I Do Not make Great Dogs

As the air recently spins into a chill, I still spend countless hours each day playing, snuggling, chatting, laughing, and simply loving and living alongside my pack. This daily rhythm with them is grounding — they lift me up, center me, bring balance, entertainment and immense joy to my life.

Goldens are acutely aware, emotionally attuned, have an uncanny sensitivity to read people. Often accurately detecting and responding to human affective states. Studies of canine socio-emotional intelligence consistently show that Goldens posses heightened sensitivity to human cues, including subtle shifts in posture, facial expressions, and tone of voice. These amazing dogs show robust affiliative behavior and stress-buffering responses, aligning their behavior to human emotional signals in ways consistent with traits of therapy and support animals.

Goldens are indeed an incredible breed but this leads me to bring up a couple of variables that often times people do not consider -

Every golden, every dog, every creature of God is different in their own ways.

It’s one of the most important truths to remember when welcoming a new puppy/dog into your life. Just because this new pup is a golden doesn’t mean it’s going to be exactly like I’ve described here, what your research has led you to believe, like your past golden or like your neighbors.

Breed traits offer helpful insight no doubt, but you simply cannot fit every puppy/dog into the same box just because of its breed. Each dog expresses those traits in their own unique way. Even within the same litter, raised in the exact same way, personalities can vary greatly…just like children.  Some are slightly more confident and outgoing, others are more reserved, gentle, or cautious. Some find comfort in others and some comfort in being alone. Some need focused guidance and some need soft slow guidance. Each one has their own way special way of seeing the world. These individual characteristics deserves to be noticed, respected, and embraced. It’s what makes them so special — they are individuals, not molds.

We, here on the Homestead have done extensive research on lineage multiple generations back, making extremely careful selections on who to bring in for our program, considering everything. Genetics, health, structure, demeanor, behavior and temperament of our breeding stock. We raise them with intention, strong focus, dedicated time and effort, persistent guidance, and with a passion to make them as close to the standard ‘Golden’ as possible in every way…yet still, we are at the mercy of mother nature, god’s hand and individuality.

We encourage every family to embrace their dog’s unique personality. Celebrate their quirks, their habits, and the little things that make them who they truly are. To try not to compare to the golden down the street or to the dog next door. To let go of the ‘must haves’ when looking for the ‘perfect’ puppy. Because there is no such thing as a ‘perfect’ anything. There are so many variables involved that if you start spiraling into trying to fit this vision into a box you will miss the beauty of what’s right in front of you.

It’s natural yes, to have a vision, hopes, dreams and expectations, but I encourage you all to try not to set them too high or chase perfection or a set image. Dive in whole heartedly to connect with your pup. But know, this takes time, patience, love, care and understanding. Trust, a tight bond, and growth together doesn’t happen overnight, it may not even happen for months, but the bond that forms through consistency and care becomes something extraordinary, something simply magical.

Here’s the other variable that I will add in -

Because Goldens are highly social and reinforcement-driven, human feedback sometimes at an unreliable level, can recondition them away from attunement toward compensatory behaviors such as disengagement, appeasement displays, hypervigilance, or stress-induced obedience. The environment you place your pup in shapes their behavior more than people realize. Pups respond to what is happening around them. The people, children, routines, stress levels, rules (or lack of them) social exposure, and daily interactions all influence how a puppy learns to behave. A calm, structured, and predictable environment supports stable behavior. A chaotic, loud, busy, inconsistent, or emotionally charged environment can produce anxious, overstimulated, or reactive behavior. Golden or otherwise.

It is our responsibility to adjust the environment that they learn and grow in. Just as every pup is unique in their personality, every pup responds differently to the world around them. Effective development requires that we observe and listen closely, staying attuned to their behavioral cues, honor their individuality, be patient, modify their environment when appropriate, and recognize when they need support and thoughtfully adapt their surroundings to help them thrive so to promote emotional stability and long-term success.

Goldens are remarkable and I have and will continue to whole heartedly holler this into the hillside…but they are all unique on different levels and each individual needs to be respected, heard and honored. I, here on the Homestead create amazing, confident, strong, eager to please, stable and sure good little puppies…. But I do not make great dogs. I pour my heart and soul into raising good babies but the ‘great’ is in your hands. Great dogs are created through the commitment, consistency, and ongoing work of the families who continue shaping them after they leave my arms. A piece of my heart goes home with each and every pup that I have loved with every inch of my soul. Sweat, tears, exhaustion, joy, happiness and my immense love gets handed over to you with the hope that you will continue my work into this priceless little creature.

I believe every dog is a gift — each with their own story just waiting to be written, their own personality, and their own special way of bringing joy to the lives they touch. You just need to listen, respect, adjust, exchange connection, trust on another level and honor your new pup as they come into your life as they are only doing the very best they can with the education that we’ve given them, in the environment that we’ve put them in.

Now go out and make your pup an exceptionally GREAT DOG!