Golden Retrievers

Last December we lost our yellow lab at 15 years old. We really miss having a dog around the house, especially our 4 year old. Growing up we had 3 Frisbee golden retrievers that were absolutely amazing family dogs. Does anyone know if those bloodlines are still out there now that the breeders are gone? Our Lab was the best dog you could ever ask for but I just don’t think it would be right to get another lab.

sorry for the loss of your dog. Our family has had 5 goldens, most Recent one Ranger is 11 frisbee line, all goldens are great, good luck in your search

First of all, sorry for the loss of your family’s golden. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. They really are family members.

I’m a big time golden retriever person – currently have 2 and had them throughout my younger years as well. I’m also a very active member of the Duluth Retriever Club and am involved in the field trial and hunt test game.

When you say Frisbee goldens, I’m assuming you’re talking about Darrel Frisbee? He was a field trial guy, so his dogs had way more drive and go than a “regular” golden.

Will you do any hunting or are you just looking for a good family/house dog? There’s a couple field bred golden lines I could recommend to you, but they’re going to be a lot more expensive than a regular golden (typically in the $3-4k range). If you will do any hunting or field work, its well worth the additional investment to get a field bred golden.

If you’re just looking for a good house dog, I wouldn’t go the field bred route. It’s borderline unfair to a dog with that pedigree to be stuck in the house their whole life without any outlet to hunting or field work to use that drive they have. Kind of like buying a race car to run to the grocery store once or twice a week… Very unfair to the dog in my opinion.

If you’re just looking for a house dog, I’d start by looking for AKC lines. Then go on a site visit and meet the sire and dam and see the dogs temperament and trainability in person as well as what kind of operation the breeder has. You’ll be able to tell very quickly if they’re just in it for the money or if they really care about their line/pedigree. If the breeder doesn’t do any screening on the home/environment the dog is going into, I’d walk away.

I love Goldens and I have a Field Golden that I got from Rosewood Goldens in Clear Lake WI. All the dogs have great lines and this breeder was amazing during my process on picking out my pup and he still answers any questions I have.

Goldens are such great dogs!

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Thanks for the input guys. The dogs we had growing up were from Darrel Frisbee. I remember going to his place to look at the dogs and he would work some of them to show what they can do. It was pretty incredible and quite a phenomenal place he had. The dogs we had were on the smaller side with darker curlier coats and their temperament was perfect. We didn’t do lots of hunting but they were the best family dogs ever. Ideally we’d be looking for something similar to that if it’s even possible to find another dog like them. Not really interested in the larger long straight haired ones that most people seem to have these days.

Darrel was a legend in the dog training world. He’s one of the big reasons why the upper midwest became the field trial destination that it is known as today.

If I was looking for my next field bred golden, I’d be looking at one of these breeders:

Top brass goldens
Thistle rock goldens
Wildfire goldens

Top brass would be my #1 choice. If you go to any field trial or master hunt test and see a golden, very good chance it has a Top brass and/or Thistle rocks line somewhere in its pedigree.

Thanks. I’ll check out those places you mentioned. We aren’t in a huge hurry to get a pup but the whole family misses having a dog so it’s time to start thinking about it.

KP wrote:

I love Goldens and I have a Field Golden that I got from Rosewood Goldens in Clear Lake WI. All the dogs have great lines and this breeder was amazing during my process on picking out my pup and he still answers any questions I have.

I got one from Rosewood 10 years ago as well. Been a great buddy. I don’t hunt, but he definitely had the drive to retrieve from the day we brought him home. Tons of ball in the yard and swimming at the lake gets his energy out and keeps him happy.

Thunderstruck Retrievers is another local good choice for field Goldens. They are small so could be a long wait.

suzuki wrote:

Thunderstruck Retrievers is another local good choice for field Goldens. They are small so could be a long wait.

good call out – I forgot Thunderstruck. They produce a really nice line as well.