We are a family who breeds only a couple of high quality, carefully selected litters per year. Our dogs and puppies live in our home and are loved as part of our family. Scroll below the pictures to read about our breeding philosophy. For details on our two 2012 litters click here. The first litter should be born in early summer and the second in the fall. Pictured below are Reuben and Faith - parents of our upcoming summer litter.

Int. Ch. Etched in Sand v.d. Beerse Hoeve	Int. Ch. Faith Cassovia Treasure

Welcome to Summer Brook Acres where our English Golden Retrievers live as part of our family in our home and on our 14 acre farm just outside of Birmingham, Alabama.  We breed only English Golden Retrievers with the best pedigrees, temperaments, and health, and put careful research into every mating.  Quality puppies are produced by honestly evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each dog and matching dogs so that the weaknesses of one dog are improved by the strengths of another.  Although we think our dogs are incredible, we do realize that there are no perfect dogs.  There is always room for improvement and improving on our dogs is our ultimate goal.  We strive to produce puppies as close to the FCI (European) Golden Retriever standard as possible.  We have spent hundreds of hours researching European Golden Retriever lines and only include outstanding representatives of the breed in our breeding program.  We only breed a few litters per year so that every puppy in each litter will receive all the love, attention, socialization, and training that lay the foundation for a sweet, loving, and easy to live with pet.   All the dogs in our breeding program have met our very high standards.  As heart-breaking as it is, we do not hesitate to retire dogs when we see that they will not produce puppies that we are proud of, whether it be because of their health, temperament, or looks.  We try to make our website as informative as possible with many pictures, proof of health results, personality descriptions of our dogs, and videos. We breed European Golden Retrievers for health, temperament, and beauty (in that order).

Health is our top priority.   Before we breed a litter both parents have to pass their OFA hips, elbows, and heart tests.  They also have to pass the CERF eyes test every year.  We also test our dogs for PRA-1, a genetic eye disease and at least one parent must be clear. (because it is a recessive gene, one clear parent insures that all puppies will be clear) All of our dogs are also free from the allergies that MANY golden retrievers are plagued with, both English Golden Retrievers as well as their American counterpart.  Hip Dysplasia is another problem for many Goldens, both English and American.  According to OFA, about 1/5 of all Golden Retrievers tested in America have hip dysplasia.  I am sure these statistics would be much worse if OFA received an x-ray on every dog. Dogs belonging to bad breeders aren't tested and even good breeders often recognize a bad x-ray and won't waste the money sending the x-rays to OFA, but will just retire the dog. OFA is actually receiving the better x-rays.   We at Summer Brook are committed to doing everything possible to breed dogs that will give the best chance of producing healthy puppies. 

Temperament is our second priority.  We only breed dogs with temperaments that are true to the typical English Golden Retriever temperament:  friendly, intelligent, outgoing, gentle, good with children, and sweet.  However, even within the breed, they are all different.  Each Golden Retriever in our breeding program has his or her own unique personality and I have included in my website many details on each dog’s temperament.  We encourage anyone close enough to come visit us and meet our dogs in person.  We believe that the more a breeder can communicate to you about the parents and also about the developing personalities of the puppies, the better equipped you will be to get a puppy with the temperament that best suits your family.

Beauty is also important to us.  We don’t breed just for color, but we do prefer the paler shades of cream.  We show all of our dogs and believe that a dog who is as close to the breed standard as possible WILL be more beautiful.  We love the big blocky heads, the dark eyes, nose, and pigment, and the fuller coat that most people will notice right at the start.  But there are many other little things that will make a dog stand out as beautiful that are all proven by a qualified judge’s evaluation at a conformation show.   Conformation titles are the proof of a well put together, beautiful dog.

If you like our website, please click “Vote for our Site” to vote for us (you must click on the top half of the box).  This will take you to the “Top Golden Retriever” website for some interesting information on golden retrievers as well as a list of other breeders.  I appreciate any votes.  Thanks.

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