How do you say VanGoghlden? Most people get it but some miss our pun here. It’s said Van Golden. Now look again…..the artist of all the artwork on this website is Van Gogh. So VanGogh-lden. We are Dutch so yes we know in Dutch it isn’t pronounced like Van Go however in the US that is how most people say it. We are proud of our Dutch heritage and we think our dogs are a work of art. So hence, VanGoghlden. 🙂
Do you have English Creams? There is no such thing as an English cream breed of dog. They are all Golden Retrievers. While the breed originated in the UK and many of our dogs are light gold/cream in color they are still Goldens. We do however have english style dogs. We do produce many puppies that are cream in color. We also have dogs that are medium gold and they are still english style dogs. When I say style I’m referring to their build. Our dogs typically have the big blocky heads, significant bone etc. Our pedigrees also go back to England or Scotland (By the way so do the American dogs just not as recently). In some cases the parents of our dogs were directly imported from England. But these dogs are all Golden Retrievers not a different breed of dog. “English cream” breeders love to tell you their dogs are healthier or rare or have better temperaments than the American lined dogs. The facts are that it’s what’s in the family health history and pedigree. Just being cream in color or going back to overseas lines doesn’t make a dog healthier. What is important here is how well does your breeder know what health concerns are in a given pedigree. I’ve seen far too many english cream breeders out there with no name/no title pedigrees selling their rare white dogs for insane amounts of money basically trying to get one over on their puppy buyers. Please please do your homework! If I’m not the right breeder for you, I’ll be happy to refer you to another reputable breeder.
Do you have rare white Goldens? Goldens don’t actually come in white. You can get very light cream but white is not actually genetically possible in a purebred Golden Retriever. Beware of breeders selling Great Pyrenees mixes as purebred dogs.
Do you breed Goldendoodles? Absolutely not! There are plenty of mixed breed dogs at the pound if you want a mixed breed. Goldendoodles are notorious for having far more health problems. Instead of hybrid-vigor, in reality, the dogs now have the risk of health issues from both the Goldens and the Poodles. Many have temperament issues. As an animal behaviorist/dog trainer doodles are great for business because of all of their issues. They are also rarely hypo-allergenic. While I have certainly met some very sweet dogs that are doodles, I personally will never contribute to breeding mixed breed dogs. I stand by and thoroughly agree with the Golden Retriever Club of America’s position on doodles that can be seen here.
How big are your dogs? Our dogs are breed standard which means that our males are roughly 23″-24″ at the shoulders and should weigh between 65-75 lbs. Bernie however is 78 lbs in his ideal weight. Female dogs are roughly 21 1/2″-22 1/2″ and should weigh between 55-65 pounds. We do have two different styles of Goldens in our program one being more “polar bear” like and one being more “athletic” in build. If you would like to see the Golden Retriever Club of America breed standard you can see it here. The UK kennel club allows for a slightly different size range. males: (22-24 ins); females: (20-22 ins) If you would like to see the KC breed standard you can see it here. While we are obviously in the US and members of the GRCA our dogs are imported from overseas and were bred with the UK standard in mind.
Do you breed hunting dogs? While our dogs certainly have the aptitude for field work, we do not breed specifically for high drive dogs. If you are looking for the best bird dog, we probably aren’t the right breeder for you. There are several great field lined breeders. Our dogs could certainly do part time duck hunting with the right training. However, if you are looking for the fastest, eat sleep and breathe duck dog we aren’t the right one. Our dogs are pretty laid back. We go for the therapy or service dog temperament. We have several of our puppies who have gone on to be therapy or service dogs. We have dogs that work in schools, work with autistic children, are support dogs in a mental health facility, PTSD service dogs and more. We strive for dogs who want to please but also are capable of laying around and watching movies with the family if there is a blizzard for a week and won’t care that they didn’t get a walk every day. They also should be ready to go for a several mile hike or work all day. We don’t want sloths but we want go with the flow. In other words, our dogs aren’t right for everyone. Side note: If you are specifically looking for a therapy or service dog be sure to tell us that. Not every puppy is made for this. We temperament test each puppy and carefully select each puppy for our families.
Do you have a kennel? We do not have a kennel. All of our dogs live in our home as members of our family. We do have built in runs inside our home instead of crates (we are crate training advocates) for our younger crew that are our own dogs. We also have three large separate areas fenced in. One for our girls, one for our boys and one for our young puppies. Our property is on a beautiful river and we put in a pond that our dogs can go swim in on our acreage. Our dogs often enjoy spending a lot of time outdoors when we are out there. (They are typical Goldens they want to be where we are so fortunately we have a large house for our several dogs because when we are in they want to be inside too) Our young puppies are also raised in our home so by the time they go home they are nearly bomb proof. They end up sleeping soundly through, vacuuming, dishes, instument playing, kid crying, things dropping, cats jumping in by them, big dogs visiting and even a parrot squawking. They are initially born in a very calm and peaceful area of our home and live there for the first few weeks but as they get bigger we start socializing them like crazy. By the time they are 8 weeks it’s typically not as big of a deal leaving their litter because they are so easy going and go with the flow.
