Liberty Run Golden Retrievers is a fully licensed dog kennel in the State of Maryland. That means we are inspected annually by Carroll County Government (Maryland) and the Humane Society. We own our breeding Golden Retrievers, and they reside here on our farm with us. If you visit, you will find no more than ten adult Golden Retrievers. In a couple instances, a parent of our Golden Retriever Puppies may reside at a good friend’s or family member’s farm.
In this video of the doggies’ morning play-time, you can get a good look at all our doggies at one time, their kennel area, two of our kids (Caroline and Sophie), and a glimpse of the farm, in general. (Not seen are the horses, chickens, or cattle. Sorry.)
When you visit Liberty Run, we show you everything. Nothing’s hidden – it’s all out in the open. You see all of our dogs, the conditions they live in, the food they eat, and the attention and love we give them.
Liberty Run Goldens farmhouse – the day we moved in. October, 1994.
Liberty Run Goldens is dedicated to improving the Golden Retriever breed. Intentions aside, it takes adequate facilities to accomplish such a mission. Sure, we could have stuffed our Goldens in crates and confined them to a basement of a suburban home like some others, but we took a different approach. Instead, we moved to southern Carroll County, Maryland — an area populated by farms and tractors, not homes and mini-vans. It’s not close to malls and museums, but we have ponds and fields right outside our back door. It’s like having a Golden “test track” in our back yard. Because we run, swim, and play with our dogs daily, we know they are well balanced, healthy, and happy — ideal candidates for producing healthy, smart and confident puppies.
Our farmhouse @ 1998.
We knew when we first moved into our home that it needed many repairs. It had been neglected for so long. And we knew when beginning to breed Goldens that it was a breed plagued with health problems. In the same way that we have successfully renovated our home, we strive to improve the Golden Retriever breed. The renovations to buildings can easily be seen by viewing “before” and “after” photos. Also easy to observe is the quality of our puppies and adults.
Our kennel building is a state of the art facility admired by each and every veterinarian that has visited, not to mention the humane society, and AKC (they’ve inspected us, too). Wrought Iron doors. Radiant heat. The internet’s first puppy cam so you can see our kennel from the comfort of your computer. Of course, the best way to see us is in person, and we welcome you to visit at your convenience (please call to let us know you’re coming — that way we can be sure to be here when you arrive).
Liberty Run Goldens farmhouse, April 2014.
You may think that a puppy born on a quiet, ole farm would be incapable of surviving in the hustle and bustle of your environment. Here at Liberty Run, we go to a great extent to socialize our pups. They never flinch at the sound of loud farm equipment, our Harley motorcycles, or even thunderstorms. We surround our puppies with many different people, too. Young and not-so-young. So the puppies are used to lots of people. What we don’t do is allow our five kids to spend too much time with one specific puppy. They’re excellent at giving each one equal time. (Our kids are on the farm all day because they’re home-schooled.)
We begin the process of crate training your puppy for you. As a result, most families report their new puppies are house broken in less than three days. Because our puppies never had the opportunity to make a “mistake” indoors, it’s very easy to take one of our puppies home and house-break him (or her!).
Compare and contrast that to breeders who tout their puppies are “raised in their loving home”. If you think about it, those puppies poopie and peepee in those houses whenever they feel the urge to “go”. By the time you get one, it’s conditioned to going potty inside a house. Unfortunately, “house-breaking” is really about teaching a puppy how to “hold it” when inside. Good luck teaching a puppy who is already conditioned to go at-will how to “hold it” in your home. You’re going to spend most of your time un-doing all the harm caused by the conditioning already imprinted on their puppies. Not to mention the puppy’s a little mad at you ’cause you’re not letting it do its business when it wants to.
Our puppies get plenty of lovin’ from our kids, their friends, and visitors. This place is constantly jumping! What we don’t do is give our puppies the opportunity to make a mistake inside.
When you visit Liberty Run, we’ll show you all the methodologies we use to make raising an exceptional companion Golden Retriever the true joy that it should be. We get you started on the right foot — superb breeding and 40 years experience raising puppies and doggies.
