[speaker001:] okay do you have any pets
[speaker002:] yes I've had I've had a number of them in my lifetime and I've I am a golden retriever fan but I had to replace it with something that the kids could carry yes yes
[speaker001:] yeah oh instead of being carried
[speaker002:] yes well they were they really wanted something teeny tiny and I uh really wanted that retriever's disposition uh the ultimate to tolerant trainable disposition so I called
[speaker001:] yeah really
[speaker002:] four or five dog trainers because I don't like the little dogs and and I asked them you know these are the ages of the kids what do I get
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and they all said golden retriever and I said okay put it under twenty pounds and the only thing that they could come up with was a bichon frise which is a do you know what that is
[speaker001:] huh yes I've seen those they're cute
[speaker002:] they're cute they look like an airheaded dog but let me tell you they're calm they're not yappy they're trainable they're uh very personable in a different way that a golden retriever is they're not dignified like a retriever can be yeah so how old is your retriever
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh she's about four she's not completely pure we got her from the uh Humane Society when she was a puppy she looks like a golden she looks just like a golden retriever but she's a little bit smaller she's like fifty five pounds
[speaker002:] well actually you know that's the breed standard for females what you yeah what you see shown and bred now as golden retrievers this you know plus eighty to a hundred pound range
[speaker001:] is it uh-huh
[speaker002:] that is not breed standard fifty five is the minimum but they usually run about sixty to sixty five and the ones that are shown
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] they are inside that weight allowance you cannot show your retriever if it's you know a hundred plus pounds so don't say she's small just say she's perfect
[speaker001:] uh-huh oh huh yeah she's perfect well she's got a brown nose instead of black too
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] which makes her I guess unshowable even if she had papers which she doesn't but but we love her anyway she's just a lot of company to us we didn't
[speaker002:] yep
[speaker001:] we haven't had any kids and we're expecting a baby this summer but up until then she's been our substitute kid and she was a lot of fun
[speaker002:] well they are they are the ultimate dogs to have around kids so long as your kids not scared of a big dog because I had a retriever actually I had a retriever Irish setter cross
[speaker001:] right oh
[speaker002:] which is a really nice animal and fortunately it was just like a retriever and then I've had a retriever
[speaker001:] I bet it had a pretty coat too
[speaker002:] it was gorgeous it was just gorgeous I mean just gorgeous um and they both you know both the half breed and the pure breed had the um what I consider the the the perfect disposition but you know what you know what scares me about golden retrievers
[speaker001:] huh-uh
[speaker002:] since they've become so popular you get what I call backyard breeders which is probably where yours came from people that don't know what they're doing and
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] they breed them you know for a certain characteristic and in the retrievers it happens to be they like them big for somehow big is perceived as better and when you start doing that you really tamper with you know the all the the years of uh culling litters and and uh you tamper with what the dog innately is
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] we when I was when I bought my last purebred retriever I mean I looked all over because I wanted one that still looked like retriever you know the short to the ground stocky golden uh trainable tractable quiet animal that could hunt and still be in the house and I ended up getting one that uh came out of a a a hunting stock because I wanted one that could still perform like a retriever did
[speaker001:] right oh
[speaker002:] and I've seen an awful lot of lately really dumb dumb retrievers and I'm and I really fear for the breed because I love that breed but I really figure right when it becomes really popular that it's going to be ruined
[speaker001:] yeah we have some friends with a brother and sister golden retriever and those dogs have been having seizures and I wonder since both of them are having them if it's some kind of a breeding problem
[speaker002:] oh yeah you bet you you bet you you know how they came up with the retriever don't you the golden it was bred out of several different retrievers and they bred it for companionship and uh uh disposition and and ability to hunt it was kept only by kings
[speaker001:] huh-uh oh
[speaker002:] but they selectively culled those litters I mean for many hundreds of years and since it slept in the castle with its master I mean it had it had to be of a disposition to make it you know an animal you could keep around that closely but but they would go through all the litters and destroy the puppies if they were anything other than perfect now you know that seems like a cruel thing to do
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] on the other hand you sure you know they sure created a a wonderful breed I mean a wonderful breed
[speaker001:] yeah they did I I had never really had a golden retriever before we were going to get a shepherd and something mixed because my husband's family had had shepherds and all the other we looked at some of shepherd mixes and the puppies weren't very uh social and stuff and we went to a pen of a little bit bigger dogs and all the others were standing there barking and jumping up and down and one dog would stand there wagging her tail and smiling and that was mine
[speaker002:] uh-huh well I tell you you know the the German shepherd is the classic case of what I'm talking about because in America that's called a Rin Tin Tin phenomena
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] only in America is there a dog called a German shepherd that dog is bred out of three European dogs the Belgian Tervurien a German schutzhund and
[speaker001:] oh really
[speaker002:] I always forget the third one I can see it uh but the third one is a children's dog and
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] there are distinct breeds in Europe now what happened over here was is that people saw the the first um which would actually have been a schutzhund which is what Rin Tin Tin was
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and everybody wanted Rin Tin Tin and it was known as a German shepherd here so they created a breed standard the American Kennel Club did that said anything that is a schutzhund a a Tervurien and uh Alsatian that's the other one Alsatian
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] any inner breeding of that can be called a German shepherd here and what happened is is that people wanted this shepherd to shepherd and protect and they bred a dog that
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] I the it's called a an animal's critical span which basically translates to how much shit will it take before it bites you that German shepherd the American German shepherd here was a a a such an unreliable animal that the American Seeing Eye Institute refused to use them because they would turn on their on their handlers and
[speaker001:] uh-huh huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] even um uh police corps which started you know finding other breeds to use because this thing this this thing known as a German shepherd here its personality and its dependability and its reliability was just terrible so about fifteen years ago the German Shepherd Club of America decided amongst themselves that they were going to change this so they went back to Europe and brought back some good examples of each of the three breeds and bred
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] to a standard what they wanted an American German shepherd to be which is a very heavily now schutzhund and Alsatian and it's the Alsatian that's the kid's dog it's just you see them in Europe and they're just lovely
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] but you'll see I mean if you ever start looking in papers now and you start seeing these ads for German shepherds they will say on them bred for disposition AKC conforming
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] which means that their advertising that this is no longer an indiscriminate dog this is bred for and they had to go through and destroy a for a while there about seventy five percent of their puppies that they bred
[speaker001:] wow
[speaker002:] because they were looking for this disposition and nowadays you you'll get you'll get a dog trainer to recommend a specific you know breeder handler they'll recommend their shepherds as a children's dog but
[speaker001:] huh