 Good morning my dear friends!
Please except my apology for the long time lapse in my updates with Bella. From your newsletters I see you've all been extremely busy with new litters,new dogs arriving,new construction,added to the mix the daily chores. Whew,a big amen for all the blessing we receive through Him. I keep you all in my daily prayers. If only I could put into words our family with Bella, she is truly a gift of pure joy and lots of love. Her unassuming yet loving nature has made her a friend to all. As you know she's not an official licensed therapy dog, but don't tell her that. We continue to visit the sisters of humility home and the nursing home. The residents call her "little lamb." I have a friend who tutors grade school children, we are going to see how she does with the kids reading to them. She continues her Bella dance,along with ability to carry on a conversation she always makes everyone's day. Bella's days are spent by my side,she travels everywhere with us (I think she needs a hotel reward card.) She rides in the golf cart with me, gardens with me, goes to mass with me, anywhere that allows dogs you'll find Bella. Her polite behavior makes it easy take her places. She gets along with my brothers and sisters dogs, she's not a huge fan of dogs we meet outside of her circle, she definitely prefers people. She adapts easily to new environments,and never ceases to amaze us with her level of intelligence. When I look at your website I think to myself, it only tells a small part of the story of what your love and commitment to your dogs really is. It's not until you meet you, your dog and bring them home that you appreciate what gift you've been entrusted with. I believe your ministry of breeding dogs is truly the hand of God at work! For all the love your dogs bring to families and those they meet we thank you. Your dedication, loyalty, and hard work are a reflection of the talents bestowed upon you. If you recall, I told you how Bella slept in the dining room for about the first 2-3 weeks she was here. Looking back, I think she was waiting for you, Rhonda, to come and get her, that she was just visiting. One night she came into the bedroom put her head on the side of the bed looking at me...I got up put her bed with us and that's where she continues to spend her nights. Walter likes to say that night she fell in love with us! As I sit here writing this Bella lays by my feet, you know that feeling that all is right with the world, that's how she makes me feel. I'm well aware of what this world entails, but it's nice to know that somethings are beyond words. I send you my love, my wishes for good health and a heart overflowing with gratitude for entrusting us with Bella. As always I will keep you in my prayers, please keep us in yours. Peace and blessing to all, Elizabeth
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 Daisy is almost done with her obedience trainer and she is near perfect :) She does a trail hike/ walk every day and my husband and I have become those losers that text about their dog all day and send each other pictures. (You should see the texts about our own Snitker Goldens! - Rhonda/Stephanie) Daisy has quickly become the best part of our day. Her personality is everything we had hoped for, she is sweet, playful and loves being around people and other dogs. She has been extremely easy to train and we have been so impressed by how quickly she has learned her commands, we can even lay out multiple treat on her paws and have her wait until we let her know its ok to eat them!
I am not exaggerating when I say that every friend and family member that has met Daisy falls in love with her and comments on how she is the cutest dog they have ever seen. We couldn't have dreamt of a better addition our family and we are so grateful to Snitker Goldens. - McDevitts and Daisy
 Hi Rhonda and Stephanie,
Griffin is a super star ! He was awesome at testing. All the dogs had to be tested individually while the other dogs in the class waited "patiently" to be called. There were some amusing performances, but I have to say Griff went through his paces w/out a hitch. Wasn't even distracted when he had to pass ( during "heel")all the waiting dogs eating hotdog treats. What they didn't know - Griff does not like hotdogs. No treats allowed during actual testing. Anyway he was a champ- almost perfect (back leg moved forward a tiny bit on a 1 minute Stand Stay. :) 17 weeks ( 43 llbs) Best to you all, Robin Guion Griffin earns a Golden Paw Award for completion and excelling in Basic Obedience: CGC here we come !  Easter - 10.5 weeks old Hi Rhonda and Stephanie Just wanted to let you know that “Pup”, “Cody”, “Rupert”-Ru…yes undecided on the name…and we have tried many -- the neighborhood children call him Cody and I call him Pup with the occasional days of Rupert and Ruu. There is not a final answer -- Despite our failing in the name department-- This puppy is extraordinary and wonderful. After leaving the farm in Iowa, driving a couple of hours to a great little airport in Wisconsin , flying into Chicago, ( delayed flight out) so Miami connection was missed, spent the night in puppy friendly hotel in downtown Miami and finally arriving in Birmingham 36 hrs after leaving Iowa. This puppy had no accidents on any plane or in any airports!! He is a super hero!! Also had many requests( from flight staff, hotel managers ) for photo opportunities.  14.5 weeks old Vet check was excellent; one day later, we came home and played with the flowers…then 2 days after this we had a visit from half brother Murphy (Ina/Silas 2016).
