 Hello Snitker family, Wanted to check in during the midst of this pandemic. Hoping you are all safe and healthy. The “brothers” are doing great. During January, Hawkeye/Hayden spent about 3 weeks training with Anna Childs at Adelhorst Kennels. She ended up keeping Hayden for another few weeks after that. We got them back home just before the pandemic hit here. Thank goodness. Anna and her daughter at Adelhorst kennels, LOVED both of the boys but Hayden captured a special place in their hearts as he has all of us. Hayden is doing great. We have an “in training” service vest on him. Before the pandemic hit, we were taking Hayden to nursing homes, group homes and where people with disabilities have day programs. He was and is doing FABULOUS. We couldn’t ask for a better boy. However, right now we are staying home and can’t do service work. We will get back to it once there is a vaccine for this nasty COVID-19. Hawkeye and Hayden are inseparable. They sleep together, eat together, play together and follow each other around. Peas in a pod. However, we definitely know we picked the wrong name out for Hayden. He should have been named, porky, piglet, soda, hoagie or biscuit; something “food” related. He is a pig when it comes to his food bowl. Here are some pictures of the boys. Hayden has grown from little guy into a big guy. We love them both dearly and are so blessed to have them and you guys in our lives. Please stay safe and healthy. Blessings to all of you, your families and the dogs. Love, Richard, Lynne Schaefer – Hawkeye and Hayden (bark, bark)
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 Hi Stephanie,
The Larson family here, including MOOSE! We will be celebrating his 2nd birthday in just a couple days (July 2018). Here is what he's been up to lately. Moose has two sister humans, a 3.5 year old and 1 year old. The 3.5 year old knows how to give him commands, and boy does he listen to her! She also has her chore of feeding him nightly. She scoops up his food, waits for him to sit, pours it in his bowl and then she dramatically releases him for it! Its pretty cute to watch. Our 1 year old loves to grab his tennis ball and throw it (about 2 feet) for him, but he is willing to fetch! Moose has become quite the swimmer. He will swim WAY out into rivers and lakes to retrieve sticks, but he prefers tennis balls. Moose is a 'slender' 85 lbs, solid muscle and super fluffy. He had shorter/tighter hair up until around a year when he really fluffed out! He is really smart, loves to retrieve, is very gentle, and REALLY laid back. Still being a puppy he gets very excited running around with the neighbor kids in the yard (I love he doesn't need to be on a leash,) but that's it! After a few minutes of that he lays and chews on a stick! Thanks for letting me share his update, he's a well loved part of our family. 
Danny (Coco/Silas 2018) had a 17 wk check and final shots. He’s a big boy: 48.1# (Opie at this age was 38.1). Lol. His paws and legs are large and thick! Vet said perfect weight - has a very visible waist and can easily feel ribs. I wish I could say the same! Danny seems much quicker AT THIS AGE than Opie (Charlie/Silas 2016) was. He is definitely more confident and inquisitive.
The two are inseparable. So pleased (and proud!) to walk our two together. There is never a time in public that someone doesn’t ask “what are they” or “can we pet them?” Must be awesome to have a passionate business, that everyone LOVES the product. LOL Hope all is well with your young family. I imagine little Baby Kelley is a growin. - Danny & Opie's Parents :)
If you'd like to get on the waiting list for the next pairing of our Thevenet girls with Silas, please let us know! Reservations will be filled in order by deposit placed. Coco and Fabi will have their next litters with Silas in this upcoming year. Please fill out our Puppy Application to get this process started or visit Our Puppies to learn more about what is available now.
Be Social!
A really darling note from a Fabi son and his family.
