Archives for July 30, 2013

Before You Buy Your Puppy - Educate Yourself About Your Breeder!

Before You Buy Your Puppy - Educate Yourself About Your Breeder!

As discussed in my last blog, before buying a puppy, there are many things that the careful and wise buyer wants to educate themselves about to ensure the best experience possible.  Once you have figured out which breed(s) suits/interests you and have educated yourself about the positives, negatives and potential issues, including health issues, the final step is to find possible breeders of interest and most importantly at long last - your puppy!  Many breeders are doing their due diligence to produce and raise the best puppies possible.   0thers are just giving this lip service, and with all the seemingly "right" answers to questions, it is not always easy to tell the difference.

No one can guarantee a healthy puppy.  Just like human couples that do "everything right" during the  pregnancy will say "we do not care if we have a boy or a girl, as long as the baby is healthy".  Even with the utmost of caution, things can and do go wrong.  Some have perpetuated the notion that a responsible breeder can guarantee a perfect and normal outcome in every way and that anything wrong is the breeder's fault.  Just ...

Breed of the Week: Golden Retriever

Breed of the Week: Golden Retriever

As entertaining, happy and hard-working dogs, golden retrievers have become one of the most popular breeds in the world. They consistently rank among the most-registered breeds in the U.S., U.K. and Australia, and serve many roles with an unrivaled eagerness to please.

Developed in Scotland in the 1800s as a water dog used to retrieve shot fowl, golden retrievers descend from a non-descript “yellow-colored” retriever, two extinct breeds (the St. Johns water dog and the Tweed water spaniel), Irish setters, the bloodhound and wavy-coated black retrievers. This combination of dogs set the stage for the modern golden’s characteristics: love of water, superb scenting ability, trainability, biddable disposition, desire to retrieve, soft mouth and intelligence. A well-balanced dog, golden retrievers possess soundness of body, character and intelligence (author Stanley Coren ranks them as the fourth most-intelligent dog).

While they were originally bred to retrieve waterfowl for hunters, and they still perform this duty today, golden retrievers have successfully crossed into all roles of canine athlete and assistance dog. Owners of golden retrievers compete in field trial and hunt tests, agility, flyball, obedience trials and the conformation ring. They are also used extensively in search and rescue, detection (from ...