They played for hours. Sadly Murphy had to move on to his new home in Charleston S.C. So the next 6 weeks brought many adventures: “Pup “ “Cody” “Ru”-pert has favorite things… in no particular order , flowers, digging, children, mirrors, helping in the garden, water, bird stalking ( has not captured one –yet) new adventures, eating bugs /plant/sticks/rocks/feathers/Kleenex etc, BUT no fingers…actually does not bite people at all, loves breakfast lunch & dinner and his Kennel. (go figure) You were correct he loves to work for food ( we are using the Life’s Abundance pumpkin/berry treats) I do believe his favorite part of the day is training ( 15-20 mins/day) concentrating on puppy skills. Then lots of fun play.  At 13.5 weeks he follows verbal and hand signal commands for sit, down , up , wait---he is now able to wait 90 seconds ( have not tried longer ) He will also wait while I leave his sight around a corner, behind a tree…he is very good at recall but needs work especially if there are exciting distractions –improving everyday. He sits before entering or leaving doors to house!!! We are very proud of him . 15 week shots are due this week and then we continue to expand his adventures .
We Love Our Super Hero!
Thank You !! Robin & Chris Guion  Thank you Rhonda, Stephanie and the rest of the Snitker team.
Annie has been such a wonderful addition to our home. All the time you spent with her socializing and getting her used to all different types of sounds, sights and people have made her so sweet and confident. She is loved by everyone she meets for her sweet and calm nature and she loves playing with her many dog friends. Again, thank you for your extra love and attention we can't wait t watch her grow and learn all kinds of new skills. (First Update) Humphrey Bogart has traveled 9 hours in cars this week, spent nights at the cabin, a strange hotel, and now made his first flight from Madison to Minneapolis. He's a amazing traveler, no fuss, much lower maintenance than me, and he's the star of all that meet him. Thank you very much for blessing me with a Silas/Bella puppy and your amazing imprinting process. God Bless you and your family. - Tom
 (Latest Update)
Bogey has been doing a lot and is great. Since I picked him up from you, he's spent a week at the cabin in WI, flown 1st class to Denver, lived two weeks on the 35th floor of a high rise condo in downtown Denver, learned to walk in downtown, met a lot of new fun people. "My dad wouldn't let me play with the homeless street people or other puppies yet but he says that's best for my health. I've been going to work with him everyday, met a lot of great people in his office that fight to see who gets to spoil me that day. We spent Easter Weekend at Beaver Creek so I could see the snow in the mountains, and dad could ski. Now we've moved to our new home with more room, lots of green space and other fun Goldens that I look forward to playing with. This week I was bad, ate to much junk on the ground when dad wasn't watching, and had to see my Dr again, but I'm doing great today. All is good, and I'm very thankful that you trained and socialized me so well." - Bogey  A sweet update from our little Bella Angel baby...Angel most resembles her mother both in temperament and in her petite size.
I wanted to give you an update on Angel after our vet visit. He [our vet] also said, “I can tell by her temperament that you are going to have an awesome dog here. Where did you get her from?”. “Snitker Goldens in Waukon”, I said with a smile, remembering all the extra effort you all make for good breeding and early imprinting. I think now, after living with Angel these last many weeks, that makes so much difference. She is so happy, confident, calm, smart and so trusting and willing to learn. That’s got to be from those early weeks of imprinting. She loves to cuddle in the manner you showed on pick-up day, and will sometimes crawl into our laps just to do so. If she gets frightened by something, she turns and looks to us to see if we are reacting, then calms down when she sees we are not scared. She gets along well with our big older dog, who when he has had enough of her jumping at his ears and pulling at his tail, gives her a growl and she settles right down and stops. She can sit, come, wait, give and go to her spot, all on command. She walks well on a lead and we are just starting this week to teach her to “heel” and “leave it”. Her obedience classes will start soon, and that will be more for her to learn. She retrieves very well and enjoys that kind of play. When she has to go outside she runs to the door and waits for us to open it up and outside she goes. If she does get bity at all (which is rare) it’s because we have missed her “outside” cues, and now she really has to go outside! Once done, she comes in and goes back to playing. And you know from being with her as a pup, she has the cutest little prance when she is happy and roaming about. She definitely has character! When I travel with her, she settles right down and sleeps in the vehicle. And wherever we arrive, she is happy, eager and ready to go. She loves meeting new people, pets, and even has cats figured out a little, not quite yet understanding why they have little prickers on their paws (claws) and she doesn’t. Several times in my travel with her we have been in tall grass and prairie. Often times there are Canadian Geese around. She loves that environment! Though she is not being trained as a hunting dog, she definitely has the instinct for it. She watches those birds intently and runs through that tall prairie grass like a pro, and she is just a little pup! It’s amazing. So from one dog lover to another, thank you for this brilliant, sweet, confident, little Golden Retriever with fur as soft as velvet, a temperament willing to please and a heart so given to trust. She is a very special pup to us, not just because she is replacing our old Springer, but because on her own, she is an amazing dog. Angel sends her little dog kisses your way for everyone at Snitkers! Nancy  Driving Miss Daisy Hi Stephanie,
