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We decided as a family in 1991 that the time was right for us to have a dog. After long discussions about which breed of dog to have, the Golden Retriever was the unanimous winner. Being very naive and in our haste to get a puppy, we made our first mistake - we purchased a puppy we later found out to have been bred on a Welsh Puppy Farm. Megan was a ‘one-man’ dog, (my husband Kevin’s) and although she performed well in obedience, her temperament was far from what one should expect from a Golden Retriever.
In 1995 we decided to get a companion for Megan. This time we did our homework and found a lovely litter bred quite locally to us. Mollie was one of 11 and we were able to visit her regularly until we were able to bring her home at eight weeks of age. Mollie was born in a farmhouse surrounded by loving people. She was a dream to train and her temperament was and still is exceptional - even at 12 years old and continually pestered by her granddaughters to play!
Tragically, Megan died on Boxing Day 1998. It was then I decided to go ahead and have Mollies relevant health checks done as I desperately wanted another dog like her. Fortunately her hip-score was low and her eye check clear. But breeding from her was not as easy as I’d anticipated. I found a proven stud dog - whose pedigree tied in nicely with hers and was also a dog with a good temperament and even introduced them prior to her coming into season. Unfortunately, after a successful mating, no puppies appeared. We repeated the mating 9 months later and this was again to prove a fruitless exercise. I was very disappointed but remained determined and decided to have a third and final attempt. Through friends, I heard of a lady who lived locally who had bought a Stanroph Golden Retriever to use at stud. As this dogs pedigree also worked very well with Mollie’s, and he had passed all relevant health checks, and, although unproven at the time, we went ahead. Mollie adored him - Bart - and after a successful mating, produced 5 puppies - 4 dog & 1 bitch. This meant I had no choice in which puppy I was to keep. We named the bitch Ellie-May she is a fantastic dog and we all love her to bits. She is a bit hyper-active but she has not an ounce of nastiness in her entire body.
15 months later we repeated the mating, this time they produced a litter of 6 - 5 bitches and 1 dog puppy. I again kept a bitch puppy from this litter - Sophie.
Mollie has long since retired from maternal duties and now spends her days as quietly as possible. Owing to house moves and other commitments, we have only recently had our first litter from Ellie-May from which we kept a bitch puppy Tilly. Sophie had her first litter of 3 dog puppies to Xanthos Black Thorn in March 2005. In July 2006, she had a litter of just 2 bitch puppies by Pandreft Playing the Game. I have kept one from this litter - Mia. As Sophie appears to have small litters, we decided to mate her again - but would you believe it - she had a litter of 10! Again I have kept a puppy from this litter - Maisie. She coped brilliantly and is now having a well deserved rest.
My daughter Kelly has always wanted a male dog. In 2006, we decided that we would buy in a dog instead of keeping one of our male puppies. We spent several months looking around and were delighted to find Jaffa - who was bred by Janice Hughes. His parents come from well established lines in Goldens and he has developed into a stunning looking dog and is a credit to his breed. He has an exceptional temperament and is loved by everyone who meets him. Jaffa has had all his relevant health screenings done and scores are very good. We have now taken the decision to offer him at public stud to approved bitches only. For further details please see Stud Dog page.
I have been a member of Seaford & District Dog Training Club since 1991 and have taken all my dogs there as puppies and progress each one through the Kennel Club Good Citizen Schemes. Ellie-May, Sophie and more recently Mia are all holders of the Gold award. For the past couple of years I have been helping to take classes when other trainers are ill or on holiday. In April 2005 I started to take the puppy classes. I thoroughly enjoy doing this, hard work as it is. My daughter Kelly has been helping me to run the classes and we are very proud of our pupils and many of them have remained with the club and taken part in the Kennel Club Award Schemes. I have recently been elected Vice Chairperson of the Club.
I am a member of both the Southern Golden Retriever Society as well as the National Society. I personally feel this is very important as they have far stricter guidelines when breeding from your dogs than the Kennel Club. They are able to put the health and welfare of this particular breed as a priority. Since I have started to breed, I have become passionate about the health, welfare and conditions puppy are born and raised in. In my opinion, potential purchasers have the right to the best puppy possible and to have that, the puppy, its mother and siblings should be raised in the home and wherever possible a family with constant care and attention. I most sincerely hope my puppies fill this criteria and potential puppy owners are very welcome to come and visit me and my dogs at any time.
I am also a Kennel Club Accredited Breeder and have been since 2004.
I would like to thank my family, friends and members of Seaford Dog Club for being so supportive of me. From what started out as owning a family pet has become a commitment to my dogs that I take extremely seriously. I will only breed from quality, healthy stock and I spend many, many hours studying pedigrees and choosing potential stud dogs. I always visit the dogs prior to the event to check out their suitability, temperament and general nature.
I would especially like to thank my husband Kevin. He regularly exercises the dogs for me and also drives me many hundreds of miles visiting stud dogs etc. His support is invaluable - thanks Kev.
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