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About Us
My name is Marcy Kronz. I show, breed, and love Golden Retrievers. I love to train and compete with my dogs. We do conformation, agility, rally, dock diving, and obedience. I belong to the Greater Pittsburgh Golden Retriever Club where I serve on the Board of Directors. I am also a member of the Golden Retriever Club of America. I have had a love for golden retrievers for as long as I can remember. Our dogs live in our house, sleep in our bed, and are treasured members of our family.
Health and temperament are very important to us here at Ruffwater. All of our dogs have their health clearances; hips & elbows are cleared through the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA), hearts are checked by a veterinary cardiologist, and their eyes are examined yearly by a canine ophthalmologist and are certified through the OFA. You can type in any of our dog's AKC names into the OFA database to view their health clearances.
Our dogs and puppies are fed a good quality dog food and a raw diet. Our puppies are born in our bedroom, where they stay until they are five weeks old. Then they are moved down to our family room. Our puppies are handled and socialized everyday starting from the day that they are born. The puppies are exposed to all household sounds such as the vacuum, phone, television, radio, people talking, laughing, and yes, sometimes yelling. This is all very important to a newborn puppy. When the puppies get a little bit older, we invite visitors to socialize with the pups. They now learn different smells, sights, and sounds. Once old enough they will go outside to explore. We offer them a puppy obstacle course and lots of toys to play with. They will be on many different surfaces including carpet, concrete, grass, gravel, and ceramic tile. We take the litter of puppies in the car, and weather permitting, try to get them swimming. All puppies will have a bath before going to their new homes.
Here at Ruffwater, we spend a lot of time getting to know our puppies. We have them temperament tested at 7 weeks and a conformation evaluation at 8 weeks. This helps us to place the right puppy with the right family. My job as a breeder is to make sure that the puppy goes into a home where he/she fits easily and can remain there for their entire life. I don't want a family that is active to end up with a couch-potato of a puppy, just as I wouldn't want a runner to end up with a laid back, less active puppy.
Our companion puppies are sold on limited registration, with spay/neuter contracts. Our puppies are sold with a written agreement, and have a warranty against crippling hip dysplasia, eye problems that cause blindness, and severe SAS. We keep in contact with our puppy families and are always available for questions for the life of the dog. If, for any reason, you can no longer keep your puppy, we want him/her back. Once the puppies are born, and I know what we have, I will ask for a $300 deposit. Deposits will be refunded up until the pups are 4 weeks old.
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