How many litters do you have per year? We typically have two or three. The most we have had in a year is four and we’ve skipped breeding all year before as well. It depends greatly on our schedule as a family, what’s best for our dogs and of course we are very dependent on their heat cycles. When we have puppies we dedicate several hours every day just to them. It is a lot of work to raise a litter the right way and we aren’t willing to sacrifice the amount of time we spend with each and every puppy in order to have more litters. Every litter we have is a family decision since there are also four human children that live here as well. The kids are very involved with raising and handling the puppies so their schedules also have to work within the right time frame. The timing that the girls come into season also plays a big role into it. Sometimes, we have plans to breed and the breeding doesn’t take. There are so many things that come into play. Your best bet is to fill out the questionnaire and ask to be notified when we have puppies available.
How many dogs live with you? Bernie and Ben are our adult males that live here as our service dogs they will never leave even once retired from our breeding program. Liza is retired and lives here as our pet. We do have several younger dogs here at any given time. (Dogs that are under two years of age which is the age they can get final clearances. Dogs that are in the training/evaluation stage and do not have their clearances yet.) We are extremely picky on which dogs make it into our actual breeding program. They not only have to be structurally sound and well balanced, they must have the ideal temperaments. If a puppy/dog is too shy/submissive, or too dominant, they will be ruled out. Food aggressive, hyper active, overly needy etc. Any of these types of things will rule them out of our program. Then they need to pass all of their clearances as well. We do have some adults that live with us once they get their clearances. They will then retire to pet homes. Many of our adults are in our co-ownership program. This gives them the opportunity to be loved on with more one on one time than living in our pack. We are always growing up some puppies (that require training) so this is ideal for those special enough to make the cut. This question is rarely a clear cut and dry answer for a responsible breeder. If you kept them all you’d quickly have too many dogs and be doing them a disservice with the amount of one on one time you could give them or you’d never be able to move forward in your breeding program and keep the next generation. But if you’d like to please ask me about them I’ll happily talk your ear about exactly which dogs I have and why I’m keeping them. 🙂
Do you do health clearances on your dogs? We absolutely do on every single dog old enough and always before breeding a dog. Our dogs all get hips, elbows, heart and eye clearances. They also get DNA testing done for ICT 1 and 2, PRA1, PRA2, PRCD, DM and NCL and will on any new ones that come up. We always do the heart clearances with a cardiologist and not just a vet practitioner at this point we are doing echocardiogram which is the gold standard. For hips we may use OFA. For elbows we use OFA. OFA is pretty much the standard in the US. In the past I was using BVA (British Veterinary Association) some as it gives us more information as breeders. With OFA being the most common in the US and BVA being so much more expensive and it being a bit confusing along with them not having a central database like OFA for US pet buyers I switched back to OFA. If you see them on some of the grandparents that is why. I of course have those clearances and will always provide copies of those on any of my dogs. In some cases, I may have a dog get both PennHIP and OFA or OFA and BVA etc.
What is your focus on in your breeding program? We breed with two main goals, temperament and health/longevity. While we enjoy showing our dogs, we prefer our puppies to go to pet homes. So while we do try to make them pretty we care even more about them having great temperaments and great health. A gorgeous show dog that bites and drops dead of cancer at age 2 is a tragedy. I’d take a dog that loses in the show ring, that is sweet and lives to be 16 over the previous scenario every single time. As a breeder of over 28 years I’ve noticed an increase in the energy level of Goldens. For me these guys are pets that just happen to be show/breeding dogs. I can’t live with several dogs that are bouncing off the walls. We want to see happy, friendly and calm in our dogs. I’ve been greatly bothered by hearing of so many dogs dying early of cancer. I get calls several times a week from people who just lost a 2 to 8 year old dog to cancer. It’s beyond devastating. We work very hard at studying pedigrees and searching for cancer free lines. While no pedigree is perfect knowing what to look for is key. We study not just the dogs shown in the pedigrees but the aunts, uncles, siblings etc We have gotten dogs from all over the world and some from the US as well. While we can’t guarantee a dog won’t get cancer especially late in life we can certainly look at the statistics. One of our lines typically sees 14-16 years of age and we hope to have that for all of our dogs. Our other focus is service and therapy dogs. Many of our puppies end up as service or therapy dogs. That’s not to say every breeding produces the ideal service dog but certainly some breedings are intended for this purpose and most of our puppies are great therapy dog candidates. We are not likely to produce you the fastest agility dog (although they can happily do it) but we are likely to produce you are great therapy dog in almost every single litter.
