipating the weekend for a slightly different reason. Our soon to be puppy owners are awaiting the word of the testing process so they will finally know who they will be bringing home. The judges (our veteran breeding friends) are interested in seeing how the breeding selection turned out, Barb and I are hopefully seeking high marks for our efforts, and of course the puppies are just wanting someone to love and make happy.

The waiting is almost over.

Whew. What a weekend of activity we just had here in puppyville. I think the puppies are having withdrawal after all the people contact. They are expecting more hugs everyday, but now it’s just Barb and I until the weekend when the judges for the temperment testing come. I imagine all teachers and coaches can emphasize with us here. Every litter that you’re in the middle of seems special. With this being our first winter litter, there are a lot of firsts. Plus we never had the website before and the blog allows me to send information in a much more organized way to everyone. We also never had to work so hard at achieving a litter with all the special veterinary help we used. So this is a special group of pups.

Here is the parade of special visitors from this past weekend:

Despite the increasing amount of work, I can feel already the withdrawal pangs of a litter too soon to leave. So we will live in the moment as our Abby taught us, and enjoy every day that we have left.

I know everyone wants to see their pictures from the many friends we had visit this weekend. They will follow tomorrow. As a breeder I was impressed with something that happened late yesterday, that I would like to share with all of you. As everyone knows, the purpose of this website is to showcase the beauty of our dogs and the level of care and love that goes into their development. Another part though, is education of the public into the care of dogs in general, and our breed’s traits more specifically. Months ago when we were planning the sire for our gentle Emma, we looked for many positive traits that we wanted to strengthen in our line.

These traits included color, conformation, size, abscence of genetic illnesses, and mellow personality. We had heard of Mulder the Westminster winner and admired his looks. Show dogs by training though, usually have that extra little fire or spirit that sets one apart from another in the ring of gorgeous dogs. That works well in shows but maybe not so well for families. I remember our mentor Sydney, cautioning us when we were choosing the sire. If you look at the celebrities in our society disgracing the media pages, you can see what I mean. Lots of fluff and energy, but no substance. I had a great feeling though when I met Mulder and brought him from the Cape for his romantic encounter. But this has been on the back of my mind in a small way until yesterday.

One of our last visitors, Sue, is an elementary school teacher. She and her husband Bob got right into the pen to help them decide on their top three picks. She put all of the males on their backs.

This is one of the most important tests that Sydney and her folks will be doing this weekend when the puppies are tested. It reflects a pup’s submissiveness and gentle personality. All six of the males accepted this position with no hesitation. So When I saw that, I smiled inside and felt very good about our long ago decision in picking Mulder. I think that the judges coming this weekend will be surprised to find how uniformly gentle the pups are. So I will go out on a limb before the testing and claim that we have been blessed with six boys that will have the swagger and looks of John Wayne in his prime, but with the heart of Jimmy Stewart in “Its a Wonderful Life”.

I won’t go out on a limb with our little females to compare them to movie stars, but they certainly have Hollywood looks from my biased perspective. They also have ball retrieving interest as well as a little fire when pushed.

Of course everyone is best friends when it’s naptime.

And what an unmatchable Valentine’s gift one of them would make for that special him or her…

Week six is underway here in dogville and everyone was up early. For the second time Miss Orange managed to climb over the whelping box walls and stir up all her siblings. We took the inner railing off after the first escape but somehow she managed to stretch herself over anyway. At 3:30 AM I heard everyone squeaking and Emma jumped off our bed to see what was up with her children. No harm done, just that everyone thought it was time to start the day.

We have a full schedule of visitors for this weekend with friends and new owners starting this afternoon. Everyone got fed, watered, and held. Then it was weigh in, pedicure clipping for all those growing nails, and then first baths. The biggest males are now close to or over eight pounds while the females are ranging from five and a half to seven pounds.

This is our first winter litter so the pups haven’t gotten as dirty as when they are out in the grass and mud as with a summer litter. Still there is nothing quite as good smelling as a clean puppy, unless maybe a newborn baby! The pups did very well with this new experience, although they each quivered a bit with the hair drying. Afterwards everyone cuddled in a big fluffy pile and took a well deserved nap.

Then it was upstairs where I mentioned the word “walk” to the big dogs. You can see the chaos that gets ignited when I say that word. So then a few miles out in the very cold frosty morning and then back.

Hard to believe all this happened here before 8 AM this morning!

Now all that’s left on my list is the lemonade, and chocolate chip cookies to make for our scheduled guests. And of course hopefully an unscheduled nap somewhere along the way.