Stormy Hill Golden Retrievers

06/01/2025

We humans may be irritated by the slow-down the snow causes, but the dogs sure do love it!

HR Stormy Hill's Red Sky CGC

06/01/2025

01/01/2025

But can a field golden be a family dog?

I get asked this question all of the time. We do have field-line goldens and pet-line/therapy line goldens. Yes, there is a difference in drive. But can you enjoy both?

The answer is, YES, you just need to understand what "drive" means.

We pride ourselves in having 2 distinct lines.

A performance line and 2 therapy/all-purpose lines.

One of our lines we specifically breed to ensure that the active hunter and sports enthusiast can come to us and find a dog that is beautiful, from health-tested and well-titled hunting lineage and has the drive needed to hunt yet the off switch to be a perfect family companion.

Does that mean this line doesn't have the characteristic traits of a golden (the loving, tender, snuggly, all-around good nature) No, it just means that if you are interested in sports, hunting, and a high drive to work you are in the right place. If you are interested in a dog that has a known prey drive (for birds) you are in the right place. At the end of the day, if you want that off switch flipped to a dog that you can enjoy curled up next to your feet, you've come to the right place.

As puppies high drive dogs need a job and exercise. The "job" can be learning to retrieve and release while also being taught obedience. The exercise needs to be more than a 3 min potty walk. The exercise needs to be intentional. Once our pups are a few months old we explore our property with them daily and they let us know when they get tired. This is not repetitive intense exercise but rather a good 30-40 minutes of burning off energy and running. Our performance line adults (Red x Sky) have an amazing off switch but if a few days go by and they don't get out to run, fetch, and or swim, they do get restless.

Our therapy/all purpose lines are comprised of two different females we breed to Red. These are Stella (who is a certified therapy dog) and Poppy (who has an obedience title and 3 of 4 passes at a hunt test title). Red is the commonality in our performance and our therapy/all purpose lines but he is the most versatile dog we have ever owned.

In our therapy/all purpose line the drive is about 60-70% of that that you see in our performance line. It is still there, it can be cultivated, but it isn't quite as high. Do these pups still need plenty of excersize? YES. Do they still need solid obedience work? YES. But you are likely getting a 20-30% reduction in that out of the gate drive, some want this, some don't.

Whenever someone chooses us as their breeder I make sure they understand that what you see in our adult dogs, Red, Stella, Poppy and Sky is training, obedience work, and dedication. An 8-week-old puppy from any dog is going to be a handful because that is what puppies are. They have to be taught not to jump, not to nibble and explore things with their mouths, to come when called, to sit on command, to leave items in the home intact, etc.

I have spoken with so many people who expect that a pup from our therapy line will be the most chill pup ever, NOPE its a PUPPY!

You have to train that behavior, you have to be committed. You have to put in countless hours of socialization and desensitization training. It isn't that different from a human toddler. If completely left to their own devices and without discipline and correction a human toddler will destroy your home, hit and bite, and throw fits when they don't get their way and be a menace not unlike a puppy can do.

So whether you choose a field golden, a lab, a show dog, or anything of the like, you have to put in the work. There are differences in drive but you can manage these easily enough with obedience and exercise as well as dedication.

Whenever anyone discusses behavior issues with puppies the first question that most trainers will ask is, are you giving the dog enough exercise? This is often the key.

01/01/2025

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We have had a lot of inquires lately so in case you were curious, our breeding plans for 2025 are as follows:

Poppy x Red due January 2025 (1 F and 2 M reservations still available)

Sky x Red likely to be born March 2025 (2 F and 3 M reservations still available)

Stella x Red likely to be born March 2025 (2 M reservation still available)

Check out the "planned litters" page on our website for further details.

30/12/2024

If you have a StormyHill pup and your pup has a social media account, please drop your link so we can be sure we are following all of our pups! (make sure you note which litter your pup is from!)

If you don't have a Stormy Hill pup but you do have a golden with a social media presence, please drop your handle too, just note that you are an "admirer" rather than a "stormy hill pup" and we will follow you back!

30/12/2024

Not long now and we should be welcoming some Poppy x Red pups!!!

28/12/2024

We have had a lot of inquires lately so in case you were curious, our breeding plans for 2025 are as follows:

Poppy x Red due January 2025 (1 F and 2 M reservations still available)

Sky x Red likely to be born March 2025 (1 F and 3 M reservations still available)

Stella x Red likely to be born March 2025 (1 M reservation still available)

Check out the "planned litters" page on our website for further details.

21/12/2024

When it's a cold and wet Ohio kinda day

09/12/2024

Poppy waiting at the vet's this afternoon to see if we will be welcoming pups early 2025.

Check comments for the answer.

08/12/2024

Looks like an inherited trait for sure!

Meet, Whiskey, a pup from Poppy x Red who has his daddy's smile 😁

04/12/2024

Our Sky girl, one half of our amazing performance line. We love watching her offspring title before they even hit age 1! One is titled in AKC scent tracking, one has titled in HRC hunt testing, several in obedience and several are service dog prospects.

HR Stormy Hill's Red Sky CGC

28/11/2024

Happy Thanksgiving from our crew to yours! We are so thankful for all of you fellow golden lovers who choose to follow our journey.

What are you most thankful for today?

27/11/2024

27/11/2024

What a beauty our Poppy girl is! We should be confirming our first litter of 2025 between Poppy and Red very soon!

25/11/2024

Rooster has started his training, he was doing very well with the "hold" command today as we worked on a table, this boy is one to watch!