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So what is so precious and so wonderful about this particular litter?
First of all, each litter is carefully planned. This one is no exclusion. We do not take any Dam and breed with any Sire. Distance is nothing when it comes to producing a great litter with the qualities we are looking for. For example, Max lives almost 500 miles away from us, and surely, we could've bred Leia to some local male. But that's not how it works with us. You won't believe the time I personally spent looking for a perfect Sire, researching genetics and all considering factors: diet, weight, health clearances, temperaments, etc! We did have two more sires ready for us here in NY, but once again - close doesn't mean good.
Let’s look at HEALTH:
- Both Sire & Dam have healthy hearts and eyes (yearly certification), which mean the puppies will have their hearts and eyes free of hereditary diseases. These tests to be done yearly, not once in a life-time, at board-certified Canine Cardiologist and Canine Ophthalmologist, not just by any veterinarian looking at your eyes and saying, “They are fine”. Leia had her exam on April 1, 2010 at Cornell Animal Companion Hospital (we are currently waiting to receive OFA Heart and CERF eyes certificates). Max had his heart and eyes certified on May 15, 2009 with ARCH and July 24, 2009 with CERF.
- Both Sire & Dam have passed hips and elbows scoring (certification on hip and elbow dysplasia), which allows them to breed, thus, the puppies will have strong hip and elbow joints. Leia has Good/Normal rating on hips and elbows accordingly, Max has Good and Normal. Max has tested his hips and elbows with BVA.
Elbows only come in normal and dysplastic grades. Hips come in excellent, good, fair, borderline, mild, moderate, severe. Breeding stock should have their grades “excellent”, “good”, “fair”. Out of 124,251 Golden Retrievers tested for Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, only 3% came back with “excellent” hip rating and 20% were dysplastic – that is 24,850 dogs! Almost 25000 Golden Retrievers out of those tested AND agreed to post their bad results have hip dysplasia. How many have never been tested, or didn’t allow their bad results go public? Think about that!
- American Goldens very often suffer from cancer. Cancer has been inbred on American continent. English Goldens have less cancer. By breeding American Golden to an English Golden we’ve reduced the chance of the offsprings to have inherited cancer by at least 25%. Many people pay up to $10,000 trying to save their beloved American Golden from cancer. Leia's ancestors lived on average 12.8 years, Max's ancestors lived on average 13.6 years. (as far as we could trace and with available for us information such as birth dates and death dates). Can't live that long if dog has cancer of any type.
- English Goldens outlive American Goldens by almost 2 years on average. Leia’s ancestors lived anywhere from 11 to 13.5 years, Max’s – from 13 to even 16 years (which proves the point also). Thus, the puppies should combine their lifespans and should naturally live for about 12-14 years in general. Living long life when you’re healthy – what can be better?
- Both Sire and Dam are on high-quality dog food, and so will be your puppy while with us. Sire is on Honest Kitchen Embark, Dam is on Innova Red Meat for Large Breed. The food choices have nothing to do with the prices (expensive equals quality - not always) but the result of a long and careful research. Want to know more? Click here (opens in a new window). This fact should tell you that the pregnant Dam receives excellent set of nutritions and vitamins during the time she was caring your future family member. How important is that? Your puppy receives the same high quality food during very important first weeks of life while with us, not some Purina or Ol'Roy, filled with corn and chemicals.
- Knowing that the litter parents are within their breed’s standard weight, you know that during conception they both had their inner organs in place and working normally. Obesity is not good for humans, and it is not good for canines as well. The normal-weight Dam is hardly to have any complication during whelping. A good start is a good start!
Some breeders (names are not mentioned, of course) are actually proud of their 100 lbs Sires.That is more than 30 lbs of excessive weight! Unfortunately, it’s not muscles. It’s plain fat surrounding the inner organs, clogging the arteries, thickening the blood, causing heart to work double-strength, putting more pressure on dog’s joints and making such Sire a "couch potato" simply because it is hard for the dog to carry such weight around. The couch potato attitude is usually described as “calm and sweet disposition”. What are the chances of having a healthy litter of puppies from such a Sire?
Now, let’s talk OTHER GENETICS.
