Hi;
Reagan is now going to visit the Tyndall Nursing Home each Fri. at 10.00 a.m. and St. Michael’s Hospital in Tyndall each Wed. at 4:00 p.m. These pictures are taken at her visit to the hospital. She is so good with these people and most of them love seeing her. Of course, I remain extremely proud!

Marlene

Hi Barb,
I hope this finds you doing well! We’ve been thinking a lot about the Felt family and Rolling Oaks – of course, along with that is the ever-present question of “when will we get Crosby a sibling?” The boys would like the answer to that to be yesterday but Jim and I are thinking sometime around the first month of next year would work well. Our oldest son, Matt, is leaving for boarding school in the fall which absolutely breaks my heart, even though it is something that he really, really wants and has worked hard to achieve. Crosby is incredibly close to Matt so it will affect him deeply, I’m afraid. Thankfully, Matt won’t be too far away (~30 mins) and we’ll get to see him most weekends (and dogs are welcome at his school!!). Big news around here is that we’re moving! We’ve decided that we need a little more of a laid-back lifestyle than what the very stuffy and affluent town we now live in offers. We are moving to Concord, MA which is about 20 mins from here. We are incredibly fortunate to have found a great home that is “in-town” but also on the edge of a beautiful national historic park. We can walk to Church and the local stores in 5 mins and yet the walking path to the Old North Bridge (where the “shot heard around the world” was fired to start the Revolutionary War). Our actual yard is bigger than what we have now and has both a split rail fence and an invisible fence. Crosby has no idea what heaven he is in for! The town is obviously incredibly historical and sits on the edge of some of the most beautiful farmland outside of Boston. It just feels more like “home” to us and we are very, very excited for the move! We’ll be closing June 30th but because we are purchasing a former barn built in 1872 (converted to a Colonial home in 1911), we have some work to do on it and will not move in until July 14th. We are going to visit MN this summer but only for a long weekend as the boys’ schedules back here are quite full. I haven’t been home in over two years so I am very much looking forward to being back in the company of friends and family.

Anyway, I really hope you and your family continue to be blessed with good health and happiness. I’ve attached some pictures of our “big man puppy” (as he is affectionately called around here) – he is about 107 lbs and all muscle – he catches foxes, rabbits, anything that he wants, essentially, and gives deer quite the scare with is deep bark. He remains an absolute lover of people and is totally unaware of his size, thus earning quite the reputation of a bull-in-a-china-shop! Just another sweet, handsome Rolling Oaks Golden!
Much Love to you!!
-Kristin
P.S. – notice the Minnesota Golden Gophers collar

Dear Barb and Russ,

We just wanted to send you an update on our progress with Tahoe since he spent the week training with you. He is a changed man! All of his bad habits are gone, for example he used to bark at us for attention, he was always mouthing at our arms, he only came about 50% of the time when called and rarely laid down when told to. Now we have a dog that can be walked off leash, if he see’s another dog or a person he sits down and waits for us to get to him. He follows hand signals best in fact he will always come to an arm gesture. If he is away from us and we want him to stop we call his name, he looks, we motion for him to sit and he does it! We can even get him to lay down from a distance. When people find out he is only 9 months old they often do not believe us because he is so well behaved. It is hard to believe he only spent one week with you, it was well worth the time apart.

Thank you so much for your time and dedication.

Steve and Barb

Hi Barb, I was looking at your website and I realized I haven’t sent you pictures of Dakota (Captain & Ivy April ’08) in awhile. She turned 2 yrs. old this past April! Its amazing how fast time flies by. It just seems like yesterday I brought home this tiny little puppy that I could pick up without any effort! I remember looking at all the other adult dogs on your website and thinking it was so far away that my little puppy would grow up into an adult.

I get such wonderful compliments on her color and her looks; whether it be at the groomer, going for walks, from the vet, or from friends and family. Everyone says how well behaved she is. It just makes me feel like such a proud owner when I hear things like that, and it reminds me how she got such a great start when she was a puppy from you and your family. I can’t stress enough what wonderful things your family does for these puppies and I know how much work you put into them.

