What breed is this? Is this a different breed than golden retrievers? 

These are golden retrievers. They are not a separate breed than the more “golden” colored retrievers you see. In fact, just because ours are lighter colored doesn’t necessarily in itself make them “English” Goldens. Many European Goldens can also have darker coloring. The difference you see in “English Goldens, should be, in fact that they are bred to FCI/EUROPEAN standards, which allows for a lighter color than the AKC standards. Also, they tend to have shorter legs and a stockier build than most “American” bred/standard Goldens. At Texas Rose, we strive to stay true to the european standards. Most of our goldens are directly imported from Europe and have won a show title ensuring us that they are to the European show standard. There is also research that suggests that European/English Goldens have less cancer and longer life expectancy.

Please see the chart below for more information.

Are you a kennel?

We are not a kennel. These Goldens are our pets. We play with and love them daily. They have a lot of room to run and play a lot of the day outside, but also like to hang out on our 500 sq ft porch and in the house. My rule for the dogs is the same as our kids: “If you want to play and rough house, then go outside.” Since our house isn’t massive, usually, when we have guests over I send our goldens and our girls outside to play.

Where are your puppies raised?

The puppies spend the first 2 weeks in our bedroom, beside my bed so I can check on them through the night. They are then moved to the playroom from weeks 2-4. From week 4-8, they are moved to our upstairs, where they have around 150 sq ft of space to run and play and start their crate training. They are inside their entire lives until they come to you. I am working on setting up a turf grass play area outside, so they can have the benefits of being outside without the risks.

What is ICT?

ICT is a skin irregularity/dandruff that about 85% of European Goldens at least carry the gene for. We check the genetics of all of our parents to make sure that none of our pups will be affected by this condition. Breeding a parent carrier to a carrier, will still produce affected pups without the breeder even knowing it, so it’s important to test the parents. We also test for pra 1 and 2 and muscular dystrophy. All issues that can affect Goldens, but are completely preventable if you make sure you are pairing the right parents.

Are your dogs AKC registered? Do you offer full registration?

All of our puppies are AKC registerable and they automatically come with “limited registration. Limited registration gives you all the rights of AKC registration, but it makes any litters/puppies the dog would have unregisterable. This is our way of not having to have spay/neuter contracts with our homes. We offer full registration to approved individuals for an additional fee.

Do you ship?

We do not ship our puppies in cargo. Families from out of state that adopt one of our pups need to fly in, meet me at the airport and take the puppy in cabin with them. For the most part, this is less expensive than shipping the puppy cargo and obviously so much safer as well.

What vaccinations has my puppy had by 8 weeks old?

I like to wait until 7 weeks old, when the mothers antibodies have had a better chance of being worn off before I give the first set of vaccinations. You will need to take them for their 2nd set around 11 weeks old, or when your vet suggests. We worm our pups every 2 weeks, starting at 2 weeks old. At their first vet check up their hearts, dentition, eyes, scrotum (if applies) is all thoroughly checked. They will also be sent home with their first month of heart guard.

Do you breed back to back or skip heat cycles? 

We have changed our breeding policy on whether to breed back to back or every other heat. There have been several studies done on what is healthier for a breeding female and the results of these studies conclusively show that it is healthier for a female to be bred every heat instead of every other heat. The majority opinion amongst both veterinarians (including ours) as well as canine repro specialists is conclusively, that this is the healthiest option. While we do breed every heat, we never breed before 2, so the female has time for proper development and health certifications. We do not believe that because you breed every heat that you should continue to breed as long as those that don’t breed every heat, which means that our breeding females retire earlier than those breeders that breed every other heat. Our girls are usually retired by 5 years old and spayed. This way they are breeding in their prime when it is healthier and safer for dam and puppies. I like to think of it like us having our kids in our 20-30s instead of spreading it out from our 20s-50s. While it is healthier to breed every heat we also think that breeders need to use common sense and make sure that their females are back to a healthy weight before breeding again, as well as, judging on a case by case knowing what is right for your female and her health.

Your goldens look amazing, can we visit them and your puppies?

Thank you to those who want to visit our home.  We work hard to create an environment that works for us, our pups and adults. You may have read that a good breeder will allow you into their home/facility. Years ago, we did this and entertained visitors regularly throughout the puppies upbringing. After countless lectures by my vet about the dangers of allowing visitors in my home with young pups, we finally took his advice and stopped allowing visitors until the pups have received their first vaccination. If we have no puppies at the time you want to visit, we are happy for you to come meet the parents of the litter you may be interested in.

To help you stay connected with the puppies journey from birth to going to your home, every litter has a closed facebook group that I update with pics, videos and updates until they are ready for you to visit. Additionally, we do this so that you see what’s going on without compromising our bio-security for our puppies and our pack. But please, we ask you to honor our program (and ultimately, your puppies) by respecting our policy.