BUYER BEWARE! It is very, very sad for me to write this review. We were PROUD owners of Maddison 12 and Irie 14, both goldens, who both passed due to old age. I will admit that we got caught up in the loss of our wonderful dogs and made a quick decision to purchase a dog from North Star Golden Retrievers located in Logan, Utah. Maddie passed in 2008 and Irie passed in July of 2010. I will also admit that we did not do our research. We were excited to adopt a puppy for Christmas, so we adopted one of the last two available dogs from North Star Golden Retrievers located in Logan, Utah. As mentioned earlier, we raised two goldens with no problems. Irie was an amazing dog. She was amazing since the day we picked her out. KEY WORD….PICKED HER OUT! WE DID NOT PICK HER FROM A BREEDER’S WORD OVER THE PHONE OR FROM A PICTURE ON THE INTERNET. This was a huge mistake on our part and a warning for other dog adopters. INSIST ON SEEING THE DOG AT THE LOCATION WHERE IT WAS BORN!!!

Our other dog Maddison was a gift from my mother and she had some quirks, like chasing light, but we NEVER had any dominant, aggressive behaviors from her EVER!!! Our goldens were always complete angels. We have hundreds of pictures of them with our family. WE ADORED BOTH OF THEM!!!

Our son was so excited for our new pup, Ruby! He cried for three days straight when Irie passed in July of 2010 and he was so excited to get Ruby on December 12, 2010. I knew something was wrong from the second the dog (Ruby, her North Star name is Sunshine Girl) entered our car. Susan Seegmiller met us at the airport. We did not go to her location….I wonder why? (You cannot find a physical address for her location and she only provides a PO Box on her website.) Susan had a van full of dogs that she was shipping all over the country. She gave one dog to us in the airport parking lot and one dog to another lady from Utah. The dog she gave us was crazed, agitated and not the normal disposition of any golden retriever that I have ever known. We just assumed the pup was nervous. However, within 30 minutes of us waiting for Susan to ship the other dogs, the dog had scratched my face (blood drawn) and cut my 10 year old son’s lip (blood drawn). When Susan finally gave us our ridiculous puppy packet (just a bag full of stuff to make Susan more money), our dog had pottied in its crate and was yelping like crazy!!! Susan saw our pup in the back of our SUV and said, “Well it looks like she pottied in her crate and she doesn’t like the crate very much”. Then Susan slammed the back of our SUV down to quiet the noise from the crazed dog. The dog never did stop barking. LOOKING BACK, WE SHOULD HAVE GIVEN HER THE DOG BACK AND TOLD HER TO HAVE A NICE DAY!

We took the dog home and it has been COMPLETE HELL ever since. The dog literally cannot be loved or petted without constant biting, jumping or humping your leg and she is a female. SHE ACTS SOOOO AGGRESSIVE AND DOMINANT. She also acts like she is looking for a fight. We NEVER had a problem like this with our other goldens ever. My husband raised two Dobermans and never had this problem.

My husband contacted Susan Seegmiller on January 8th to tell her about our struggles and she offered to take the dog back for training for an additional $1400.00 dollars. She said that “she never does this”, but she would make an exception for us. Yeah right, what a racket! I ALREADY PAID $1800.00 FOR A VERY SCARY DOG – WHY WOULD I PAY THIS WOMAN ANYMORE MONEY??? She also told my husband that she knew exactly what type of dog we have….a sassy dog that needs immediate intense training or she will end up at the pound. I thought she took all of her dogs back??? This is what the breeder who sold us this dog is telling us??? We almost fell for her $1400.00 training because we want to so desperately to give this dog a good home.

Then tonight, January 10th, 2011 we gave the dog a treat (from a dog food company that Susan Seegmiller may get kick backs from) and when my husband was simply petting the dog…. the dog growled and snarled like a PIT BULL. My husband called Susan right after this incident because when I got near the dog to put her in the crate away from my son, she bit my thumb (blood drawn, again). WE HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED ANYTHING LIKE THIS??? The one great thing about the pup is that she is basically pottied trained, but we don’t know if how she was trained as a tiny puppy is why she has an aggression problem? Also, I would never take another dog until 10 or even 12 weeks of age. Susan let them go at approx. 8 1/2 weeks.

We are so sad for our son and we are sad for the pup. After the episode tonight, our son cried himself to sleep. There have been a few moments when the dog is almost loveable, but then the constant biting, clawing and aggressiveness is too much. I don’t know how to describe the behavior? She is a gorgeous dog, but you can only really enjoy petting her when she is sleeping. I have checked out multiple books from the library and I have now spent $72.00 for dog training tapes that Susan recommended, again there is a link on her website that may provide her with kick backs. The videos that she recommends are produced by a guy that trains police German Shepherds. I thought I bought a golden retriever with an amazing temperament. Anyway, Susan said the dog is our problem AND SHE WILL NOT REFUND OUR MONEY. Susan Seegmiller will not take any responsibility for this dog. We just want other people to be aware of dogs that look cute on the internet. Also, be aware that there is another serious complaint on the internet about North Star Golden Retrievers. We are contacting the Better Business Bureau and the AKC. Her website looks great and promises a lovely temperament, but this poor pup in my opinion, was just used to make money. I am afraid that it is to the point that we will take the dog back to Susan and lose our $1800.00 dollars. It will be interesting to see if she will actually take the dog back. The contract that we signed made us promise to give the dog back to Susan. I just hope our story helps other families and these beautiful dogs.

**UPDATE** January 11th -- we contacted Susan Seegmiller to return the dog. She will no longer answer her phone, she just sends emails. She will contact us in a couple of days to make arrangements for the dog. January 12th -- We called Susan at 8AM to let her know that we will make the 2 hour drive to Logan to return the dog before our son gets out of school today. She texted by husband back and said that she will be in meetings until 3PM today. **Do your research on this breeder!*

***After I wrote this, I found several articles on the internet that sadly report that golden retrievers are becoming more aggressive dogs due to breeding and that bites from these dogs are on the rise.** Please check it out for yourself.