As you can see in her picture she LOVES to play with other dogs. We had a doggie play date the other day. All 3 of them have their tongues hanging out from a long day of playing! You have no idea how hard it was to get all 3 of them to sit and look at the camera! In the other picture you can see she likes to help herself to our bonfire wood – even if it is a log! And the last one was from this past winter during our Christmas day blizzard. Thank you for everything you and your family does! You do an amazing job!
Erin

Hey Barb!
Our whole family is loving having two dogs! They are getting along great and love to wrestle and play tug-a-war. Scout is from Ivy/Banner ’03 and Bailey is from Emmy/Captain ’10. Both dogs go to all of our sports events with our family. They are always swamped by kids and parents the second we get there, wanting to pet them. Everyone loves them! We have made sure that Scout has been getting as much attention as Bailey. Both dogs are so much alike. They both love people, toys, food and the dishwasher. Thanks so much for giving us so much happiness and two gorgeous dogs.
-Meghan (13)

Hi, Barb!

Just had to send you these 2 pictures. One is Mackenzie at 2 months old, the other of her at 2 years + 2 months old. My same shoes, same pose. She has always loved to lay on shoes….so cute!
Rachel

Hi Barb,

I thought you would like to know that Riley (Banner and Brandy 01/2002) just completed the training and testing to become a therapy dog. Never too old! Due to a couple of relatives being in nursing homes we had already visited many times (not all nursing homes require dogs to be registered therapy dogs). Since we went so often we got to meet many of the other residents. Riley has brought many smiles to many faces and we hope to continue that now. There are many opportunities for therapy dogs working with children, physical therapy and visiting with patients in hospitals. We will probably continue to visit nursing homes but would also like to work with children in some capacity. Riley is 8 years old and is starting to slow down a bit, just like his owner. Over the years we have had so much fun running/walking/swimming together, trying agility we which we had to quit because I kept getting injured (too clutsy) and now our new adventure becoming a registered therapy dog. I am so glad we talked to you at the state fair 8 years ago!!!!!!!!

My theory is all goldens think we were put on this earth to pet them and they are just trying real hard to help us out. I don’t know what I would have done with out his help!

Marilyn

Hi Barb, Russ, & family! Today we celebrated Moose’s third birthday. He is a very happy and healthy three year old puppy. We just wanted to send you an updated photo of him from today and let you know we couldn’t be happier with him. We hope everything is going well with your family and the extended Rolling Oaks family and want to wish the rest of the Zena/Captain litter from May ’07 a happy birthday!

Sincerely,

Mike, Erin, & Moose

Hi Barb, Russ and Family,

I hope this email finds you enjoying the beautiful spring we’ve had!! We have gotten a great start on farming and can only hope and pray for the best crop.

I, along with many others, check your website multiple times per week to see new photos and updates. I have some recent pictures of our goldens and would love to share them with you! We can’t thank you enough for giving us such wonderful, amazing dogs!! Morgan will be 10 years old this September and Jersey will be 3 in July. It’s so hard to believe that Morgan will be 10. You can tell she’s starting to slow down a bit and can’t even fathom the day she’s gone. We’ve never had a dog that’s so cuddly and demanding of attention as Jersey. She’s so spoiled and heart warming. Enjoy the pictures and keep up the excellent work.

Sincerely,

Casey and Myron

Hello Barb!

Wanted to share with you some new photos of Belle (Ivy and Banner Dec 2006).

Belle is doing wonderfully and is such a good dog! We couldn’t be happier with her and her temperament. Everyone who meets her loves her. Belle has many many friends in the neighborhood who come to visit her each day. Every time I look out the window when she is outside I see someone who has stopped to greet her or play with her, this includes other dogs. kids and adults. The neighbor kids often take her across the street to the park while they play lacrosse, football etc so she can run with them. She loves it of course!

As you can see from the pictures- Belle and our daughter Natalie are truly best buddies! Natalie just turned two and has taken over feeding Belle. She makes sure that Belle gets her breakfast and dinner everyday Natalie also got a big girl bed recently and Belle is pleased as now it is easier to snuggle!

The fourth picture is what we call her “alligator” pose. She lays like that all the time and we always think she looks like an alligator laying around the house. She has always been a pretty big girl but she did put on some winter weight that we are working on taking off now that spring is here. Everybody comments on her size as she is a very big dog but we couldn’t imagine her any other way We affectionately call her our ” big yellow moose”.

Take care, we hope all is well!

Chad and Jamie