Why we breed...

I get asked this question a lot, and I completely understand why! Before I became a breeder, I used to hear that someone was a breeder and automatically I heard the Sarah McLachlan song; and saw all the sad faces of dogs in small kennels. It is heartbreaking to see so many dogs in shelters. Especially here in Arizona, the shelters are all at max capacity. I used to think that all breeders are bad, greedy, irresponsible, and part of the problem. I am the first to admit, my mindset was not correct. There are some truly incredible breeders out there. They truly have goals and programs that do better the breed. They breed because they love their dogs, they love providing healthy, happy, puppies in family homes or working homes.

The question though, why do WE breed? Well, we breed because we grew up with dogs. Dogs that we purchased from breeders, dogs that we adopted from shelters, or dogs that we purchased at a pet store. Each dog came with its own unique personality, temperament, intelligence, and health problems. The biggest issue we came across was financial and emotional devastation from health issues.

It is no secret, we are huge animal lovers! We love horses, pigs, cows, birds, dogs, cats, you name it, we love them all. BUT we have a huge soft spot and love for golden retrievers. I am not sure if it is their toothy smiles, wiggly butts, or the happiness that you feel when they enter the room. I think that they just make life better, and for that, they deserve to be in this world. However, they deserve to be healthy, happy, loved, safe, and on this earth for 14+ years! That is the most devastating part of owning a golden retriever. If the breeder does not do genetic testing, hips, elbows, eyes, and heart testing, you are potentially buying a dog that is going to shatter your heart before it is their time to go.

Trust me, I have had a few heartbreakers, but Sophie Marie, my first purchase as an adult, truly crushed my heart and honestly, it has never fully healed. It's impossible to heal your soul when you lose your loved one before it is their time. Losing your pup at any age is horribly painful, but losing your dog at a young age just hurts a little bit more.

Back to why we breed! We breed to better the golden retriever breed! We breed to enhance the lives of our community! We breed to see the cute little smiles, wiggly butts, and happiness that they bring into the world. While we fully support and believe that you should adopt from a shelter, we also understand that not all families are okay with accepting the potential risk that comes from adopting a shelter pup. Buying or adopting is a personal decision that must be made by each family. Do you have small children or other pets, that may make the risk of adopting from a shelter not the right fit for your family. Do you have older children and no other pets, well adopting from a shelter may be the best fit for you! We truly believe that buying or adopting is a personal choice and you should never be judged for your choice. We support you and would love to help you find the perfect purebred golden retriever, that is trained, heath-tested, and set up for success. Or we would love to help you train or work with your shelter pup that you adopted and want to work with. Regardless of your choice, we will support you and help you!

Our goldens are so incredible! We have invested so much time, effort, and money because we believe that golden retrievers make life better. We are truly trying to set a new standard for how golden retrievers are bred. That is why we have spent two years researching, reading, working on getting certified for being a trainer, working on getting healthy proven goldens, and working on making sure we only breed the best of the best! We are also really thankful and blessed to be able to train and play with golden retrievers all day every day! That is why we are so passionate about giving back to our community. We have been working hard to partner with an incredible service dog program. That is my goal for 2024! I want to partner with an incredible company that can help us make sure that we pull prospective service dog prospects from our program and watch them grow, learn, and change the lives of their chosen person! I have seen incredible service dogs that help someone live their best lives and I want to be a part of that journey! So... we are searching! :)

I am nervous and excited to say that this is the end of my very first blog post! I am sure this is rough, but hopefully, the overall message is in here, somewhere! Thank you for reading and if you have questions or suggestions, please reach out to me! I want to grow and learn more every day, I want to support our community! We are just so excited to start our journey in 2024. Stay tuned for an update on Royal and Harlee Ray!