Frequently Asked Questions
Your new puppy will go home with you at eight weeks of age. He or she will come with their AKC paperwork, a microchip, a personal blanket that smells like mom, and a goodie bag from the Kansas City Golden Retriever Club!
We offer two puppy training packages for your needs. Our first program spans for 8-12 weeks, and our second from 12-16 weeks. See our training tab on our menu!
Yes! Our puppies come with a 26 month limited guarantee from the day they were born. We guarantee your puppy will be free from debilitating congenital defects including hip, eye, cardiac and elbow issues. Please see our puppy contract for more information.
We absolutely believe that crate training is the way to go in most instances. It creates a safe haven for your puppy, and it helps with potty training, as most puppies typically won't soil where they sleep. I crate train every one of my personal dogs for these purposes, and also because a dog that is comfortable in a crate can be taken almost anywhere conveniently.
We decided to import many of our dogs from Europe because the bloodlines there are some of the best. All my dogs that I purchase from these top kennels have champion parents and also have long lines of champions throughout the pedigrees. Championed dogs mean they have won awards for looking a certain way, of which we call "breed standard". I have come to love the look of the European lines, as they typically have big, blocky heads, a sturdier build, and a lighter hair coat. In addition, European goldens tend to live longer and have less incidences of cancer in these lines.
Our bloodlines range from Romanian, Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish, and some American. When outside stud dogs are picked, these may incorporate different lines into ours. If you are familiar with different kennel names, our dogs have lines from Dewmist, Thevenet, Tramin, Clear Passion, Golden duck, Remington, Morning Valley, and many others.
Our adult dogs will undergo genetic testing by Embark labs for PRA1, PRA2, ICT, NCL and many other tests that are run for Golden Retrievers. I also do a PennHip test when my puppies are around eight months of age to get a good picture of how their hips are. When dogs are old enough, they will receive additional tests for their eyes, hearts, elbows and again, another hip test and all of these will be registered by the OFA.
When we purchase a golden retriever for our breeding program, we fall in love immediately. From the second they arrive in our arms, we have 100% involvement in their lives from grooming, to training to trips, etc, not to mention them being in our home with us at all times. There is no way we can keep a dog for it's breeding years (typically 5 or 6 years of age) and then give it away to another family. There would be a hole in our hearts. For that reason, all our dogs that breed here with us at our facility stay ours for life. Therefore, we have created a guardian program for other dogs that would be great breeding candidates that won't be housed with us. Please see our guardian tab below for more information!
We will never have any of our personal adults for sale, but in the event a puppy buyer cannot keep their dog, we welcome them back into our home with our guarantee. If this is the case, we could have one for sale, but great care is exercised to make sure this never happens!
To make sure every dog we choose to breed here at DWGR has a wonderful home for life, we have started a guardian program for very select individuals. Because goldens require many things to have a wonderful life, we always want to make sure the dogs we breed are taken care of exceptionally well. Because this gets harder with the more dogs you own, we find families that can help us with this by placing guardian puppies with them at eight weeks of age so that the dog never has to be re-homed when the dog retires. This special family will be involved with us in many aspects of the process during the dogs breeding years, and then when retirement comes, this dog stays in the comfort of its forever home with the family she has always loved. Guardianship is definitely not right for everybody, but it does offer the family participating a front row seat to our program and can be a very rewarding experience for the right candidate. We thoroughly enjoy getting to know our families and knowing that our dogs are getting the best love imaginable. Typically, a guardian will get a prospective puppy from us for half of our normal price. This price will be refunded after the first and second litters have been born depending on the amount of puppies in the litter, and then subsequent litters will bring an additional thank-you payment to the guardian family.
All of our dogs and puppies stay in our house with us every night of their lives. We treat them as members of our family and would not do this if our dogs had to be kenneled for an extended amount of time. We truly do love interacting with them and having them near us! Please note that we do crate our puppies, and occasionally adult dogs, but this involves them being inside our house in their personal crate. This helps us keep our dogs and puppies safe if we are away for more than a few hours. Puppies can be chewers, and some adults too!
Many of my dogs will go show for the UKC or IABCA when we have the chance. At this time it remains somewhat of a challenge to show in AKC events, because while lighter color goldens are a accepted by the AKC, this club typically is known for the American look, or darker colored goldens. Unfortunately this makes competition hard when you're the only one with a very light dog that looks different from its American counterpart. Depending on each dog's personality, we sometimes try our luck at tracking work or Rally events. I enjoy doing training with all my dogs and each one will get their Canine Good Citizen title by the age of one or two years old. Two of my females are getting into therapy work, and our male, Trek will be doing this too as soon as he is old enough. Most importantly, what I enjoy most with my dogs is a Sunday romp at grandma and grandpa's house on their ten acres. There are paths, and creeks and more sticks than a goldens could ever fetch there. Above all the activities we do, watching my dogs just be dogs is what makes me the happiest!
A lot of new information has come out since I started working in vet offices over 20 years ago. Originally the idea seemed to be to spay and neuter ASAP! This had its benefits in that it prevented unwanted litters and therefore saved the lives of animals. But many things have changed and more research has been done, especially where golden retrievers are concerned. From everything I have read, I think altering your dog could be a good decision for most owners if done at the right time. This typically means no earlier than 18 to 24 months old when they are completely done developing as to not affect the growth of their bones and ligaments. Hormones play a role in this, and removing all their hormones at an early age can be detrimental. It should be noted that if you do wait until the appropriate age, the utmost of care must be taken to not let your dog breed with any unintentional mate. Male dogs and dogs that are in estrus will do amazing things to "get at" each other and it literally only takes 10 seconds and a head turn for it happen. Conversely, there are procedures that can be done to keep your animal from reproducing while still keeping their hormones in tact. The ovary sparing spay for females and a vasectomy for males can also be performed if desired. This is a newer procedure and not very many vet clinics perform it but we found Northland Animal Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri performs them both and are extremely knowledgeable on the subject! We choose this OSS procedure with our females when they are done breeding so they can keep their female hormones in tact without the risk of an unwanted pregnancy or uterine infection (Pyometra).
Golden retrievers are an amazing breed, but one that comes with a lot of involvement regarding their health. Goldens are prone to cancer, elbow dysplasia, hip dysplasia, and can also be at risk for skin, eye, heart and genetic issues. Good breeders take this to heart and do whatever they can to prevent all of these issues as much as possible. In order to get an amazing breeding dog, test after test needs to be done to rule out these issues before a dog can even be considered good enough to have offspring. When you add in all the extras that goldens need such as grooming supplies, money to be championed at shows, food, housing, events, and the original cost of a champion bloodline dog itself, it makes sense why it costs so much to purchase a great puppy. No matter who you choose to purchase a puppy from, ask lots of questions. If the breeder does not know the status of their breeding dogs' hips, elbows, and all those mentioned above, you cannot be sure you will be getting a healthy puppy. While a discount puppy might appear to be a great deal up front, paying upwards of $7,000 PER hip to repair dysplasia is not a good deal in the end, not to mention watching your poor dog go through the pain. It's important to note that a breeder should always have "papers" on their dogs too or you risk them not being registered with an organization like the AKC. Failure to have registration papers can mean somebody is breeding limited registration dogs (not breedable) without permission.
Yes! I am a board member with the Kansas City Golden Retriever club, and I am also a member of Good Dog, an organization that screens breeders and helps them be the best that they can be!