- Light Golden Coat: Cream is not golden, no matter how you turn it. But we all know that there’s a precise science of genetics! That’s one of the reasons that possessed us to go for Max: this litter is a blend of English Cream and American Golden. Leia carries red and cream genes (her father is cream). According to our calculations, we should have the following coat colors with Max & Leia. Max carries double cream (both father and mother are cream). Leia has cream and red. They should produce offsprings with mostly light golden coats, darker than Max but lighter than Leia. Of course, there might be some puppies like Max and like Leia (unlikely since she only has one red gene, and Max's genes are both cream). True Light Golden retrievers! :)
 The same technique applies to puppies’ hearts, eyes, hips, elbow and everything else. Normal hearts, normal eyes, normal hips and elbow, normal behavior, finally. What we are striving for, as any sound breeder, is to have that perfect puppy, of course! With a puppy from this litter, you surely can compete in AKC confirmation, and, if you choose not to, your dog is still up to the AKC Golden Standard, yet light and simply outstanding.
We are trying to have light Goldens, not English cream. Big difference. We are breeding to be as close to the standard as possible.
- Temperaments of both parents are truly golden! Max and Leia are both sweethearts, love to be with people, need to be with people (as most Goldens), but are not attached to the hip to their family members, they are family-dogs and non-aggressive in any way. Goldens were bred to work under human's directions, thus they are dependent on people. That's where the love and need comes from. Both dogs are well animated, however, Max is more mellow, Leia is more active. Your puppy will inherit the best of both. If you would like to receive in-depth information, please click here to read this post (opens in a new window). In addition to that, we socialize our puppies, for it is very important! Our dogs are inside animals. We do not keep them in kennels in the backyard 24/7. We don't even have a kennel outside! We have invisible fence. And still, the dogs spend most of their time with us, inside or outside. At night they are always inside. They simply know HOW to coexist with humans and HOW to be a human companion and family member. The mother teaches her kids how to live among humans, and you bet your puppy will learn the essential basics from the Dam.
- Leia is highly sensitive, and any of Leia's offsprings, after proper training, would make great service, assisting and therapy dogs to help persons with visual, hearing or other types of disabilities. Leia has such a high level of sensitivity that usually described as "dog's ability to feel upcoming seizures and asthma attacks" (I have researched this subject so I am very informed on this particular matter).
- Leia is a prey-oriented canine, and she has a very strong prey drive. Two of her offsprings in the first litter (Bentley & Barry) go hunting very often, and proved to be promising hunting dogs. They are just a year old right now, so they are still learning. Yes, Leia would love to go chase some squirrels, but she “behaves”. Rogue, Leia's daughter, is starting her hunting career right now.
- Other things – small and big - to appreciate: no car-chasing, no stool eating, no chasing tails (which is actually a compulsive disorder), no fence-hoping (trust me – Leia easily can climb over a six foot fence with the run-start on command), no aggression, plenty of intelligence, bea
 uty, loyalty, affection, reliability, and more. While you may think that those types of behavior depend from dog to dog, think about this: all kids learn from their parents. Dog temperaments are highly hereditary, that has been proven long time ago, so are the habits. A puppy from a Dam with stool eating problem will most likely to do the same at some point. I don’t know how about you, but I cannot stand that disgusting habit in dogs (whatever the reason it has), and luckily my dogs don’t do that. It may sound weird, but I know for a fact that dogs, just like humans, inherit a lot of things from their parents.
- Leia and Max both have good pedigrees. Both parents of Max, for example, are World Winners. (Dam just received the title) and has excellent pedigree to begin with. Leia has 405 champions in her pedigree just on her father side (we just found that out through extensive research). What does it tell you? Your puppy will be very close to the standard of the breed. And it's not just about the exterior, it's about temperament as well. Who wants a Golden attacking strangers? Who wants a Golden with inadequate reactions to kids?
But don't get us wrong - you need to work on your pup to become a healthy and sound adult! Remember: we give you a puppy, you create the dog! Environment and care that you provide will affect the quality of your dog. But, having a good puppy with good genetics will surely ease up the job!
There are many benefits in obtaining our puppy, and the decision on what dog you will have for 12-14 years should NEVER be based on price and distance alone. There is more than meets the eye, and you should know that your puppy is pure gold, and was treated like one while here with us. Many people have very high expectations of this upcoming litter. Can’t wait to see the puppies!
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