The Golden Mousse

BEWARE. We picked up our pup on 12÷4÷2015. Within 2 days the pup was very sick. Turned out to be the dreaded and often deadly Parvo virus (which has a 7 – 14 day incubation period). We were forced to immediately incur almost $ 4,000 in vet fees. Don Brubaker was nonresponsive and very evasive, «so busy with the kids,» etc. When we attempted to return the sick (but now stabilized) pup to him (as permitted under the contract and by statute, he threatened to have us arrested if we set foot on his property. We have now filed a lawsuit against him (Nevada County Superior Court). Note also: our pup was in a litter of TEN pups. We hope there aren’t 9 other people out there with sick or dying dogs. I don’t expect Don notified anyone of the Parvo as he should have. In sum, BEWARE.

I got Jessie from Don and The Golden Mousse in Sept 2011 — a female from a Willow/​Rufus litter. She is the best dog imaginable — amazingly smart, beautiful, and affectionate (my vet says she is the most affectionate dog she has ever seen). Anyone who I have ever introduced her to immediately falls in love with her, even strangers say that she should be featured in some sort of commercial. Can still teach old dogs new tricks — her intelligence and intuition helps me to be able to continue to add tricks to her repertoire even at age 4. Thanks Don and The Golden Mousse for helping me find such an amazing companion!

Search out other Breeders. We bought our sweet Bella and picked her up July 2012. Don was so set with everyone to pick up there pups on a certain date and time that we each agreed on. When we got there no one was around. We knocked on the door no answer. We walked down to where the dogs were barking and yelled out hello still no one. We called on our cell phone. Finally after about half hour he shows up. Since he was so much on all of us to show up on time it’s, like what about him. We did get to sit down and play with our puppy and he was very good going over everything and gave us the goodie bag that everyone gets of food etc. Finally got on the road for our trip back to San Mateo. She did very well on the long drive. I have been reading reviews on here and I wanted to chime in here. Bella is so sweet and is so great here with our family. She is 3 years old now plus our other Golden Retriever is 10 years old. Took a little time for our oldest one to get use to a new puppy but it has all gone well. Bella is now seeing a dermatologist because our Vet who is excellent sent us to her and found out she has allergies to a lot of trees and the grass we have etc. It’s been awhile now getting her on medication and now she is on her shots we give. Our other Golden had food allergies so we buy special food from the Vet. So that seems to be something we can’t look at the breeder on. Now there is a thing of her having aggressive behavior which is not characteristics of a Golden Retriever. We have wondered if it’s in her genetics. Most of the time she is so loving and sweet. It’s when we need her to go to another room we can’t catch her and then she shows aggressiveness. Or if she gets something she shouldn’t have she shows aggressive when we try to get it from her. We bought our other Golden from a different breeder but found out he is a puppy mill and shut down way after we bought Molly. Found out that he was fine with the Goldens so that was good. She is wonderful and never aggressive. This is why we checked out breeders a little better but feel we went to fast with our second time around. When Don retired Bella’s mom and sent an email to some of us if we were interested in her we felt no since we have two dogs already 3 to many. But through our email I will make this short I didn’t feel I said anything bad and he got nasty at me. I figure since we think there is something here in the breeding line we will not go back to him and really do our searching better. Once again we love our Bella and this is the loving home for her. You can tell she loves us all so much the hugs and kisses we give her and she gives back is wonderful. I just needed to give my heads up here.

BUYER BEWARE SICK PUPS!
We purchased our pup from this breeder last year… needless to see we had a year of puppy misery :(let me start by saying we love our girl and she is such a big part of our family we couldn’t imagine life without her, although I suppose much like a child this would be true of most any pup?
We started with delayed vaccinations due to a bout of diarhrea… turns out the bout is a life long problem! This poor pup has a stomach you can hear growling from the other room. She has explosive diarrhea and spent much of her first few months with one urinary tract infection after another :(unfortunately this meant tons of time spent at the vet numerous bladder ultrasounds, X-​rays, and eventually a $ 6,000 surgery to try to figure out what the problem was!!! After much research and many vets and a butt load of money I called the breeder out of desperation I asked for any possible info or history, and whaddaya ya know… he had no idea what it could be and never had such a history with ANY dog. I later through networking found other individuals whom had purchased dogs and had similar issues! What kind of breeder blatantly lies?! I was incredibly disappointed and hurt.
Now my pup is a year old and never seems to have a full tummy can’t have babies and will never live a normal life… weighing in at 35 lbs she’s as big as we could get her after numerous foods topping $ 100 a bag and a raw meat diet all that failed :/​

AT THE END OF THE DAY SAVE YOUR $$$$$ BUY SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!