If we place a deposit can we get “first pick”? Years ago I used to have all of the families come over and pick their puppy in the order their deposits came in. The problem with this is during that hour or so the family is here, our “wild child” puppy could be taking a nap and the most mellow puppy could be having a burst of energy. We spend all day every day with these puppies. They all get evaluated for temperament and structure. An empty nest couple needs a very different puppy than a family with four young boys. What I do now is find out as much about each family and their lifestyle as possible and match the right puppy with the right family. We want our puppies to be successful in their new homes and our families to adore their new family member and this is the best way to make that happen.
Is there a benefit to putting in a deposit early if you pick the puppies? Yes! A deposit holds your spot on our waiting list. We have deposits in for litters that have not yet been bred yet. How it works is when we have a confirmed pregnancy we contact our waiting list. The waiting list hears about a litter before we even announce it on our website or Facebook. If the timing is good and the family feels the parents are what they are looking for then their deposit holds their puppy. If the timing isn’t right or they want a Bernie puppy for example but I used a different sire then they go to the next litter. Our waiting list alone can reserve an entire litter. However, if you do not want to commit and put down a deposit we recommend that you fill out our questionnaire. If a litter is not completely spoken for we notify the people who have taken the time to fill out the questionnaire first.
I just want a pet so why should I care that the parents are show dogs? I often get told that someone doesn’t care what titles the parents have because they just want a pet. Well, you actually should care even if you never plan to set foot in a show ring. A dog having a title tells you a few different things. For one, the breeder believes in this dog enough to invest a lot of money into getting the dog a title. Showing of any kind is expensive. This tells you the breeder values the dog enough to spend a lot of money on that dog. In other words, it’s not just some neighbor dog that was convenient fathering the litter. Secondly, this also tells you a lot about a dog. If the dog has an obedience title then you know it is probably a smart and easily trainable dog. A desire to learn and train is something inherited. If the dog is a conformation champion this tells you that the dog is most likely built correctly. This isn’t just a beauty pageant award. What this tells you is that the puppies are more likely to be more well balanced and structurally correct as well. Why do you care? The mechanics of moving with four legs instead of just two is far more complicated. A dog incorrectly angled in the rear for example could have too much drive coming from the rear and the front not able to move out correctly. In the long run the dog spending it’s life trying to compensate is going to put more wear and tear on those hips and elbows. This is not to imply if the dog doesn’t have a conformation title that the dog isn’t correctly balanced. Many dogs that have produced amazing show dogs do not have titles themselves but when looking at a pedigree it’s my opinion that you are going to want to see some kind of letters in front of or behind the dogs name on at least the majority of the pedigree. Side note: many field dogs do not compete in conformation and are incredibly correct movement-wise. You won’t be the first one diving in the water to get the duck if your body mechanics are way off.
Are you the right breeder for me? I am definitely not the right breeder for everyone. If you are looking to get a puppy and never hear from your breeder again, I’m the wrong one! I invest an incredible amount of time with each and every puppy I raise. I am responsible for the quality of life my babies have. I tell more people no than I do yes. I require a minimum of yearly updates on the puppy. Some families text me three times a week and some I have to bug to get the yearly update. I know the name of every single puppy I’ve ever produced, which litter they came from and probably the color collar they had on as a baby even ten years down the road. I’m not intrusive but I am involved. Part of what you are paying for when you get one of my puppies is me. My knowledge as a breeder and being involved in Goldens for 25 plus years and my degree in animal behaviorism is part of the package. If you have a behavior or training question I’m here for that. I have a Facebook group that is just for the families that own our dogs. This is just one of the ways we connect as a group. You get to see fun pictures of your puppy’s siblings, aunts, parents etc but it’s also a way to ask questions and get the feedback from not only me but from our other families, many of which are veterinarians, dog trainers, groomers, breeders or lifetime Golden owners. If a health concern comes up for your puppy’s relative at say 13 years old, we want to be able to let you know what to look out for in your own dog. Bottom line, if you don’t want a lifetime friendship to some extent, I’m probably not the right one. Again, I’ll happily refer you to another great breeder.
What food do you recommend? We only feed and recommend Purina Pro Plan. This is in our contract that our puppies must be fed ProPlan. I will happily give you many reasons why but at this time one of the main reasons I’m now adamant that all of our puppies and dogs are fed ProPlan has to do with the current study. Dr. Joshua Stern is doing a Golden Retriever only study to determine why Goldens are dying young from taurine-deficient dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Most of the other dog foods are gaining protein from legumes instead of meat. Dogs are suffering because of this. It is a recent development due to dog food companies not doing clinical feeding trials before their products go on the market. I have included the link to the study below. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0209112&fbclid=IwAR1gevFewTHNrkRLmTYN3tvjH90k1rzsDtMI-f0nDsUI8SBsJ6rcoZu6wBc
