The Search for Our Next Puppy

Last Monday I opened a letter we received in the mail from the breeder who we got Aspen from, who is also the same breeder that Alex’s parents have used. She informed us that she will not be breeding any Goldens this spring, as originally planned. We are still uncertain of the reason for this change of plans. We were basically stunned at this, since we had been expecting to hear from her any day that her dam was pregnant and that we were going to be puppy parents all over again. Back to the drawing board we went.

I spent the rest of the day on Monday doing extensive research into other breeders in Western Washington and Northwest Oregon and ended up finding a handful of breeders who will be expecting puppies this spring or summer. In an ideal world, we’d prefer to get the puppy in May or June. This would give us ample time during the summer with the new puppy. It’s much easier to have a puppy when the days are longer and it’s not raining every day, not to mention, the pup would be older when ski season starts next fall.

Presently, we are on two waiting lists and may possibly add ourselves to a third just to play it safe and make sure we’ve got a backup plan. The first waiting list we are on is from a breeder in Salem, Oregon, called Shyan Goldens, who will have puppies available mid-May from her dam Macy and sire Kolby. Macy is 22.5″ tall and weighs 65 pounds and is a darker/redish color Golden Retriever. Kolby is the breeder’s Champion dog and is 23″ tall and weighs 70 pounds and is also a darker color Golden Retriever. This litter is our preference and we expect the pups to be born late March. There are pictures of Kolby on the breeder’s website. If you want to see pictures of Macy, I can email some to you.

The other breeders are Abelard Goldens and Klasique Goldens. Abelard’s “Fresh Litter” is our preference, but you have to put a hefty deposit on a pup before they have even started the breeding process and the next available puppies won’t go home until July, which is later than we had hoped. Klasique (see dogs: Doc and Gerry Lee who are the parents) is the same timeline as Shyan, where the pups are expected to be born late March and go home mid-May.

As for names of our pup, we haven’t decided on a girl name just yet. We do have a boy name picked out, which was the same boy name we had in mind with our first dog. Either way, we would like to use the name of our second puppy as a way to remember and honor our sweet Aspen. We’re trying to come up with something that either relates to her personality, her name or something she enjoyed.

Here are some names we have considered – we do have two favorites among the list (no particular order):

  • Snowball
  • Snowflake
  • Snow
  • Powder
  • Winter (Winny)
  • Sunshine (Sunny)
  • Chamonix (Shammy)
  • Alpine

Please feel free to leave a comment with your favorite name or any new suggestions!

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