Dear Momma Fabi,
Although I have been with my forever family for eight weeks now, I wanted to write to wish you a very happy Mother's Day. I think about you and my sisters often, and Rhonda and Stephanie too. You would all be so proud of what a good boy I have been since leaving Iowa! My new family absolutely loves me, and tells me so often what a good boy I am. I also get about a million kisses and cuddles a day from my new human momma, two sisters and brother, so I'm pretty sure they think I'm a nice addition to the family. (My human daddy thinks I'm great too, but just isn't into kissing dogs. Whatever.) I am so eager to please and have been doing so well with my training. I am getting great grades at my puppy kindergarten class, and am mastering all of my new commands quickly. I am more handsome every day and have an incredibly calm disposition. Thank you for being such a loving momma last winter. I am clearly the son of a kind, smart, loyal and beautiful mother. Please give my best to Rhonda and Stephanie. Their intense imprinting philosophy made all the difference in the kind of boy I am. My new owners love nothing more than the "watch me" command they taught me. I love you forever and hope that springtime in Waukon is treating you and all my Snitker family well. With much love, Your son, Louie Be Social!
 Good morning Stephanie. I hope you and the baby are getting along well and are both healthy. Good day for snugglin’; damp and cold outside. Danny had his 2nd check up and as suspected he is one mighty fine healthy pup! Our vet, has all four Snitker dogs (Piper, Opie, Keeley, and Danny). He made a comment AGAIN today - “these Snitker pups are really specials guys." I thought you would like to hear his compliment. At one day shy of 13 wks. Danny weighed in at 31.7#. Our vet said he’s going to be a big boy. You should see his THICK legs!! He still has a trim waist - so vet said his weight is fine. We have made it thru the night without having to go outside for about a week now. He gets his dinner about 4:30. He plays with us til about 8-8:30 and goes to bed in his pen. Don takes him out between 11-11:30 and from that point sleeps with the pack free in our bedroom. He knows his routine because he runs down the hall to our bedroom. Danny has been quicker to investigate sounds and movement than Opie was at this age. His personality seems more assertive - but in such a sweet way. He will easily sit on command, come by his name and “say hello” (shake paw). He LOVES baths! Yeah!  He is a pro at snugglin’ Again, the right dog for the right family. Rhonda has an excellent sense for matching these little guys with us big guys. Ha!
Our boys are inseparable. This weekend is Don’s last church service and we begin a new chapter called retirement. I couldn’t imagine going forward without our guys. Love, love love my boys. Don asked if he was “one of the boys.” Yup, love you too Don. I know Danny is Coco’s first litter so I’ll periodically send you pictures. Greet Rhonda for me!  Hi Rhonda & Stephanie, Hope you’re well. I couldn’t resist sending this pic of Harper from a couple weekends ago. We were at my mom’s in the frigid cold, and he could’ve cared less! He ran for quite a while and always came up with a face full of snow. We also regularly have to step aside for joggers and strollers on our walks because Harper finds the longest and heaviest sticks possible to lug around the neighborhood. He's always working! If only I could find a way to actually contract him out for landscaping services! Can’t believe he will be 4 in a couple months. Time flies. He is the sweetest, funniest guy. Happy 2018! Sara   Remi (front) & Rudi (back) Here are a few pics from the last few months of Rudi and Remi. The beach shot is from our vacation in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It's their happy place. Rudi is our big guy at about 80 lbs and Remi is the little prince at about 72 lbs. They continue to be an inseparable duo and they crack us up constantly with their antics. Rudi is still an Olympic level swimmer and spends probably two hours a day (minimum!) doing laps in our pool. Remi is a little less obsessed with the pool but he's entirely obsessed with Rudi, so he's the lifeguard running around the pool and watching Rudi go. They continue to learn each other's tricks which is really sweet to watch. They both remain total food-hounds and have started to take turns reminding us when dinner time is by coming up to us, sitting, and staring from about 4 inches away from our faces. They are currently working on a campaign to have their dinner moved an hour earlier. We have remained strong but they are wearing us down. Haha!
