Welcome to Our New site

All of our Golden Retrievers at Southwind Kennels are house dogs. While they spend most of their time
playing in the fields and woods which surround our home, several of our Golden Retrievers are Therapy
Dogs. Some of the Goldens hunt, are learning to Track and others show in Obedience competitions. Our
dogs are multi talented excelling in obedience and fieldwork, while some think they should only be
required to lounge around all day and look pretty!! (see picture of JAZZ)

Our dogs are our family pets first! Everything else is just a perk! Prior to owning my first Golden
Retriever, we owned German Shepherds. For 32 years we owned and showed them. After owning
Shepherds for the first 14 years I decided I wanted another breed. Something that would  give me comic
relief! I decided on the Golden Retriever.

OUR FIRST GOLDEN RETRIEVER WAS “CODY” OFA GOOD, eyes/heart clear.
He was a real handful. The dog was in constant motion. I remember calling the Golden Retriever Club of
America and asking them about Cody.  The gentleman who answered the phone at the GRCA asked me
what his bloodline was. I told him, and asked him when could I expect Cody to start settling down. He
said, around 15! Well, he knew what he was talking about! Cody was almost 16 before he starting keeping
four feet on the ground at the same time. He died shortly before his 18th birthday. Cody taught me a lot
about training. Everything Cody did was for the pure joy of succeeding. He was so excited about learning
something new that it was very difficult to settle him down long enough for the training to sink in! He
would just jump all over the place, run back and forth, go in circles, prance with his front feet while he
was trying to sit. Sitting still was not in his vocabulary! We spent more time laughing at him then
training him!!  So we had to come up with a new training method. The way we trained the German
Shepherds just wasn’t cutting it! Everything we did was a game. If he succeeded, it was time to play with
his tennis ball!! It worked! Cody did everything for his tennis ball. The intense attention he gave carried
over into every avenue of training we entered into during Cody’s life. Cody is the foundation sire of all
of my Golden Retrievers. He was an AKC (American Kennel Club) and CKC ( Canadian Kennel Club)
obedience dog in Novice, an Eastern Regional competitor at Gains, a tracking,  narcotics,  as well as a
hunting dog. He was the most wonderful family pet I’ve ever owned. We miss him greatly.