# Stage Gulch Goldens - Can anyone give some guidance?



## Emmdenn (Jun 5, 2018)

A bunch of lies on their website. None of the dogs have the clearances they claim they do on their website. Looks like most of them are imported from other countries and lack USA clearances. The breeder looks super young, and does not show her dogs in any venue. They take pride in their social media following rather than getting titles on any of their dogs. 

It appears they work closely with Nicolberry Goldens. Here is a thread on them:

https://www.goldenretrieverforum.co...-puppy/101670-nicholberry-goldens-anyone.html


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## DanaRuns (Sep 29, 2012)

Also, their females are too young to breed.


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## LJack (Aug 10, 2012)

If health is important to you, I would move on. This breeder is breeding on deficient health testing results for dogs that live in the US.


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## stagegulchgoldens (Sep 20, 2019)

*All testing completed*

Hello, this is actually incorrect. I am the owner of Stage Gulch Goldens and I have ALL of my testing completed which includes, eyes, hips, elbows and heart. If you would like proof of each testing, just ask and I can provide. Thank you.


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## stagegulchgoldens (Sep 20, 2019)

*Excellent breeder with ALL certifications.*

Hello, I am the owner of Stage Gulch Goldens. I do not appreciate you misrepresenting my business. I do not have one lie on my website. Instead of posting lies about me, you should verify/call me and ask me. That is the respectful and responsible thing to do. Almost all of my dogs are certified therapy dogs and work at the hospital/nursing with me. And ALL of my dogs have received all of their PennHip/OFA testing and my breeding bitches are over the age of 2. If you would like to see documentation I would be more than happy to provide that.


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## mzilke (May 4, 2019)

Call them and find out for yourself but do your homework and make sure her dogs have all the necessary clearances good luck.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

> If you would like to see documentation I would be more than happy to provide that.


Prospective owners only need to have registered names or registration numbers to look clearances up on OFA.

With eyes and heart - the clearances are done at the time of the exam, and this is a reason why some breeders decide to just hang onto the paperwork and provide it to puppy buyers upon request. They shouldn't, btw, and it looks bad if they aren't posted, but especially when all other clearances are spotty in the lines behind the dogs.

But hips and elbows are cleared by OFA. Only reason why they would not be visible on OFA is if they were PRELIMINARY (not clearances) and done when the dogs were underage.

At the time this thread was started back in May, only one of the breeder's bitches was over the age of 2. And interesting note on her, she is the mom of one of the studs owned by the breeder. Stud was born when Lola was only a year old.

https://www.k9data.com/pedigree.asp?ID=850171

And this dog in question had no hip or elbow clearances, despite her being 3 years old. The breeder attempted to manually type hip grades into K9data, but that is not allowed. You need to provide links to OFA for those hip grades. If they aren't there, the dog has no clearances.

Additionally, she had two practitioner cardiac exams - which is basically odd (the number of them) and unacceptable. Breeders should take their dogs to a cardiologist to have the hearts cleared. 

Eyes were done only once.

Penn Hip is not a clearance. It's a breeder's tool. And it's essentially useless to most puppy buyers, particularly since PH is done well before the dogs turn 2. 

There's nothing wrong with doing penn hip, however, you should do it after age 2 and additionally send the OFA view in to OFA to be evaluated. Additionally, if you have PH results - submit those to OFA to be posted publicly.

Penn hip does not clear elbows - so you still need to send rads in to OFA for both hips and elbows. 

To reiterate - preliminary clearances are a breeder's tool. It's a good way to check hips/elbows early enough to place a dog when he's still young if he is likely to fail. It is not a clearance. And should be very unacceptable to all puppy buyers regardless of who is doing it. 

Reason why hips/elbows OFA clearances are so important for breeders of imported dogs especially =

1. They can stand out from everyone else because they are proving that they are selectively breeding.... vs breeding whatever they have. 

2. Many of the foreign lines seem very weak as far as elbows especially. This is primarily because the breeders behind them are not removing elbow dysplasia from what they breed. But even hips are likely weak, primarily because these dogs are coming from puppy mills over there. 

I've seen people posting hip xrays elsewhere and being devastated because the hips are never going to pass. And these people had purchased these dogs primarily for breeding. It's worth noting that some of these "european" dogs are coming from breeders here in the US.


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## Emmdenn (Jun 5, 2018)

stagegulchgoldens said:


> Hello, I am the owner of Stage Gulch Goldens. I do not appreciate you misrepresenting my business. I do not have one lie on my website. Instead of posting lies about me, you should verify/call me and ask me. That is the respectful and responsible thing to do. Almost all of my dogs are certified therapy dogs and work at the hospital/nursing with me. And ALL of my dogs have received all of their PennHip/OFA testing and my breeding bitches are over the age of 2. If you would like to see documentation I would be more than happy to provide that.


Your website states _"Stage Gulch Goldens desire is to promote excellence in all that we do. We use OFA testing for eyes, heart, hips, elbows as well as PennHip to evaluate our dogs for breeding. Our dogs are also tested for genetic disease common to Golden Retrievers to guide our breeding decisions."_

First dog I clicked on was "Watson" and clicked on the K9Data link that YOU provided on your website and low and behold, there are NO OFA verifiable link associated with that K9Data page. There is no heart clearance listed at all, hips and elbows were *not cleared by OFA*, who knows how old Watson was when they were done in Serbia.... 

Noah only has prelims and doesn't even have hip prelims listed...

Libby - Only has prelims, no OFA hip clearance

Tiffany - No OFA verifiable clearances listed, again who knows how old she was when they were done in Russia.

So though you state that you use OFA and PennHip to evaluate your dogs for breeding, the truth would be more like you _sometimes _use them, _sometimes_ rely on foreign clearances and prelims when selecting dogs for breeding and do not follow the GRCA CoE. And again....that's just what is able to be proven from the website.

Because these dogs are now living and being bred in the USA you as a breeder should be abiding by the GRCA code of ethics which Megora alluded to above.

I guess my next logical question is...if you have all of the clearances and documentation that you CLAIM to have...why not put that on the publicly verifiable K9data link you posted on your website???


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## Prism Goldens (May 27, 2011)

You say this on your site "We use OFA testing for eyes, heart, hips, elbows as well as PennHip and FCI to evaluate our dogs for breeding. " This is simply untrue. If you did use OFA for hips and elbows, heart and eyes it would be on OFA.

Watson- @ 15 months old, Serbian clearances were input on k9data. That's not a clearance. 
Clearances for hips and elbows in the US are done after 24 months. Watson has NO OFA record whatever. 

Liberty https://www.ofa.org/advanced-search?f=sr&appnum=1996729 has no hips or elbows, and her eyes are out of date. 
As someone else mentioned Lola is lacking a correct cardiac exam but oddly has 2 incorrect ones- and no hip/elbow clearances. Not only that, you made an effort to post a clearance she does not have on k9data- not once but twice. Now she's locked. 

Tiffany has no OFA page- and her Serbian clearances were input to k9data when she was 17 mo old 

Noah has a heart clearance- that's it- https://www.ofa.org/advanced-search?f=sr&appnum=1981881 which tells us that you do know how to get a correct heart clearance. 

So- you can see that no one mis-reported anything. You do have untruths posted on your site (see quote above) since you do not have what you state you do have on your breeding animals. 
You're young - it's not too late to start doing things the right way. Otherwise, you do the breed you say you love a disservice.


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