Johnny and I have been talking for awhile about getting another dog. We'd gone back and forth about the different breeds we might want. We knew that we wanted a dog that was on the larger side who had relatively long hair...but there were many breeds we liked which fit that description. We'd watched several movies about dogs...and we really liked the golden retrievers we kept seeing in the movies we'd been watching. We saw The Art of Racing in the Rain and shortly after, I joined a Facebook group about golden retrievers in the Midwest area. A week later and exactly seven months after our Australian shepherd, Bandit, had passed away...we paid the deposit on a little golden retriever puppy who was ready to come home to us that weekend. We drove about five hours away to pick him up. We'd also been contacted by another local family who had also purchased a puppy from the same breeder, so we worked it out to bring their puppy back with us as well. And...there is a Facebook group specifically for all of us who brought home puppies from this particular breeder this summer. It's been nice seeing all the photos of everyone's puppies, to get updates on how everyone is doing, and be able to ask questions and get advice.
The breeder was...not great. There were some red flags during our initial contacts that I brushed off at the time...which was my own mistake. But luckily everything worked out in the end. We came home with an adorable and sweet AKC registered golden retriever who instantly became a beloved member of our family.
Through chatting with the others who also got puppies from this breeder, we found out that they'd never been seen by a vet at all before going to their furever homes. They were also infested with fleas. We spent two hours bathing Bozley with Dawn dish soap and combing his fur to get all the fleas off. And Sunday night, Boz was bloating really badly. Monday (two days after we brought him home), I took Bozley to the vet to have him checked out. I was pretty worried about the bloating. Despite the record we got from the breeder claiming he had fecal exams and/or dewormer, Boz was diagnosed with hookworm. So we were able to have him treated and he is already feeling so much better. The vet also said he was pretty tiny for his age. But I'm sure he'll be growing well now that he is home with us! :) Unfortunately, we also found out that Bozley has a grade 2 heart murmur. The good news is that the vet believes he could grow out of it as he gets older. So we just have to keep an eye on it and see if it changes. Because the puppies were never checked by the breeder which would have found Bozley's heart murmur, I provided documentation for the breeder and we were refunded half of what we paid for him.
He's all puppy right now...plays hard and then naps hard! And oh my goodness the chewing. :P But he's such a good boy and we adore him. <3 So far, he is shorter than the cats and the chihuahuas, but that'll change soon! He is doing pretty well so far with crate training and potty training. And he's just so darn cute. :)
He's all puppy right now...plays hard and then naps hard! And oh my goodness the chewing. :P But he's such a good boy and we adore him. <3 So far, he is shorter than the cats and the chihuahuas, but that'll change soon! He is doing pretty well so far with crate training and potty training. And he's just so darn cute. :)