Timber

Had a great time training on the weekend. Our first really spring type day. One of Timber's bumpers landed in the tree. I sent him expecting that by the time he got to it, it would have fallen. No such luck, however, Timber figured it out all by himself. Smart boy. Timber is Tidewaters Northern Gladiator. Owned and loved by Joanne in Manitoba.

Bella and Fisher

We're pleased to announce an upcoming breeding between Bella and Fisher.  Bella is a Rowan and Leia daughter from our December 2010 litter and we're thrilled to have the opportunity to breed her.  Fisher is Ch Deauxquest Hard Day's Knight UD, MH, DDHF, VER, RAE, TD, WCX, CCA, VCX.  Fisher is an amazing dog who lives and works with his owner Anney in Florida.  For more info about Fisher, visit his website at http://www.go-fisher.com.  Watch here for more updates and we're in the process of updating the website with the details.

...and more puppies!

Remember these babies?  I sure do - they must be the most photographed golden retriever puppies on the planet.  They are our Rowan and Leia puppies from December, 2010.  Mark bought me a new camera for my Christmas that year...and I opened it on Christmas Day.  The day these babies were born.  

And why are we headed down this memory lane you ask?  Well, two of those babies are going to be mommies this year.  We've done health clearances for Bella and for Reba and with the very fantastic, generous support of their owners in allowing us to lease their girls, we're going to have puppies!

Bella is in season now.  She came in at the Clearance Clinic on the weekend which was a bit earlier than we expected, but not a bad thing, considering her clearances went so well.  So, she'll be bred this spring with puppies anticipated late June/early July.  We'll breed Reba in the fall.  

We have a huge hole to fill in our hearts, missing our sweet Bree.  Puppies will go a long way to making that hole feel a little smaller.

Puppies!

I really need to find some better pictures of Sage.  Well, TAKE some better pictures of Sage.  If I took some now, she'd be mad, because she's very fat.  She's very fat because she's PREGNANT.  We're expecting Sage and Rowan puppies the first weekend of May.  We had her ultrasound done a week or so ago and the doctor saw a good size litter...5 or 6 in there.  As I've said before, we really only use ultrasound to predict pregnancy, not for a puppy count so 5 or 6 could mean 3 or 4...or 8 or 10.  We won't know until they show up!

Ranger

Crispin

Spent Saturday morning at the Golden Retriever of Greater Toronto's health clearance clinic.  Pretty much every breed of dog has some form of genetic health disorder and Golden Retrievers are no different.  We work very hard to make sure that our puppies are as healthy as they can possibly be.  We check every one of our breeding dogs for orthopedic disorders like hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia.  We also check for eye, thyroid and heart conditions before they enter our breeding program. Doing all these clearances greatly increases the odds of healthy puppies, free of the inherited diseases that are common in our breed.

I'm pleased to say that Crispin passed her eye and heart exams with flying colours.  She's too young yet to have her hips and elbows checked, but once she turns 2, we'll do that.  Ranger passed his eye, heart, hip and elbow exams as well.

We also met up with Wendy and Bill who own a couple of our Rowan/Leia puppies from the December 2010 litter.  Wendy owns Reba and Bill owns Bella.  Both girls were checked for eye, heart, hip and elbow disease and also passed without issue.  And you'll read more about that later.

Upland Test at Luther Marsh

Rowan and Ranger had a LOT of fun at Luther Marsh HRC's Upland test this past weekend.  Ranger got 2 passes towards his Upland Hunter title, going 2 for 2 on Saturday.  He figured out pretty quickly what was going on and was very serious about getting his birds.  Rowan went along for the ride and got to be test dog as he already has his upland title.  He had fun chasing birds and generally being silly.  Thanks to Pat Van Bregt for the great pictures of Rowan.

I'm devastated to write this.  It's taken me over a week to sit down and write this post, primarily because I still have a hard time believing it.  We lost our Bree last week to Lyme's disease.  We took her up to the vet because she seemed a little bit "off" and because she had just been bred I was concerned that she might be a bit dehydrated.  No one was very concerned at first, primarily because she wasn't exhibiting any signs of being particularly sick, just "off".  Over the next six days, she just got sicker and sicker and eventually, Mark and I had to let our vibrant, happy, wonderful much-too-young dog go on to the next stage in her journey.

Needless to say, it's been very, very sad around here.  The bond we have with our dogs is hard to explain, but I can say that the ones who are born into your hands take a giant piece of your heart when they leave.  Mark and Bree had an extraordinary bond - she adored him to the point of worship and that feeling was reciprocated.

I want to say that we've had amazing support from our veterinary team and from our good friends.  I can't thank the people around us enough.  For sharing in our sorrow and for supporting us in moving on.

For those of you who were expecting a Bree and Drake puppy, we'll be in touch over the next week or so.  As I said, we're really struggling to cope with this senseless loss, but we certainly understand that you've lost as well.  We're putting out some feelers to make other plans and want to get some of that nailed down before we call.