 Hello Rhonda & Stephanie, We just wanted to send you a quick e-mail regarding Emma. Emma has been a part of our family for a little over 6 weeks. It seems as though it has been more like 6 months! We were prepared that it might take a few days to several weeks before she felt comfortable in her new home. After a couple of days she was in the groove of her new schedule and environment. It only took about 5 nights of her sleeping in her crate until she let us know that was enough. She then took up residence at night next our bed!! Our original plan was to get a puppy. When we met Emma and found out she was available for adoption we knew she was meant to be a part of our family. If we could have gone on-line and ordered a dog with all the "bells and whistles", Emma's picture would have popped up! She is absolutely awesome and we can't imagine our home without her. She fits in so well with our lives because of her calm demeanor. She has her "spin out" moments when we go outside to play, but as soon as she comes in the house she is like a big cat. Everyone that Emma meets, they comment on how beautiful and well behaved she is. Although Emma had already had obedience training, she began an intermediate obedience class last week. The class is probably more for us, so that we don't give her any bad habits! As you can imagine, she is the star pupil. All the other dogs are wigging out and barking. Emma is either sitting or lying down quietly wondering what is up with the other dogs. The goal is to begin doing pet therapy with her sometime in late October or early November. We hope to focus on nursing homes and hospitals. We can tell she is going to bring joy to those that she will come into contact with.
Although a puppy would have been fun, we believe that adopting a slightly older dog was the way to go for us. It has been so nice having a dog that is well behaved, house trained and doesn't even bother our cat Floyd! We have never heard her bark. When we encounter other dogs on our walks that are going crazy and barking, Emma just looks at them and continues on her way. No matter where we are at in the house, she is always with one of us. You can tell she likes being with us.
We feel truly blessed to have found Snitker Goldens and more importantly Emma. It is obvious that your puppy imprinting program and the breeding lines are producing top notch goldens. Thank you for all the time and love that you put into raising Emma. We are looking forward to seeing how she is going to impact others when we begin pet therapy. You can't help but smile when you see her! She has had a positive impact on our lives by making us slow down. We spend a lot of time now in our backyard enjoying Emma and our home. We attached some pictures of Emma in her new home. Brad & Lori Schwartz  Hi Rhonda & Stephanie. It doesn’t seem possible that OUR Snitker pup Opie, is almost a year old! July 25, 2016 was “Mr. Blue’s” special day - little did you we know it would be ours as well. I talk about this dog like he’s one of our 6 kids - hum…I never thought to ask our kids (that are all successfully out on their own) how they feel about being displaced by one large dog? Don and I are enjoying him immensely - you know, that unconditional love and desire to please? Just like the kids, I have kept a ‘puppy book’ and augmented it with monthly pictures. With all your puppies having that special "Snitker Imprint” it has been an easy year of training. Opie breezed through his first class of puppy manners, and then moved on to the advanced manners class giving him his Canine Good Citizenship - CGC. With Just two more lessons, he should pass his Therapy Dog International-TDI. Our hopes for Opie is to bring his non-anxious presence into Tomah’s VA center and offer his comfort and friendship. Beyond this, we would also like to find the connection to get him into the court rooms involving frightened and traumatized young children. (Some 30 years ago our family went through a heinous courtroom trial with a couple of our daughters. We worked through the hurt as a family, vowing to help any other child in distress in any way we could. The next 20 years was spent providing foster care to over 70 children. As we’ve aged and have reached retirement, those days of foster care are over for us, but we still have the desire to help the young ones.) Opie clearly has a future softening life for others and we hope to lead him through. I’ve just read through your Ina Puppy Update. How excited your families must be! I remember our days of waiting. For these families, I can say the wait is so-o worth it. Not only are you getting a pedigree record of distinguished breeding, but the intentional process of “imprinting” makes a measurable difference in the puppies. They are so-o prepared to learn and please. These puppies will make a marked difference in your family life. Such JOY! Congratulations to your expectant families Hope to visit sometime this summer and re-introduce you to Opie’s Opus No.1 of Snitker Gold (aka Mr. Blue)
 Hope you guys made it through the storms this week. We are lucky to live in a high spot so no water in the basement. It looks like you all are very busy with the puppies again this year. I would love to be a helper to just be with the puppies. My question for you is when is Teagan's birthday. Have to clean out my files to find my records but since I am sending you a picture of Teag, I thought I would ask you. These pictures were taken in June. She is just the most beautiful dog and I get so many compliments on her looks and her behavior. Her obedience training and nose work classes are going very well and she seems to pick up on things so quickly. Thanks for your help and I hope you are all staying dry there. Barb  |
Why Snitker Goldens
We begin with quality tested and approved breeding Golden Retrievers 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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