A New Puppy

Saying goodbye to Cinder was one of the most difficult things we have had to do as a family.  She was with us all the time, at home, at the shop, camping, trips up to MN, she was truly a part of our family.  After she was gone, things got quiet, too quiet and we decided we did want a new puppy.  At first we I was so close to buying a puppy from a friend of ours but this puppy was ready to go to a home right away and although I told John if he said yes we would get it I knew that we didn't have time for a puppy for a few months.  We had quite a few summer plans still in the works and I knew we would be so busy chasing all sorts of places, some which did not allow us to bring a dog with.

So we waited and I did A LOT of research and we decided we were going to go with a Golden Retriever this time around.  Overall, they seem like the best family dog and although Labs were a very close second, the temperaments of Golden Retrievers aren't quite as high energy as Labs.  After deciding on a breed, it was time to decide on a breeder.  This was very difficult.  There are so many things to consider when choosing a breeder and bottom line I wanted a healthy pup, one with hip, elbow, eye and heart clearances.  I also came across this awesome site called K9 Data where you can enter in the dogs being bred  and it will tell you your puppies coefficient of inbreeding (COI).  I used this tool quite a bit.  You can also view your puppy's pedigree up to five generations which then you can view all the dogs in their pedigree if they have all their clearances as well.  It was really helpful.

In the end I was trying to decided between a breeder in WI and a breeder in NE.  I was about to commit to the breeder in WI when I found out that they required you to feed a certain kind of dog food for the lifetime of your dog-it was actually written in the contract. WHAT?  So it sounds like good dog food and who knows, we might still feed it to our dog but to have to be committed like that...It all seemed kind of shady because I know the breeder received some kind of kickback because you had to purchase it through her website.  So we went with the NE breeder and I couldn't be more at peace with our decision.  She is the puppy referral person for central US through the Golden Retriever Club of America.  She has been breeding for many, many years and some of the puppies from her current litter are going to 2nd generation families.

Puppy's Mama

Puppy's Daddy

So we sent in our deposit and just waited to hear when the puppies were born.  We knew it was going to be the first week in September so we would be able to bring the puppy home the end of October which is when things start to slow down a little bit for us.  So the timing was perfect.  Meanwhile, I looked up my puppy again and found out that its grandfather is actually the Golden Retriever who holds the record for the most Best In Shows in Golden Retriever History.  haha.  We don't really care about showing and what not we just want a healthy, happy, family dog.

Well, last week we got the big news!  Our puppy was born!!  They actually had to do an emergency c-section a few days early because the mama was carrying 14 puppies!!!  Unfortunately, only 11 survived.  So our puppy was born on August 27th and shares a birthday with my dad and niece Piper.  I showed Elsie the picture of the puppies and she ended up carrying my phone around all evening and would keep looking at the puppies.

We are so excited and can't wait until the end of October to bring our little girl/guy home.  Although, we said we would prefer a female at this point I am indifferent to a gender.  Oh and no names picked out yet, in fact we haven't even talked about it.