Our Dogs

Dogs and people have lived together for a long time. As protectors, hunters, servants, and devoted companions, dogs improve our lives. However, some dogs and people who don't seem to work well together. Our goal is to educate people about dogs and what to expect when you bring that cute puppy home. I grew up with "outside" dogs. My dad had beagles who lived outside in a pen. They were well cared for and had a working relationship with my dad, who enjoyed rabbit hunting. Dad lost interest in rabbit hunting when the deer population increased and became a huge distraction to his beagles. In December 1975, my brother and I gave Dad his first retriever, Missy. Missy was a black lab/golden retriever mix. Missy quickly became my dad's best friend and went everywhere with him, especially fishing!

Missy got our entire family excited about retrievers! Within a few years Dad, my brother, and I had Golden Retrievers. My husband Ed and I got our Wendy in March 1979. Except for one year, we have had a dog in our home ever since. So we have the personal experience to discuss dogs and their important place in our family. Wendy was there when both our children were born, accompanied us on a four-year overseas military assignment and enriched our lives for 13 years. We still share funny and fond stories about her.

Since Wendy we have shared our home with BJ (Sharpei/Lab mix), Kelsey (Golden Retriever), Hannah (Sheltie), Emma (Golden Retriever), and Dusty (Golden Retriever). We adopted BJ and Hannah because they needed a loving home. Dusty was my dad's dog who came to live with us after Dad passed away. Since our personal breed preference has been Golden Retriever, we brought Kelsey and Emma into our home as young puppies. There you have our personal dog history from 1980 - 2014.

These 34 years and 6 precious dogs have given us plenty of time to learn what works and what doesn't. We have made mistakes and we have done a lot of things right. Overall, our lives have been greatly enriched by these dogs who shared our home. From our experience, breed matters. Age of adoption matters. Sex matters some but not a lot. The most important factor in having a trained happy dog is your preparation, education, and commitment. Our daughter and her husband recently purchased the company that has offered effective instruction for training dogs for over 40 years. Click here for more details. We are delighted our love of dogs has passed on to our children and grandchildren. We are also delighted to be teaming up with them to help other people enjoy dogs as we do. My goal in future posts is to show people how to train a dog to be a happy member of the family.