Finding Our Next Dog

It became apparent to me soon after losing Emmi that I wanted another therapy dog. Of course, I wasn't ready but I knew ultimately I would be. We had done so much work together and even started a program at our local hospital and I knew that I wanted and needed to continue what Emmi and I had started. I also knew that was what Emmi would want me to do. I knew I wanted that dog to be another golden retriever but having lost both Emmi and Halie to hemangiosarcoma, I was nervous about it happening again. Research showed me that about 61.4% of golden retrievers get cancer. Those are not good odds. I started doing a more research. A lot of it. I learned that there is a correlation between spaying and cancer in female golden retrievers. So much so that a study out of UC Davis which makes recommendations for spaying and neutering 35 different breeds of dogs, recommends female golden retrievers (and only female golden retrievers) remain intact. Studies show that the sex hormones are important to joint development and that intact dogs have less behavioral issues. Intact dogs also have much lower rates of hemangiosarcoma, lymphosarcoma, and osteosarcoma. I learned about ovary sparing spays which allow a female dog to keep her ovaries and therefore have the benefits of her sex hormones but without a risk of pregnancy or pyometra (uterine infection). This surgery is done at Oregon State University Small Animal Hospital. So, there was one thing I could control, if I got a puppy. I then asked friends who work with dogs about breeders and started researching breeders. I discovered the K9 Database which has all kinds of information about golden retrievers (and labrador retrievers) as long as the breeders enter the information. You can look at longevity pedigrees and find out how long dogs lived and often what they died of. You can go back 5 generations. I quickly realized that not all breeders enter data into the database. I also found there is a really big difference in breeders. Finding a breeder who bred for health and had minimal cancer in their lines could also increase the odds of finding a golden who would not die young of cancer. So, the next step was finding a breeder to increase my odds of getting a healthy golden.