There are many dog sport organizations where breeders can compete. It can help to think of them along the lines of baseball. In baseball it is easy to know the skill and quality of players improves as you move through the levels from high school to college to minor leagues and finally the major leagues.

​

International Championships earned in the US are the dog show equivalent of a little league player. This title is not competitive as the dogs getting last place can earn a title in one day. They never need to defeat any other dog to earn this title. In fact there are some breeders that choose this venue because they know dogs lacking quality can earn titles with this organization. So, while it sounds impressive, it is where we start our young dogs for practice. Since this show is the only option available to rare breeds, International show Group Firsts and Best in Show wins can be quite an accomplishment when the top rare breed dogs in the country and AKC Champions are present. Asking a breeder who only shows in this venue if they have earned group wins or best in show wins is a great way to see if they choose this venue for the everyone gets a trophy aspect of this type of show because their dogs lack quality. If they can show you group win medallions or best in show ribbons, then the equivalent changes to be more like high school varsity level in the sport analogy.

​

UKC Championships are the next step up and would be college in my analogy. Here the dogs must beat at least one other dog three times on their way to winning this title. This title can be earned in as little as 4 shows and our dogs have always earned it in 4-6 shows as youngsters. This organization prohibits professional handlers and encourages family participation. We proudly belong the Caliente All Breed Canine Association, a UKC all breed club as we love the atmosphere and the openness to giving new people a supportive place to try out dog shows. 

​

UKC Grand Championships I see as the minor leagues. Dogs here have to defeat at least 2 other UKC Champions in five different shows to earn this title or have group placements or best in show wins. 

​

The AKC or American Champion and Grand Champion are the major leagues. Here the competition is extremely fierce and generally includes investing months or perhaps years of time and travel to achieve. Also at this level we pit ourselves against professional handlers who do this week in and week out as their living. We are very proud to say we have owner handled our dogs to amazing wins including Best of Breed, Winners Bitch at a Specialty show just for Goldens, Best of Opposite Sex in Sweepstakes also at a specialty as well as several Winners Bitches and Best of Winners.

​

What color will your puppies be?

At Anasazi we breed Golden Retrievers whose structure, quality, temperament and health is more important to us than color. We are trying to breed a whole dog and as long as the dog's color falls into the golden spectrum, we do not take color into consideration when picking breeding pairs. We do not breed with extreme colors as a goal. If you are looking for an extremely dark puppy, extremely pale puppy or the ability to pick a puppy base solely on color, we are likely not the breeder for you. Please see our plans page to view our current pairing; puppies will likely fall between the range of color of the parents.

​

You have and use dogs with European pedigrees, is that because they don't have as much Cancer or are Cancer free?

In a word, no. American lines and European lines both have health concerns and chief among them is Cancer. Sadly, our beloved breed has a higher than average rate of Cancer. This is true of all Goldens regardless of color, country of origin or look. The Morris Foundation has embarked on an important study containing 3000 Goldens from all backgrounds to find answers about Cancer. See the study HERE. Although a current study, the first "Hero" dog was lost to Cancer and was of completely European pedigree. When we choose to incorporate European dogs it is because of the great traits of that dog while understanding there are no Cancer free lines anywhere in the world. 

​

Will I pick my puppy?

If you have a burning need to "pick" your puppy, we may not be the breeder for you. The short answer is no, we do not offer Picks. The full answer is a bit more complex because we are matching puppies to families. So, it depends on who the families are and who the puppies are. Sometimes families get to choose between more than one puppy because there is more than one suitable match. However, if there is a home with a very specific need and only one puppy has the skills and temperament needed, that will be their match.

​

We do honor your choice of gender and work closely with you to determine what you need in a puppy. We will also ask you to let us know who your two or three favorites are in your selected gender.

 

If any family is not satisfied with the puppy matched to them, they will gladly have their deposit returned.

​

Will I be able to meet the father of my puppy? 

For most of our litters, the answer will be no unless you want to travel quite extensively. We are striving to improve every generation we produce. That means that we have to thoroughly assess our girl and find a boy who will not only build on her strengths but also improve her weaknesses, all while meeting our stiff health testing requirements. This means that we almost always breed to dogs who are not in the state of Arizona. At this time we do not even own a boy since it would be very doubtful any boy we owned would be the best match for our girls. It would be a very rare occasion that we would use a boy twice with the same girl since we are looking always for improvement. We like the freedom to choose the best where ever we find it which so far has always been a dog out of state or even out of our country. We will always choose quality over convenience. 

​

Why do you sell on limited registration?

We believe that as breeders it is our responsibility to the breed and to future breeders to only add dogs to the breeding gene pool that represent the best our program has to offer. We are very selective of our show prospects. Though we always reserve the first two pups in each gender in the hopes of a rare and spectacular litter, sometimes there is only one show prospect puppy and sometimes none. Our companion pups are not destined for the show ring and as we believe proving dogs in competition to be an important piece of selecting breeding stock they are not breeding dogs. 

​

Limited registration only excludes altered dogs from the show ring also known as the breed or conformation ring and breeding. Dogs on limited registration can compete in all AKC performance events. The wide world of fun performance events such as obedience, rally, dock diving, hunt tests, barn hunt and therapy work are all available to our companion puppies.

​

How can I be considered as a home for an Anasazi Golden?

We have a 4 step system. 

Interest - Once a litter plan is announced, we will post it online and accept interest inquiries. The time frame to express interest will remain open at least until the pregnancy is confirmed. 

Interview - Selected families that have expressed interest after the litter plan has been announced are invited to complete our initial survey along with a phone and/or in person interview. 

Litter Families - After the pups are born and are 2 weeks old we will know how many companion puppies are available and our approved families from the interview step will be contacted to see if they would like to move from the interviewed families to our selected families for the litter. 

Stand By - Anasazi always reserves 2 pups in each gender as potential show prospects. Because we are very choosy about what puppies go into the show ring, once evaluated at 8 weeks old, we may find that one or more of these reserved puppies are companion puppies. Families on stand by choose to wait until the pups are 8 weeks old to see if one of the reserved show prospects is released into a companion home.