Planning for Puppy...

Mr. Purple - aka Kipling

We're getting down to the wire now, 'puppy' is now 7 weeks old and will come home in two weeks. So, some announcements. Puppy will be 'Karnerblue Magica Storyteller' aka Kipling. Which will probably become a much less formal "Kipp" or "Kipper" over time. I'll do my best to avoid the phrase "yippie kippie" as much as possible - and ask that those of you out there who meet him to do the same - no matter how tempting it is to screech Yippee! Kippie!! {grin}.

Puppy evaluations on the entire litter were remarkably consistent. In the volhard puppy temperament test** the puppies were all mostly 3's, with a couple of 2's and 4's thrown in. They're all right where they ought to be for golden retriever puppies! All four puppies retrieved wings to hand on the first try, with one evaluator note that "Mr. Green retrieved wing to lap" (not directly to hand). How totally cute is that?

Over all Mr Purple was "a lovely puppy" - a bit more outgoing, a bit bolder, recovered a bit sooner than Green when startled - that kind of "can-do" attitude that I'm looking for in my next friend, agility partner, hiking partner, obedience dog, swimming buddy, therapy dog, etc....

Kipling in profile.

Today was the structure evaluations - again, quite a lot of consistency across the board - Mr. Green was the show pick, but Mr. Purple was not far behind. Both - in case anyone was wondering - have dropped both testicles - cause I KNOW that everyone was waiting to hear about that!{grin}. Mr. Purple really has the temperament that I think suits him for my pick - so Mr Purple is my Kipling.

With each successive puppy we learn just a bit more - emphasize different things and try very hard to improve upon our previous results - I'll be blogging this summer on Kipling's progress, what I'm working on with him and what I'm getting for results from that progress.  And now I'm thinking about how there's so much that needs to get done between now and little Kipp's homecoming!

Resources:
Volhard PAT Test (pdf):
http://www.volhard.com/uploads/choosing-your-puppy-pdf.pdf

Volhard PAT Test (web):
http://www.volhard.com/pages/pat.php

Consolidated Volhard PAT chart:
http://www.caradobe.com/volhardtest.pdf

Is a Golden Retriever the right dog for me?
http://www.grca.org/allabout/profiler.html

Thinking about getting a golden retriever puppy? Things you need to know:
http://www.grca.org/allabout/index.html

Golden Retriever Club of America Puppy Referral:
http://www.grca.org/allabout/puppyreferrals.html