Origins Goldens

01/15/2025

"We'd like to speak to a manager. The snow is gone, and we were not done playing in it."

01/14/2025

Did someone say "New Year's Sale"? 👀
Just ordered our bi-annual moose antler tines, our favorite dog chew option for our pack. 🎉🐾
Use code ORIGINS at checkout for a little discount. 😉

Order now the best quality, premium grade A+ moose antler dog chews at an affordable price. We only choose the best for your dog!

01/10/2025

Snow day in east Tennessee! ❄️❄️

01/10/2025

Program Update, Jan. 2025:
At this time, it does look like Kyra skipped her normal heat cycle completely this past fall, possibly due to adding another intact female to the house, or possibly due to stress as our routine was shaken up hospital stays for our youngest child who had surgery back in July and again in November because of a complication.
Ivy had her first heat cycle recently, and I was watching to see if this triggered Kyra to go in heat again, but so far it doesn't seem to be the case. So, for now, it looks like our next litter will be fall 2025, which will be Kyra's third & final litter.

For now, we look forward to finishing Ivy's health testing this year and, hopefully, welcoming Kyra's retirement litter this fall before we promote her to resident grandma. 🫶🏻 We also have lots of work to do getting back into a training routine!

01/02/2025

{Program Update} I've spent the last probably five or six months deliberating over the difficult decision whether to keep Boone in our breeding program or just to retire him early as simply a family pet. Any puppy, whether you bred them yourself or you purchase from another breeder, is, on some level, a gamble. There are no absolute guarantees that a puppy will grow up to pass every health test or that they will excel in a sport or that they will represent the breed well conformationally.
Boone has, so far, finished and passed three of the five health tests required by the national breed club (DNA, eyes, heart). I had been waiting to see if he passes his hip and elbow exams this year before making my decision, but as I take a step back and try to think critically about my dogs and my breeding decisions, I know that even if he passes with flying colors, there is much more to the decision to breeding him than that. A few things have made me hesitate, and ultimately I weighed the pros and cons and had to decide to do what I felt was best for my program and for the breed that I love.

Boone has an absolutely wonderful personality. He is the sweetest boy and one of my favorite to work with. We've bonded so much through training for virtual titles and trying out fastcat this past year. I still think he would be a great therapy dog, even. However, personality and trainability are not the only things to consider.

•While I think Boone is a very handsome boy, he is about an inch over the height maximum for the breed standard. His tail set is too low and curls too high, and his top line is not straight and he's a little long in the back. He's not as symmetrical as I would like.
Conformation is something I want to improve in my lines and I want to breed closer and closer to the breed standard. I want puppies that I produce to represent the breed well. One of my biggest goals for the future of Origins is to produce puppies who can compete in the field and in the show ring - versatility that shows what a Golden can do. I know many pet homes will not care if the dog is a little too tall or his tail is a little curly, but every puppy I send out into the world represents my program, and either sets it back or moves it forward. Conformation also impacts health and ability.

•Along with that, Boone carries two copies of ICH-1, and I can guarantee his puppies wouldn't develop the condition, but every puppy would carry the gene and that's something I'd like to move away from as well. His pedigree has some holes in health testing, as Kyra's does, but in weighing everything together, I'm not willing to risk it just to get paid a stud fee.

All of that said, Boone is not going anywhere! We will not be placing him because he washed out of the program. He is my buddy and we love him, our kids love him. I will finish his health testing because it still benefits the breed and research to have as much data as we can get, and I also want to know how his joints are. We will probably have him neutered this spring or summer so he can relax around the girls a little easier 😅. And I will continue to train him and try out sports and earn titles, because we love it! He just won't be making any little Boone's. 😅

01/01/2025

On behalf of Origins Goldens, we wish you a very Happy New Year! Welcome, 2025!

12/21/2024

We wish you a merry Christmas! May your holiday season be ✨️golden✨️. 🎄

12/13/2024

We love Scout! 💙 Happy birthday to the sire of our 2023 litter and our very own Ivy girl. 🎉

12/08/2024

It's time to wish a very
H A P P Y 2nd B I R T H D A Y
to our very first litter between Kyra & Drake!

Here are some updated photos from the families! They are a very loved group and I love watching them grow. This litter is officially "all grown up!"

12/01/2024

We would like to wish a very
🎈H A P P Y 1st B I R T H D A Y 🎈
to our 2023 litter! (Kyra X Scout) 🎉

Here are some updated photos the families shared with us. What a good lookin' group. I love watching these pups grow up, seeing all of the things they accomplish and their personalities. I am grateful for our puppy families who take such good care of these babies. 🫶🏻

11/29/2024

Black Friday sale going on now! Our favorite dog chews 🫎🐾 use our code ORIGINS at checkout for a little extra off. Stuff those stockings! 🎄

11/15/2024

Like mother like son - so serious! 😂
Kyra on the left, and Moose (red collar boy from her first litter) on the right.

11/13/2024

What's the difference in "puppy" and "large breed puppy" when it comes to dog food? Does it matter? 🤔⤵️

• Large breed puppy food has a different calcium to potassium ratio which limits the fast growth of bones in puppies that can grow large breeds too quickly and cause orthopedic issues.
• Adult large breed food is less calorically dense and contains less fat to keep large breed dogs in a more ideal body condition.
• Both adult and puppy formulas of large breed dogs foods will usually contain ingredients like glucosamine and chondroitin which protect their joints and help ease joint pain in dogs which already have genetic or environmental orthopedic conditions.

Remember - most puppy food says to feed until 12 months, but large breed puppy food will say 2 years because our large breed pups take longer to fully mature and for their growth plates to close. 🐾

(Tip - the one with the Golden puppy is NOT the large breed puppy, so don't get confused if you buy Pro Plan. Lol)

11/13/2024

Fall colors + golden dogs 🍂☀️

11/08/2024

🙅🏻‍♀️ Skip the rawhide. 🚫

11/07/2024

The goal of socialization is not making lots of friends and puppy playdates - it's assisting your puppy in learning to be calm and confident in a variety of places. Most of the time, this means teaching your puppy to ignore the people, dogs, and distractions around them.

Always remember when you bring that little puppy home that what you allow to happen now is reinforcing the behaviors that will continue into adulthood.