January 1, 2007

Dear Susan & Steve,

Duke and I have had a glorious year, never have I seen so many pheasants before.  We were in SD twice and once in ND and maybe tomorrow we will be back in ND. We also went to the game farm every Saturday morning starting in September for the morning just to scratch hunt. We have averaged over four birds a hunt.

Duke has been phenomenal. His stamina to work all day, everyday without a problem, is superb.  We have hunted with many different dogs and breeds this year and no dog ever out performed Duke.  His ease to train has made him a star.  We have not needed nor used a shock collar in over two years, he obeys so easily and quickly to the whistle and to hand signals.  His only training was the informal training done by me in the backyard.

His best retrieve this year was done in ND this past season.  After I made a simple shot a very hard, long shot after two misses, the pheasant was hit but not hard and was a sailer.  He sailed about 300 yards into a shallow ravine.  Duke, following hand signals got to the spot then his nose took over and he tracked the bird for another 100 yards for the retrieve, needless to say the other hunters were amazed.  The danger in hunting with him is that you have to build up your back muscles for hauling all of the birds he retrieves.  As much as he loves to hunt, the retrieving is his favorite.  Duke is so quick he almost catches the birds coming down from the sky, yet he will respect other dogs' retrieves as well.

On a recent hunt, my partners nick named him "The Machine", because they thought he was just a hunting machine.

One final note.  Last year at Wild Wings they had a member's dog trial.  Duke was able to flush his five birds the fastest of any contestant.  Duke loves the hunt, but I think I love hunting with him more.

Thanks for the marvelous job in breeding.  We may be back to you in the next year for another dog.  My son has moved back from Chicago, is engaged and just bought a house.  Next year he may be interested in getting a Golden, we'll keep in touch.

Dear Susan,
We are emailing you to tell you a little about Lexy from the Token/Apollo litter on Valentines Day, 2003.  We have had nothing but good compliments about her.  She listens very well and  is very obedient and is a very confident animal to name a few of her endearing qualities.  She is an extremely smart animal and is very good at problem solving.  We have enrolled her in an agility class and are looking forward to see how she does.  We have owned many Goldens and Lexy is probably one of the best.  We have nothing but high hopes for her.

Sincerly,
The McElraths and Lexy

Susan,

I didn't get a Christmas photo of Ginger to you but here she is on her favorite spot.  Ginger (Sunshine Ginger's Epiphany--Dad Cappy and Mom Token II)  will be 5 in March and is a wonderful dog!  She is mom to the rest of the household--always worried about the 2 cats and our Lab.  She also has quite a sense of humor and enjoys playing tricks on us.  She helps with the laundry (....) and is best buddies with every dog and child and person in the neighborhood.

Thank you again for bringing her into our lives!!

Merry Christmas.

Pat Thayer

September 18, 2005

Susan, would like to thank you for the great afternoon I spent at your kennel.  You have a first class operation.  You are very informative and a class act.  Looking forward to hearing from you about Lucee's pups.  Thank you again.

Brian Zweifel, Monticello, WI

Greetings!

Thought you'd like an update on Gauge (born Feb 6, 2003). He is INCREDIBLE! This dog lives for the hunt and can work a field like nothing I've seen! Gauge responds to normal level voice commands and understands our objective. Guys I hunt with love to work with this dog as he covers a huge amount of territory, not just what is in front of his favorite owner.  : )

When he's not in the field he is playing with the kids... he has a good life. Anyway, this picture was taken last Saturday and I thought you'd enjoy seeing a wonderful dog that came from your kennel. Thank you again... we could not imagine life without Gauge as part of our family.

Darren Overton
Mantorville, MN

Dear Susan and Steve

Goose is turning out to be an outstanding dog. She is shining on pheasants this year. We went 8 for 8 at the game farm last weekend. We will be trying her on wild birds this year. Goose has an  outstanding personality. She does excellent water work including blind retrieves and follows directional command by voice and hand and has done so since 9 months.We are happy to report that she has no health issues.

She is a terrific dog, couldn’t ask for more.

Happy holidays.
Daren, Tammy, Brady and Melissa

Hi Susan and Steven Scherber

Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that Sadie is doing just great....She is about 70 pounds and strong as an ox.....Loves people and the outdoors....Still gets pretty excited around people and can’t greet anyone without a toy in her mouth and about 1000 tail wags...I wanted to send you a picture since we got a new camera and a new computer and  I think I have this figured out....She is a joyous and happy dog and if anyone asks if your dogs are just for hunting. She is a wonderful house dog as well....We don’t use her for hunting much, but her nose is great finding grouse around the house here, it just comes naturally to her....We don’t have many birds around in these parts anymore, which is one reason I haven’t used her to hunt.  We have choke cherries around the house that attracts the few birds that are here and she has them pegged every time we are near them...So here is a picture of our Sadie in the living room....More in the future....

The Bathjes

Susan and Steve:

I was real happy with Sadie's performance.  Couldn't be any prouder!!
I knew we were cutting it close on the first live flyer in the first test.  She was exceptionally solid on the second.  Our second flyer wouldn't fly and she pulled it out of the tree.  (They had them planted in evergreens in the field.)  We went to the next spot, got a good flyer and she was pretty steady.  Then we had to honor.  That had my heart beating 'cause I knew she was sitting pretty good.  When they released us, I wanted to run out of the field to get the lead back on.  Like I said earlier, I couldn't have been prouder of her.  I think it was a good day for Land of Lakes HRC and a real good day for Forest Ridge Game Farm.  The owners are real nice out there and the property has a really great layout.

                                                        Mike Riippa

Dear Mike:

I just got the results from the Upland Hunt--Sadie was the youngest dog to qualify other than one ran by the seminar speaker, Mike Witt.  She was the only one with an SHR that qualified.  All others were older dogs with higher titles.  As a 2 year old she has really progressed in the past year.  We are extremely proud of your accomplishments with her.  Keep up the great work.
                   Best Wishes in 2003 for you, Sadie and Henry,
                                            Susan and Steven Scherber