We started breeding golden retrievers almost 38 years ago. Russ gave me our first golden for New Years. We had no idea then what would become of that little gift! We fell in love with the breed. We were so young and didn’t know much about breeding. As time went on we had some amazing people take us under their wing and coach us. A turning point in our philosophies came in 1992. We were approached by the local county fair board and asked if we had puppies to bring to the kiddie barn. Our three oldest children were 12, 10 & 8. We gave them the responsibility of staying with the puppies at the fair.
Those puppies were held by hundreds of people. That litter turned out amazing. We had vets calling us asking what we had done to produce such a nice puppy. From then on we held each puppy every day, from the time they were born. We took them to various places with their littermates to acclimate them to new environments. All the socializing makes a difference in their health and development. We are still a family business. We include our grandchildren now in raising our puppies. One of my favorite things about my job is being able to teach my kids and grandkids about life on a day to day basis. The kids used to complain about all their responsibilities, but they have grown into entrepreneurs, owning their own companies and incorporating the same guidelines and principles they grew up with. It makes me smile.