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Taz at 8 weeks on the day after we brought him home with us.
Meet Taz! Our 9 week-old Golden Retriever. We took him home 10 days after we moved to our new home. He loves our garden :)CLICK HERE for more photos.
I am so blessed and every day I thank God for never getting tired of answering my prayers. A week shy of a year ago, my husband and I moved to our first place together. I liked it there. It was an excellent 'starter' condo-style flat. But James and I have always known, from the time we moved there that it is all temporary. Ten months later we started looking at houses that is still close to town centre but with a spare bedroom and a garden. We viewed a few but settled for the one we live in now. It has a very large strip of garden, a spacious front yard, a much larger kitchen and best of all it is not an open-plan house like our previous home. You can see the Crooked Spire from the second bedroom and to top it all off, it's a magnificent spot to watch the sunset. We still have a lot of decorating to do but first things first! We had to get our little baby home from Matlock. Marley & Me, anyone?
FINDING TAZ
Finding the right breed of dog was very important for me. I want to be fair to the dog, I always remember this line from one of the many Dog Training books that I've read: Your dog didn't choose you, YOU chose your dog.
When I was a young girl I dreamt of having a Saint Bernard after watching Bethoven. Then my sister bought a big poster of dog breeds when I was 11 and I wanted to have every single one of them. But it was the movie Homeward Bound that touched my heart so much so that I promised myself that some day I will have a Golden Retriever and he will be just as clever and kind as Shadow, and will even have Chance's sense of humour. After 15 years that moment is here and that dream has come true.
It wasn't easy to find a Golden Retriever puppy. We looked on UK Kennel Club accredited websites and found several reputable breeders. James made a dozen phone calls and email inquiries only to be told that all the litter has already been reserved, even those that weren't even born yet! I never knew Goldens sold like hotcakes!
I was about to give up on finding a pedigree Golden and was ready to consider getting a Labrador, which is James' first choice or a Border Collie.
So when we saw an advert about a Lab x Golden I told James that I don't mind if it's a cross. So he rang the number and spoke with Mr Slater who turned out to be a really well-off farmer (in terms of assets, the land he owns is massive!) and above it all, he was a really humble and hospitable chap. He even took us home straight to Chesterfield twice which I thought was really thoughtful. He's a very genuine person and his family were nice too. I loved being in his farm even though I brought home with me a million midge bites, which have not completely healed up to now. But to me, it was well worth it. The first time we went to the farm was only to have a look at the puppies. As it turned out he had two litter - one of pedigree Golden Retrievers and Border Collie cross, roughly the same age. We had a look at both but we fell in love with the Golden Retrievers! So we paid a deposit for Taz, and Mr Stephen Slater sprayed his bum with orange sheep spray which is still slghtly visible to up now. We went back twice more, second time to visit Taz and make sure he is OK and I got to milk cows and feed the calves! I got to hold some newborn British Blue kittens and got to play with 12 Golden Retriever puppies, 10 BC x GR cross pups and played with 6 adult Goldens. It was an absolutely wicked experience for me.
Finding the right breed of dog was very important for me. I want to be fair to the dog, I always remember this line from one of the many Dog Training books that I've read: Your dog didn't choose you, YOU chose your dog.
When I was a young girl I dreamt of having a Saint Bernard after watching Bethoven. Then my sister bought a big poster of dog breeds when I was 11 and I wanted to have every single one of them. But it was the movie Homeward Bound that touched my heart so much so that I promised myself that some day I will have a Golden Retriever and he will be just as clever and kind as Shadow, and will even have Chance's sense of humour. After 15 years that moment is here and that dream has come true.
It wasn't easy to find a Golden Retriever puppy. We looked on UK Kennel Club accredited websites and found several reputable breeders. James made a dozen phone calls and email inquiries only to be told that all the litter has already been reserved, even those that weren't even born yet! I never knew Goldens sold like hotcakes!
I was about to give up on finding a pedigree Golden and was ready to consider getting a Labrador, which is James' first choice or a Border Collie.
So when we saw an advert about a Lab x Golden I told James that I don't mind if it's a cross. So he rang the number and spoke with Mr Slater who turned out to be a really well-off farmer (in terms of assets, the land he owns is massive!) and above it all, he was a really humble and hospitable chap. He even took us home straight to Chesterfield twice which I thought was really thoughtful. He's a very genuine person and his family were nice too. I loved being in his farm even though I brought home with me a million midge bites, which have not completely healed up to now. But to me, it was well worth it. The first time we went to the farm was only to have a look at the puppies. As it turned out he had two litter - one of pedigree Golden Retrievers and Border Collie cross, roughly the same age. We had a look at both but we fell in love with the Golden Retrievers! So we paid a deposit for Taz, and Mr Stephen Slater sprayed his bum with orange sheep spray which is still slghtly visible to up now. We went back twice more, second time to visit Taz and make sure he is OK and I got to milk cows and feed the calves! I got to hold some newborn British Blue kittens and got to play with 12 Golden Retriever puppies, 10 BC x GR cross pups and played with 6 adult Goldens. It was an absolutely wicked experience for me.
MY MATLOCK FARM EXPERIENCE
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