Choosing a Golden Retriever Puppy
A dog is the product of three things: Inherited Temperament or Personality, Genetic Health, and Environmental Experiences. All dogs are not the same - the health, temperament, and trainability of your dog will depend almost entirely on the genetics and early experiences of the puppy you adopt. Understanding the importance of ancestry, genetic health, and your pup's experiences since the day he was born is the best first step you can take when considering adopting a puppy.
While your influence after you bring your puppy home will have a profound effect on its development, starting with the wrong pup can spell disaster regardless of your experience, love and attention. We hope this information will help you bring the right puppy home, giving you a good chance for a happy, healthy, and long-lasting relationship with your new dog friend.
Pet shop puppies, 'backyard' puppies, and shelter puppies give you the same thing - no background information on health, temperament, or any early experiences. While many good dogs are the result of pet shop, backyard, or shelter adoptions, it's important to understand the risks. Reputable breeders with a commitment to enhancing their breed and a reputation for top-quality dogs are your best option for finding a happy, properly socialized, healthy puppy who will mature into a happy, well-behaved, healthy adult.
Where do you find reputable breeders? You can call the AKC for referrals, contact your local Golden Retriever Club or Kennel Club, visit the Golden Retriever Club of America's website at http://www.grca.org or attend local dog shows and talk to 'Golden people'! The Greater Twin Cities Golden Retriever Club has a Puppy Referral Service also, and you can get Breeder information from their website at http://www.goldens.org.
The three most important factors when choosing a puppy are health, temperament, and the pup's early experiences and opportunities for socialization. Let's look at each of these individually.
Finding a healthy puppy is absolutely necessary if you want a healthy adult dog. The health of a puppy comes in two forms, genetic and non-genetic individual health.
Genetic health is guaranteed, in a written contract, by good breeders. The reason they can guarantee genetic health is because they have spent the time and incurred the expense involved to ensure that the dogs they choose for breeding are genetically healthy and have genetically healthy ancestors. Unfortunately, many Goldens suffer from genetic problems such as Hip Dysplasia, Elbow Dysplasia, Cataracts, and Heart Disease - crippling or even fatal diseases! The financial expense associated with any of these problems is staggering, the heartache is worse, and the number of Goldens suffering these problems is increasing rapidly due to the popularity of the breed, which has led to a proliferation of poorly planned puppy mill and backyard breedings.
So how do you know if the breeders you meet are breeding only genetically fit dogs? They will show you proof!
Hip and elbow x-rays, cardiology examinations, and thyroid panels are evaluated by the Orthhopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA). Dogs free from genetic hip and elbow dysplasia, genetic heart disease, and thyroid disease will be certified by the OFA, and the breeder will show you the original certifications (an official OFA certificate with the dog's full name, registration number, and hip or elbow evaluation). If the breeder can't show you certificates for both parents, and ideally for the grandparents too, find another breeder!! It's that important!!
Opthalmologic reports are evaluated by the Canine Eye Registration Foundation (CERF). Dogs free from genetic eye diseases will be certified by CERF and, again, the breeder will show you the certification (an official CERF certificate with the dog's full name, registration number, and CERF number). Again, if the breeder can't show you this certificate for both parents (and grandparents is best), you need to look elsewhere.
The breeder you choose should also be able to knowledgeably answer questions about other problems characteristic of the breed, such as allergies, hypothyroidism, epileptic seizures, and other orthopedic problems such as panosteitis, osteochondritis dissecans, and luxated patella.
Unfortunately, there are far more 'people breeding Goldens' than there are 'reputable Golden breeders'. The first category, without the knowledge (or perhaps without the desire) to ensure genetic health, continue to produce genetically unsound pups and then sell them to uniformed families who get caught with their hearts in their throats and their pocket books empty over problems that arise later in life. Don't settle for, "our dogs have never had any problems", "our vet says our dogs are very healthy" or, "our dog's parents were OFA'd" - that's just too risky where the life-long health of your pet is concerned.
Before you bring a new pup home, it should have been fully examined by a veterinarian, and the breeder should send the examination report home with you. Be sure you can return the puppy, for a full refund, if your veterinarian determines he has any health problems when you first bring him home.
To ensure individual health, find a breeder who marks each puppy as an individual from birth. By marking each puppy with an identifying collar, the breeder can assess each puppy on a daily basis to identify and correct problems. A concerned breeder will weigh the puppies daily for the first two weeks and weekly after that, provide supplemental feedings when necessary to ensure proper development, examine eyes, ears and noses, keep nails trimmed and coats clean, take temperatures when warranted, and will provide you with a copy of all this information for the puppy you take home. Without this diligent, daily concern, your pup could easily go home carrying weeks of underdevelopment, overdevelopment, contagious diseases, or any other host of problems.
Seems like a lot to worry about? It is! Just remember that a healthy puppy will grow to spend the next 15 to 20 years with you. Take the extra time now to ensure a healthy companion later. All of these health concerns should be guaranteed in a written contract - something all responsible breeders provide with each puppy they place.