It is always a pleasure to report positive internet relationships. There were No negative surprises here @ Golden Mousse; only positive and unexpected outcomes! We had an excellent experience with Golden Mousse owners, Don and Wendy Brubaker. We were treated professionally and courteously, above and beyond any standards that would ordinarily be applied. There are many unknown risks in the dog breeding market and an even bigger lack simple credibility. But, Not this case and our experience with Golden Mousse. It was excellent!

We got our Golden Retriever puppy from Don in September of 2011 (Whisper and Ruffus’ s first litter). Our golden Comet is now 3 ½ and has never had any health problems. He is great with our 3 kids and gets along with other dogs and guests. He is gorgeous and we get compliments on him all of the time. He has a lot of energy but that is great for my active family. We absolutely couldn’t imagine life without him!

DO NOT BUY A DOG FROM HERE! Especially the English Cream Goldens!
We bought our golden from this breeder and picked him up on New Years Day 2013. His parents were Whisper and Rufus. Within the first year we found out that he needed knee surgery because he had a luxating patella in both knees. And has recently completed the surgeries.
This was not a result of our dog jumping or over exercising like the breeder suggested. We went to three different vets, to make sure we were getting a correct diagnosis. All of the vets assured us this was a GENETIC DEFECT. The size of his knee cap and the shape of his hind legs was the reason his knee caps were popping out. Our vets couldn’t tell us if this was an isolated incident that possibly happened to only our dog, or if it is a trait passed to him from his bloodline; but either way we got NO support from the breeder.
We sent the breeder the ex-​rays and contact info for our vets, and we asked for a refund for our dog, since the surgeries were going to be be over $ 5,000 plus care costs after the surgeries. He told us he would give us $ 100 to «help» with the surgery costs. I told him that was ludicrous, and also made him aware that he was in violation of the California Pet Purchase Protection Law.
After I told him that I would not accept the $ 100 and he was in violation of a Law he got very defensive and threatened legal action against me because I was «harassing him».
I spoke with a lawyer who specializes in Pet Law. She assured me that we did have a case, but her retainer was $ 5,500 which was around the same price we were paying for our dog’s surgery. We decided we should just focus on our dog (Jackson’s) health and getting him better.
As far as temperament goes, he is the most loving and kind dog, he is part of our family and we couldn’t imagine our lives without him. We are just so sad that he has been through so much in such a short time, and the breeder takes no responsibility.
If this was an isolated incident, I would have expected a lot more sensitivity from this breeder. However, based on his reaction to the situation, and his unwillingness to even speak with our vets, I would say this is NOT the only time this has happened. BUYER BEWARE!

My husband I adopted our puppy, Bernie, in March of 2013. He is the most well-​behaved, kind, and sweet dog I have ever met. We wanted a house pet, not a show dog, and a shorter-​haired golden retriever. We got exactly that, even with Bernie being the last pick. From the very beginning through the adoption, Don was very responsive via email and answered any questions we had about adopting and puppy care. Outside of the common health issues puppies get due to a weak immune system and allergies, we have had no issues. I wish the other reviewers would understand that yes, puppies do get sick, as their immune systems are very weak, but this speaks nothing about the breeder and can happen to any dog, from any place.
The day we picked Bernie up, we had the chance to meet the mom and dad, and hang with Bernie for a little bit before separating him from his parents. The puppies are raised on a large plot of land and get to be outside a lot. Don stayed with us and answered all of our questions and chatted with us for almost an hour. We left with food, a tennis ball, a book, and a ton of helpful information.
We just celebrated Bernie’s first birthday and couldn’t be happier. We get compliments on his behavior and demeanor all the time and constantly told how beautiful he is. Needless to say, if we were to get another golden retriever, we would go back to Golden Mousse.

BUYER BEWARE!
This puppy is the 3^rd retriever I have owned in the past 28 years… Have spent more $$$ at the vet in 1 year on this dog than I want to say… We immediately contacted Golden Mousse 4 days after picking up the puppy when he was so sick we were afraid he would die. Dog has had numerous intestinal/​bladder/​health issues his entire first year. We have had weeks… yes weeks… of having to get up numerous times a night to take the dog out for him to relieve himself (he was well past the age to hold it all night). Our fingers are crossed that the worst is behind us now…
We wanted to adopt a puppy… period…have never bred before, and had no intention of breeding or buying a dog to breed. Both of my previous dogs were purchased from Honorable folks that did not spring this «limited AKC ownership» issue on me as we were picking up a puppy. That was the «process new to us». We thought we were buying a dog that would be ours to do as we wished, not a conditional purchase. I also have emails in which the truth that I have owned other retrievers before is acknowledged by GM, so their allegation that we lied is very untrue…
NUMEROUS health issues with his dog… I have the vet bills to prove it.
This breeder will communicate effectively with you until he receives your deposit… then all bets are off… and any emails you then get will have a notice at the end saying your deposit is non-​refundable.
Once again… BUYER BEWARE