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Soon to be first timers

800 views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  CAROLINA MOM 
#1 ·
HI! We are getting our first golden puppy. She is two weeks and we have first pick of the litter and should be ready to go by thanksgiving day. We will be naming her Hazel and then we will be a busy family for sure! We live in the great Wine country of California and cannot wait to take her out to the vineyards with us. Looking forward to this place to help me with potential golden issues too.

Cydney & Andrew
 
#3 ·
Welcome to the forum! Get some sleep before Hazel gets here:)
 
#6 · (Edited)
Hi and Congratulations.
We were in your position this time last year. Our boy was born on October 17th 2015. So I can recall how exciting it was and worrying about how on earth we would choose one pup from so many gorgeous bundles of energy, which crate to buy etc.

The forum was ( and still is) a fantastic source of information and support for us; so welcome, and just ask anything, someone always has the answers and advice . Reading past threads provided so much useful information too.
You are starting a fantastic journey, early puppy days are tiring and at times anxious but so so rewarding and fun. These goldens bring so much love and laughter and grow into wonderful dogs.

The whole site has fantastic threads and members and IMHO the age by month groups are a brilliant idea. You get to share the journey with owners in the same situation , at the same time.

Looking forward to seeing pictures of Hazel.

Here are 3 Pictures. Albie and his litter at 2 weeks old (yellow pup) and Albie now.
I love the middle picture of Albie with his friends, it was a lucky photographic capture, and for me personally it sums up Golden retreivers. Beautifully majestic with endless energy, loyal friends who just LOVE life and everyone in it.
Enjoy !
 

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#7 ·
Welcome to the forum - IF you feel that you may have missed out on some of the pertinent research information when deciding on your breeder, It is NOT too late to ask those questions and reconsider. The commitment of a large breed sporting dog like a GOlden is huge. They require a lot of training and proper exercise to make them good family pets. They are also at risk for a variety of inherited health issues that are quite painful and costly to correct or manage if the dog should have them. It is not a guarantee of good health, but a good breeder who is careful with making breeding decisions based on proper health clearances for heart, hips, elbows and yearly eye checks at a MINIMUM is a way to stack the deck in your favor with health risks. You greatly increase the risk of elbow issues if one parent has elbow problems. A breeder who doesn't compete with his dogs and doesn't xray elbows for clearances will not know for sure if his dog has it. If both parents have it the risk of a puppy inheriting the problem is raised by almost 50%. The surgery to repair an elbow is a few thousand dollars and a LONG difficult recovery.

Read the stickies and threads on "finding a good breeder/puppy" board here and also check out www.GRCA.org to educate yourself on health clearances. If you have the registered names of the parents we can help you verify clearances, just post in the finding a breeder board. A good breeder will be happy to tell you all about his dogs' clearances and explain them to you.

If you don't research health clearances, I highly recommend you purchase good pet insurance as a safety net.
 
#8 ·
Hi there and welcome! This site was and continues to be my go to resource for all things golden retriever related. Very experienced members who have the patience only golden parents have!


You can spend hours researching pertinent threads (there is a puppy section that will be useful), but to be honest, nothing really prepares you for that moment when you bring Hazel home. If this is your first golden retriever, be mentally prepared to be overwhelmed (very natural) for the first few weeks while you and Hazel are learning about each other. With patience and consistency things will improve right before your eyes and shortly you will have an inseparable family member.
 
#9 ·
Went and checked on the pups today and start to get Hazel picked out, looks like we narrowed it down to the lightest female.
 

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