Daisy's doing fantastic. SUCH a great puppy!!! She has not chewed or even attempted to chew ANYTHING. Not one thing!! How is that possible??? She only plays with her toys and is very gentle with them. I’ve attached a new photo for your Blog. You can title it “Driving Miss Daisy!” And it looks like you did another photo shoot for your website. Pics are priceless!!!! Is that your family in the photos? I’m not sure who is cuter the kids or the puppies!!!! Hope all is going well with all the pregnant mommies … you included!!! :) Best regards, Amy  Hi Stephanie and Rhonda! I can't believe we've had our Chance with us for over a month now!! He has brought so much joy to our lives!! He is such a loving, smart boy- quick to learn and so eager to please. It's fun to see him slowly but surely piecing together all that we are asking of him!! He loves being/playing with us but then easily transitions to entertaining himself. He just likes to know we are near. One of the things I love most is how trusting he is of us. I know this has to do with all that you did in those first early weeks! We've had a steady stream of house guests over the past month and Chance has been the biggest hit. I remember you saying that his mamma, Bella, wears so many expressions. Like mother like son. I've included a few of my favorite pictures. (I've only taken a bazillion!) We are so grateful to you for letting us be a part of the Snitker family. We absolutely love our baby boy!! Congratulations on all of the new building projects and best of luck with your homeschooling!!!! All our best, Cathy and Gregg...and Chance 
 Your Photo Contest reminded me to email you … I wanted to tell you we … SHE … is doing so well. Such an AWESOME puppy!! We still have the biting from time to time but her sweetness is 99% of the time there. I took her to the vet on Saturday. There were probably 20 nervous, lunging dogs in the waiting room. Not our little angel. She just sat down next to Spike watching all the other crazy dogs as if she was a human. Tons of people came over to love on her because she was so good and calm and commanded all the attention over all the other canines. However the BIGGEST compliment came from the vet … Dr. Millis … he started his practice about 45 years ago so I’d imagine he’s seen about 100 million animals [he now has 11 vets that work w/ him in his practice] but we got lucky and got Dr. M himself [it’s random unless you ask for a certain vet which of course you would if our animal was sick or something but just for shots/nail clipping we took the random vet.] Anyway, low and behold Dr. M called for Daisy and in she trotted. Dr. M himself said he could not believe what a beautiful and calm dog she is. He raved about her sweet disposition and good nature the whole time. He said most pups her age are trying to bound off the table but not Daisy … she just laid there and let him love on her, give her her shots, flip her all around to trim her nails etc. I was so proud of her and wanted to share the good news with you too. Really she’s like that about everything. We try to expose her to everything possible. She’s extremely agile and can climb on all kinds of surfaces, textures, inclines etc. She’s like a little mountain goat with some cat-like tendencies the way she “pounces” on stuff. This weekend she got to explore our yard off leash and she stayed right by us the whole time. She LOVED it. She’s so inquisitive of everything. The most excited she gets about anything is DIGGING!! Since we live in the woods we let her dig in the woods but the funny thing is Spike got a shovel out this weekend to dig a hole. She went crazy dancing and bounding around him while he dug. It was so cute how excited she got about her human doing her FAVORITE activity. Since she still was not loving her food, we broke down and added a spoonful of yogurt to her food and now she LOVES her food. SO … UGH … here we go down the path of spoiled puppy … but, “hey, she’s worth it!!” I asked the vet if she was growing properly [because Todd and I thought she was looking a bit lean] and he said she is just perfect. She actually gained 8.5 pounds in a little over 3 weeks!! She now weighs 18.5#. I think what happened is she’s growing longer than she is tall currently so she’s “stretched” out which made her appear leaner than previously. She’s had very few accidents since we brought her home and seems very smart. I’m really excited about her training. We wheeled her around in the cart at the pet store after we went to the vet to buy a few supplies and the resident trainer came up to us. She was also amazed at both how calm she was along with how responsive she was. She was also very complimentary of her just like Dr. Millis. She does not have any fears yet with one exception … she did not like getting ON the elevator at the hotel. That freaked her out a bit so we had to carry her on. We will need to work on that because we plan to take her to many hotels in her lifetime and it’s fine when you can just pick her up but when she’s bigger she’s going to have to jump on on her own. She was fine once she was on board and fine getting off. So that’s our sweet Daisy update as she’s currently is rolling around under my desk at work and playing with her toys. She’s got 3 humans wrapped around her rather large paws … life is good for Daisy Kohlbecker and her people!!! - The Kohlbeckers
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Why Snitker Goldens
We begin with quality tested and approved breeding Goldens and build on that solid foundation with our puppies. Championship pedigrees in their lines are our way of remaining true to breed standard. We strive to personally imprint each pup with positive, rewarding experiences – to nurture each one with love and care, realizing that each day we have your puppy is one day closer to the day you will hold him or her. We use this time to make that permanent impression on your pup, one which he or she will carry for a lifetime.
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