We began our journey with Goldens back in 1986 - with the purchase of our first Golden Retriever named Zack! He was purchased as a pet puppy from a breeder in MI - we THOUGHT we knew what we were getting - a Golden right? Well, lets just say that WE loved him, but no one else could tolerate him. His energy levels ran the gamut from freaked out to spaz. I am, to this day, glad that he became our dog - because many families would have turned him in to rescue, not knowing how to handle that kind of high energy boy (and believe me when I say it was a challenge for us as well!). When we lost him to Hemangio, we realized just how much he had filled our hearts and we decided right then and there, we would never be without that Golden love.

Next, came Shelby - she was also from a breeder (a term I use loosly here) in MI. She IS the reason we got into the breed. Though she was not a show dog - she will forever be a Champion in our hearts for she truely is what has made us want to devote so much of our lives to this wonderful breed! She was the best Auntie to every puppy we have ever had here - and having lost her at almost 14 years of age, she will forever be missed.

We moved from MI to CO when Shelby was a puppy - and I began my search - for our first quality Golden - from a breeder who knew what he/she was doing and could mentor as well. We purchased Aspen from Sharon Baxter and we we've never looked back! We consider ourselves a small hobby breeder - we don't breed that often and we hope that the quality of Goldens we breed is of the highest standard. We breed to adhere to the Golden Retriever Club of America's Code of Ethics and to the Golden Retriever Standard. Beyond that, temperament and heath are everything here. If we don't have those two things, what is just a pretty dog? We hope that every puppy we help to put on this earth will live a very long, healthy life - it's what we strive for!

We raise all of our dogs NATURALLY! What does that mean? To begin with, all of our dogs, puppies included, are fed a species appropriate diet. If dogs were meant to chew kibble, they would have jaws that move back and forth (not just up and down) and they would have flat molars for grinding - which they do not. There's plenty more information on diet in the Important Info area of our site. I encourage you to educate yourselves! We've been feeding this way for over 13 years now - and we wouldn't feed any other way.

We vaccinate minimally. Science is beginning to catch up with what some of us already knew - we've been WAY over vaccinating our dogs. This has been done for generations and we wonder why dogs have immune system issues and more and more cancer all the time! We vaccinate for what can kill a dog - a healthy dog is able to handle what may come his or her way - and that's what we hope we are producing, HEALTHY dogs! Our vaccination protocol may not work for everyone, but it's working well for us and our puppy families. We won't know for sometime, if what we are doing will reverse the affects of those generations, but we think we're onto something here!

I became a Master Gardener through Colorado State University, right after we moved here - and was part of the tiny minority of those who choose to garden completely natural as well. We use NO chemicals in our yard - no commercial fertilizers either. Dogs directly take in these types of things via their nose and pads on their feet! (It's not good for human children either!) This holds true for inside our home as well. We use natural products for cleaning and we're proud to say that our home is quite "green" and getting more so all the time!

Obviously there's a lot more - I could write volumes about learning to train and show, all the fun escapades we have had traveling with our dogs to events, and reflections of the sad times that have come our way too - and maybe someday I will - which gives you lots of reasons to check back in here from time to time - right?

I hope you enjoy my dogs as much as I do...
Sharon