Why Gravitas Goldens?
We love it when prospective buyers ask us a lot of questions! We WANT you to do your research and due diligence. We will be doing the same with you! While the internet these days makes puppies easily available with a “Buy It Now” button or PayPal link… we do not. Our puppies are not for everyone who has the money. They are for those who will provide a good home and hopefully that puppy becomes part of your family.
As for why you should choose us… well, we know of some other wonderful, ethical breeders out there… so we cannot say we are the only good breeder around. However, what we can say is that we know of very few breeders, if any, who started out with the education and hands on experience that we have with such a variety of species! Tigers, rhinos, giraffe… we’ve trained it! Gravitas Goldens tends to be more similarly aligned in breeding practices to the Service Dog industry. We attend breeding and reproduction conferences almost every year to stay up-to-date with our breeding practices and make improvements as needed. Our experience with breed clubs and most show breeders has been that they do not prioritize the same things we do, and do not share in looking at the WHOLE dog. Purebred dogs have gone downhill over many years due to selective breeding becoming TOO selective. Heavily selecting for traits that win blue ribbons has not done our dogs any favors. They are not as healthy as they used to be, and temperament & longevity have gone downhill as well. You can read more about unethical breeding practices HERE.
Gravitas Goldens looks at the big picture that includes health, temperament & longevity. For every genetic disease test that we can do on our dogs, there are a number of things we CANNOT test for. Cancer, longevity, epilepsy, etc etc etc are all health issues plaguing many breeds including Goldens. We look at longevity in pedigrees as a way to attempt to make the best decisions we can make.
Genetic diversity is very important to this process as well. Inbreeding became popular in many domestic animals to help select for certain traits. This has backfired enormously on our purebred dogs and contributed to the issues they currently have. At Gravitas Goldens we import 1-2 new breeding prospects from other countries almost every year. These dogs go into a Guardian Home and are then evaluated once old enough for their health and temperament. These dogs are chosen based on how they might contribute new genes into our breeding program and keep our coefficient of inbreeding lower than the breed average.
Breeding dogs was not what we planned to do, ever. As we saw the need for good dogs in the Service Dog field and even just good pet homes, the idea started to grow. We are passionate about it, we are ethical about it, and we take this responsibility very seriously. Our training business and non-profit both have 5 star reviews, as does Gravitas Goldens, because of the care we take in the service and puppies we produce.
We believe in honesty and transparency. This is evident in the fact that we provide a 24/7 Live Puppy Cam to our clients so that they can enjoy watching their puppy grow up, but also see that their puppy is being raised in a clean, caring environment.