So, you want a dog just like Fido? Well then, you'll need to find the right puppy. Your adult dog's personality will predominately be the result of the temperaments of your pup's ancestors and your pup's early experiences (from birth to 16 weeks). So, where do you come in? Well, if you're lucky, you get the last four to eight weeks of that. And who's responsible for the rest! Yes, the breeder.
Temperament is genetic. Shy dogs produce shy dogs, aggressive dogs produce aggressive dogs... Yes, each puppy in a litter is an individual, but the range of personalities in a litter are based on the personality and temperament traits of its ancestry. With this in mind, be sure to get to know the dam and, if possible, arrange to meet the sire as well. If it's not possible to meet the sire, be sure to ask questions, look at pictures (of him in interactive situations), even ask if there are any videos available of his interaction with people, other dogs, etc. If you can meet the grandparents of a litter too, great. (Many experienced breeders have more than one generation of a good line living in their home.)
If you are happy with the personalities of the parents, it's time to move on to the individual puppies. Within a litter, there may be a range of personalities - from submissive and less confident, to dominant and self-assured, to independent and uninterested in people. Adopted into the wrong situation, the first will become shy and fearful, the second aggressive and dominating, and the third difficult to form a workable relationship or bond with. So, which puppy in the litter is best for you? This is where an experienced breeder is invaluable. A good breeder will know each puppy very well by the time they're ready for new homes; it's even likely that each has been evaluated through a Puppy Aptitude Test. This knowledge, combined with information about you, your lifestyle, and your expectations that you've discussed with the breeder, should be the determining factors in which puppy you go home with. Most good breeders will place each puppy in the most appropriate home, rather than pass the responsibility for choosing the right puppy on to the new owners. Because it is impossible to assess a pup's true personality in 15 or 20 minutes at 7, 8 or 9 weeks of age, decisions made by new owners usually are similar to the 'luck of the draw'. If you're looking for a gentle, easily trained companion, you definitely don't want to mistakenly choose the adorable quiet puppy (who is now tired and quiet after an hour of wrestling!) whose true personality suggests he should be placed in a working situation that requires high energy and strong will! Find a breeder who truly knows the pups, learns about you, and places each puppy where it is best suited.
Without the proper socialization and developmental experiences during a puppy's critical developmental period from two to twelve weeks of age, even a healthy puppy from nice parents will suffer. Properly raising a litter of puppies takes, above all else, time. Make sure the breeder you choose focuses on the raising of each litter as an important and full-time endeavor.
First, in order to develop enjoyable reactions to human handling and interaction, pups need to be handled from day one. A litter that is weighed and examined daily is off to a great start. By two week of age, eyes and ears start opening and pups need to be exposed to a variety of sights and sounds to enhance the development of these senses. To raise outgoing, curious pups with optimum mental development and lack of fear, a breeder must expose them to a variety of stimuli - carpet, linoleum, gravel, wood, bright lights, darkness, vast open spaces, tall grasses, small rooms, music, voices, loud noises, birds chirping, dogs barking, vacuum cleaners, developmental toys, stairs, distant gunshot, pigeons, the works. Find a breeder that has introduced the puppies to every room in the house, a backyard full of logs and leaves and birds, big open fields with lots of things to see and investigate, lots of toys, climbing obstacles, fences, and more. (If you're looking for a confident, eager gun dog, early gun and bird experiences are essential too.) Puppies who see only the inside of their whelping box, basement, or garage for eight weeks will be developmentally lacking and very uneasy when asked to acclimate to the real world.
Second, make sure your puppy has enjoyed an impeccably clean environment - concerned breeders will clean and disinfect the puppy area at least twice a day and usually three or four times. Ideally the puppy environment is set up so the puppies can eat, sleep and play in one area, and eliminate in another. Pups adopted from a clean, healthy environment that is set up to take advantage of a pup's natural instinct to be clean, will be delightfully easy to potty train when you take them home. (Pups who are used to eating, sleeping and playing in their own mess lose their natural inclination to leave the 'nest' to eliminate and will be much more difficult to potty train - sad for the puppy, difficult for you!)
And last, but far from least, is the breeder's responsibility to foster individuality and comfortable relationships with people in each pup. From 5 weeks on, puppies should be taken away from the litter and encouraged to interact alone with people for at least 15 minutes each day, which fosters the development of individuality and an understanding of relationships with people. Without sufficient individual attention, you'll take home a pup who is devastated to leave the litter and uncomfortable with people as a substitute for his dog pack.
Don't be afraid to ask detailed questions about the experiences and interactions provided by the breeder. The mental health of your pup, and the ease with which he becomes a happy, confident part of your family, are dependent on the answers.
If you've begun your search, or are just starting to think about it, please feel free to email. Even if there are no pups on the horizon, we are always happy to answer questions or talk about Goldens! Before applying for a Golden Acres Golden, please read all of the following articles!!
More Information on Backyard Breeders