Gilly's Story 

Gilly is our first Newfoundland. She was to be my wife's dog. My wife had always said she wanted a Newfoundland. We were down to one dog and my wife was wanting a dog of her own, a newf, or maybe another golden retriever. I was resisting another golden, we had 2 and both had severe health problems, despite careful checking of the parents. Where as our setters, always seemed healthy up to the end. So I started looking at newfs. While I did not know much about the breed. I did have cousins that lived in Newfoundland and often told me stories of the large dogs. So I started doing some research.

This is Gilly. In the picture she is about 6 months of age.

She is our first Newfoundland. She was to be my wife's dog. My wife had always said she wanted a Newfoundland. We were down to one dog and my wife was wanting a dog of her own, a newf, or maybe a golden retriever. I was resisting another golden, we have had 2 and both had severe health problems, despite careful checking of the parents. Where as our setters, always seemed healthy up to the end.

So I started looking at newfs. While I did not know a lot about the breed. I had heard wonderful stories from cousins that had lived in Newfoundland. I had also been quite moved when seeing some of Edward Landseer's beautiful paintings of Newfoundland dogs in various museums.

So I started doing some research. Everything I found out intrigued me. I visited some breeders. I read the breed standard, actually I read alot of breed standards. I was impressed by the Newfoundland breed standard. I found that as in any breed, there are various known health problems. I talked to some vets, I got some good advice. I got alot of information and recommendations on raising a newf. We met some various newfs, and I was generally impressed. I came to the conclusion that a newf might be a good match for what we were looking for in a dog. First had to be temperment. Newfs seemed to have that in general. Also a good chance at good health, that seemed possible, given some care.