My name is Kara VanDenBerg and I, along with my family, have been breeding Golden Retrievers since 1996. I grew up with dogs all of my life but my parents only wanted smaller dogs. So at 18 I bought a house with the main purpose of finally being able to get my dream dog, a Golden Retriever. I was fortunate enough to buy my first show dog from Ellen Manke of Amberac Golden Retrievers. We love Goldens of all types and colors and have been blessed to have amazing Goldens from the US and overseas. Over the years our breeding program has evolved and we are now breeding English type Goldens.
I have my degree in animal behaviorism so temperament is of paramount importance to me. Any dog that is food aggressive, overly shy, or any extreme from the breed standard will not make it in our breeding program. Our dogs are our pets first and foremost. We have four young daughters and the dogs live in our home with us, our kids and our cats. We do not own a kennel and our dogs are our family. When you get a puppy from us you can be assured that it is very well socialized with kids, cats, and dogs. One of our cats actually sleeps in the whelping box with the puppies so they grow up thinking of cats as friends and siblings.
My very first pet Golden came from English lines. He lived to be 16 years old. Meanwhile my show lines were not seeing that kind of longevity. With incidences of cancer increasing and longevity not being where I wanted to see it I started looking closer at import pedigrees. (I’m not implying you can’t get longevity here) As both an adult whose dogs are like children and a mother of human children that are attached to their dogs the thought of having a dog drop dead at 6 from hemangiosarcoma or one of the other big cancer killers is terrifying to me. The facts are you love your dog no matter if it sees 6 years or 16 years and I for one want the most I can get out of my dogs. (Don’t we all) There is absolutely no such thing as a perfect dog or a flawless pedigree but we’ve spent countless hours studying pedigrees to do our due diligence on finding the healthiest lines we can.
After temperament and health/longevity we try to make them beautiful. We like to show our dogs. However, we realize that most puppies are going to pet homes and while everyone wants a pretty dog we realize it’s not everyone’s goal to compete in conformation. That being said our dogs come from some of the top show lines worldwide.
Golden Retrievers are our passion. We breed for the betterment of the breed. We do everything in our power to improve the breed while producing the best temperament, health and beauty we can. We’d love to talk with you further about our breeding program.
We are members in good standing of the Golden Retriever Club of America and strictly adhere to the Code of Ethics set forth by the national club.
We are members in good standing of the Golden Retriever Club of Canada