Breeding Philosophy
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Gaylan's is a kennel dedicated to the multi-purpose golden retriever. The first Yearbook published by the Golden Retriever Club of America in 1969 celebrated the breed's versatility in a section entitled "Star Champions." The introduction stated,
The By-Laws of the Golden Retriever Club of America states that the purpose of the Club is the furthering of the breeding of Golden Retrievers which conform with the standard and the development of such retrievers for their function, which is the retrieving of game. The ideal Golden Retiever is a dog which can do a days' work in the field and yet can win in bench shows.
Since the purchase of our first golden in 1979, our goal has been the pursuit of this ideal--beautiful, companion hunters who are able and willing to compete in all aspects of golden activities. We are a small kennel with a limited but well-planned breeding program. This means that each breeding is of tremendous importance to us and that we concentrate our efforts into caring for and socializing our pups.
Even with our limited breeding program, our dogs have competed successfully in conformation, obedience, hunt tests, tracking and agility. We have produced and owned:
- American and Canadian Champions
- a Best in Specialty Sweepstakes winner
- Utility Dog Excellent dogs, numerous Utility Dogs and High in Trial winners,
- Senior Hunters, numerous Junior Hunters, WCXs, WCs, field trial competitors as well as numerous hunting companions,
- Tracking and Tracking Dog Excellent dogs,
- Master Agility Champions and GRCA Agility Hall of Fame dogs, and
- nationally ranked agility and obedience dogs.
- Our dogs have also worked as search and rescue dogs, in the United States and Europe, and as therapy dogs.
Increasingly, we use the hunting field--primarily through hunt tests but also through actual hunting--to evaluate the success of our breeding program. Unlike breeders who produce golden retrievers to be pets for the general public, we focus on producing dogs with the working abilities unique to the golden retriever as a hunting dog. We do this because it is these natural abilities that create the breed's ideal temperament and structure. Remaining true to the breed's original purpose will help us ensure we are breeding sound, healthy, athletic dogs with correct coat and conformation.
Because of our dual focus on both natural working ability and the conformation of a correct Golden, our breedings rotate between field and conformation dogs. As such, our breeding decisions may appear random to those viewers more familiar with breeders who specialize in one aspect of goldens. However, our decisions are anything but random as each follows our established criteria and contributes to our goal of producing a line of beautiful working dogs.
Breeding Criteria
Longevity. The foundation of every decision we make is longevity; we simply do not accept that golden retrievers should only live a maximum of 10 years. So we seek out sires who themselves have lived past 10 and/or whose pedigree is filled with dogs who have lived 12, 13 or even 15 years. We might occasionally use a talented, younger sire with a special and long-lived pedigree. In all cases, we look for pedigrees where dogs have died of something other than cancer. These are hard to find in goldens but it remains our goal.
Temperament. Second to longevity, we look for a true golden temperament. We take a broad view of golden temperament, looking beyond simple friendliness to dogs and people. We are specifically looking for self-confident dogs who take life in stride, who are stable when faced with most circumstances, who are comfortable with their position in the world. After confidence, we are looking for intelligent, eager, active, biddable dogs whose greatest desire is to work side-by-side with their human partner. The final component of temperament we demand is friendliness and reliability. We expect our dogs to accept polite dogs of all ages and types and to be comfortable with men and women of all ages. However, we also expect our goldens to display normal dog behaviors of protecting themselves from attack, establishing park hierarchy and seeking mates. Therefore, we are not concerned by unaggressive dominance displays among our dogs or the occasional growl over a juicy bone. We also expect our dogs to breed naturally and easily. We find all of these behaviors to be most appropriate to a correct golden retriever.
Conformation and Working Ability. After the foundation of longevity and temperament, we then look for sires that complement our dams by building on their strengths and correcting their weaknesses. We use conformation dogs to strengthen or solidify type and we use field dogs to strengthen or solidify working ability. Ideally we find dogs that have both exceptional structure and working ability but these are rare and must meet our criteria for longevity, temperament and health. We look beyond the dog himself, at the strengths and weaknesses of his pedigree. We know that some lines that meld well with our girls while others, despite how much we respect these dogs, simply do not. We make a concerted effort to meet each of these sires in person, ideally seeing them interact with other dogs and, if possible, working in the field.
Breeding Goal
Our ideal golden, the goal of our breeding program, is a moderate dog that
- meets the Standard regarding height and weight, who has a lovely, correct head with a pleasant expression, who moves like the athlete that she is and who is immediately identifiable as a golden retriever. We do not breed for 100-lb goldens or for 40-lb agility competitors and we do not breed for huge, blocky heads so if you have your heart set on these, its best to go to another breeder.
- carries a moderate, drip-dry golden coat in one of any of the correct colors for golden retrievers. We very much feel that matching a puppy's other characteristics to her family's needs is FAR more important than her color so if color is your top priority, we recommend you go to another breeder.
- is a moderately high energy dog that has the spunk to hunt wild pheasants for a full day in the field but settles well in the house afterwards.
- has the natural hunting abilities, biddability and intelligence to be trained to be a capable hunting dog (marking and handling) or to be shown in a variety of events by her experienced owner.
- loves the family's children and tolerates dog-appropriate handling by them.
- gets along well with other dogs but who is not a total wimp, incapable of functioning as a normal dog.
- is healthy and sound, with no chronic illnesses of any kind, including allergies, hot spots and orthopedic problems.
- lives a long and healthy life as a beloved member of her family.
All of this means that our dogs fit well into active homes where they will have serious jobs and regular training and exercise. We seek hunting or competition performance homes for the vast majority of our puppies. A few pups each year may go to non-working pet homes but these are not your typical pet homes where the dog gets 15 minutes of walking a few times a day. Rather, they are homes where the dog is a respected working companion rather than a pet, homes where the dog participates in many if not most of the families activities, homes where training and working with the dog is a top priority. Our dogs are not appropriate for parents seeking primarily to teach their children about responsibility or those desiring to quiet their childrens' pleas for a dog. We sell only to homes where the parents want the dog more than the children.
We follow the GRCA Code of Ethics and the Golden Rule in our dealings with other golden retrievers fancier, our puppy buyers, and the general public. We seek to treat our buyers fairly and to use our interactions as a means to educate them and the general public about dog behavior, the responsibilities of dog ownership, and good animal husbandry.
We are very concerned about the problems facing purebred dogs in the United States today: poor or aggressive temperaments; genetic diseases; general poor health; limited access to public places; and, increased legislative control, primarily at the local and state levels but more recently through the Federal government via PAWS. We are aghast at the astronomical number of dogs euthanized in animal shelters each year because they are unable to find or keep a loving home. We believe these problems are primarily the result of poor breeding practices and a general lack of understanding of dog behavior and training. Our concerns are reflected in the priority of our goals and our requirements for our owners.
Although we have over twenty-five years of experience in breeding, training and showing golden retrievers, we are devoted to our own continuing education--as breeders, trainers, exhibitors, and owners. We do this through extensive reading of contemporary and historical literature on genetics, veterinary science, animal behavior, and dog and horse breeding, seminars, and discussions with veterinarians, scientists, professional dog trainers and handlers, and other members of the dog fancy. We also put into practice what we have learned by training and exhibiting our own dogs.
Thank you again for your interest in our breeding program. We are happy to discuss it with you in greater detail at any time. Since we offer only a limited number of puppies each year, we do recommend reserving a puppy in advance of the actual whelping. If you are still interested in a Gaylan's puppy, please read carefully through our website and then contact us via e-mail.
For more information on Gaylans, go to:
Gaylans Contracts and Warranty
About Us What's New? Just Goldens Our Dogs Puppies