How to Adopt a Blanchmain Golden

Breed the best, to the best and find the best homes for all off spring! 

I have over 18 years experience owning, training and showing golden retrievers.  I also have an extensive experience founding and leading golden retriever rescue organizations and fostering and placing homeless goldens.  Other breeders in the south-east that have more experience breeding, whelping, raising and placing puppies, but not many have more experience in evaluating and choosing good homes for golden retrievers or seeing the consequences of careless breeding and rash decisions.  Under my leadership, FHGRR placed over 450 homeless goldens in 5 years and I have personally fostered over 80 golden retrievers.  All these dogs (many young beautiful specimens) were homeless, many from shelters, only hours away from death because of irresponsible breeding and irresponsible owners.  I know that many young and beautiful goldens die because there were not enough homes to go around.  The pet overpopulation problem in the south-eastern US is becoming worse, not better, so their deaths continue today.  Our local county shelter euthanizes over 13,000 animals a year.  It is a small, sparsely populated rural county.  The statistics for adjourning more metropolitan counties are over 3,000 per month and 90 animals per day.  Blanchmain is determined to do everything possible to improve the situation and not add to the problem. 

I believe, with my experience and the quality of my dogs, that I can improve the golden retriever breed with my plan of producing healthy, quality, triple purpose golden retrievers.  Over showing and performance, I enjoy mydogs as family members.  While my breeding program is designed to produce some outstanding show and performance puppies, I always striving for a "well rounded" dog capable of producing titles at both ends.  Foremost, my goal and desire is that each of my puppies will enjoy their life as members of a family and bless their owners with their golden loyalty and unconditional love.  I want the opportunity to share my dogs with others and hopefully make them as happy as my dogs have made me. 

To me, one of the most fascinating aspects of owning a dog is to see their unique personality develop as a puppy.  Some breeders, because of concerns over contamination and the "rumor mill", limit access to young puppies and the litter.  While I do have these same concerns, I believe that the joys of involving an approved puppy home outweigh the concerns.  I will offer the approved puppy buyer an opportunity to be involved with the progress of the pregnancy and puppies' development.  Approved applicants may visit the litter on several occasions and observe the temperament evaluation and matching process.  Visits may be a limited amount time and open to those in approved households at our discretion.

I am amazed at the differences in personalities and how early these differences develop.  Through daily observation and professional evaluation, a puppy's personality is classified.  While everyone "thinks" they want the cute, active puppy (which would be classified as "hot"), like an advanced child, the active puppy comes with challenges.  Do you "really" want a puppy that thinks for himself and figures out how to open the gates and doors and thinks unrolling the entire roll of toilet paper is the best game ever invented? (you do if you want to train or show that dog and have the knowledge to direct the energy) Or do you want a puppy that is more laid back, devoted and desires to please it's special person and would never think of repeating the behaviour that made you mad, no matter how fun it was?   What type really fits with you and your family?  What type fits in your house?  Is your house and lifestyle very "loud" and rambunctious or quiet?    Do all the neighbourhood kids end up at your house and a few more feet through the house doesn't matter?   Or, do you want a gardening companion and a fishing buddy?

Areas of puppy observation include:

Through a professional puppy temperament evaluation at 49-53 days of age, the above factors can be put together for an "equation" that defines a puppy's temperament.  Some testers and breeders use a numbering system, but we prefer a temperature rating, as I think saying a puppy is "hot" or "cool" translates better than a "1" or "5".  Adding the daily observations, along with the temperament evaluation and each adopter's preference, we match each puppy with the right home.  A person that is looking for a golden capable of field work and retrieving competition would be looking for a very different temperament (hot, high prey drive and high pain threshold) than the family with small children (low energy level, low prey drive and high tolerance for noise).  The matching process is like matching a puzzle piece to it's hole, there is an "audible" click when the right puppy finds the right home.

 

READ MORE ABOUT TEMPERAMENT TESTING

 

   

Finding the right, lifetime home for our dogs is of the utmost importance to us.  Because of my experience, I have first hand knowledge of the major causes of homeless golden and situations that may not be the ideal home.  Most homeless dogs stem from a lack of planning or lack of knowledge.  These situations are called "red flags". Red Flag situations may not be a "bad" situation, but a situation that needs thought and explanation.  A "red flag" is someone that has not thought about arrangements for a dog in case of death, medical emergency or declining health.  Or a "red flag" may be a person living in a condo that needs to explain their plan to provide adequate exercise for an active dog.  Both situations have the potential to provide a great home as well as the potential to not be a good home because they have not fully considered the consequences and responsibilities of ownership.  And a simple question brings this to light for both parties involved. 

Blanchmain Goldens appreciates the time and effort for the application.  The questions may seem unnecessary.  It may seem that I am discouraging ownership or denying an applicant.  But, it is my belief that our application will cover areas that would otherwise be overlooked, misunderstood or wrongly assumed and are extremely important to insure that our dogs are given the best possible home and that all expected areas of responsible ownership are understood.  Using my experiences, both good and bad, I hope that this application may be a tool to increase knowledge about responsible pet ownership, as well as prompt questions and dialog covering all areas of owning a happy and healthy golden for a lifetime.  It is an unfortunate statistic that many pure-bred goldens end up neglected in their own homes or abandoned in shelters and increase the pet over population problem.  Owner education at every opportunity, a reduction in casual breeding and careful consideration before buying can reduce the problem and is the responsibility of every conscientious breeder  Breeding the best dog possible, selling to the right home at the right time and allowing our dogs to bless the lives of their owners is the goal of Blanchmain Goldens.

The majority of the questions on my application come from my "rescue days".  A panel of experts worked for months on a similar document that has been completed several 1,000 times.  I think it is very comprehensive.  It is a tool for owner education and I hope that it brings up issues that were never have considered as important.  And, let's face it, not everyone is honest or has the best interest of an animal in their heart.  My application process and defined "red flag" situations will uncover those individuals and make it difficult for them to adopt a Blanchmain golden.

ADOPTION APPLICATION

(See individual litter post for Adoption Contract)

 

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