Legacy's History
Our family’s story is one of passion, commitment and faith. Some people go through life living by the textbook; grow up, go to college, start their career, get married, have a couple children and the story goes on. We chose to follow a somewhat different path and it has been an amazing ride! Janna and I started our lives together in 2002. Raising our beautiful children and puppies has been an integral part of our lives ever since.
I will start by painting the picture of our family and how we have come to be the parents of 9 beautiful children. We were blessed with the birth our first son, Jared, in 2003. Javier came to us as our first adopted son in 2007. Janna became pregnant with our second biological son, Jordan, only 3 months after we were blessed with Javier. Jaden, our second adopted son, is only 1 month younger than Jordan and came to our family before he was a year old. As you might begin to see, our family grew very rapidly between our own births and those that came to us to adopt! We now had 4 boys and were wondering if any little girls would ever come to us; Jayla, our first adopted girl, was the answer to that question. 2 years later, Janae, our first biological daughter was born. In March 2017, we were blessed to be able to adopt with our 7th child — our little boy, Josiah. Our oldest daughter Mackenzie joined our family in 2019. Needless to say, words cannot express how much joy all of our children have brought to our lives and the wonder and awe we feel as we look back on how God has led us.
Now I can begin to tell you the rest of our story—Golden Retrievers! I have been a dog lover for as long as I can remember. I will never forget when my dad brought home my first dog that I could call my own. She was a little red girl that had been born with a bob tail; that little short tail was just wagging away. As a teenager, I became the proud owner of my first registered dog, a Labrador Retriever. She had a litter of 12 healthy puppies and that was the beginning of me learning what all was involved with raising registered dogs. I learned that there is a whole lot of work that goes along with it! I know, you might be saying, “I thought this was a Golden Retriever website!” I am just getting to that part. After we started our family, we thought about what breed would be the best for us to raise for our children. Of course, as we thought this through, we knew the answer that we concluded would not only be the best for us but would also be a breed we could recommend to other families as well. Golden Retrievers were one of the only breeds that truly fit all the characteristics we were looking for- gentleness and patience with children, calmness, family fidelity, and beauty of coat and general appearance. We were thrilled with our first Goldens that we brought home as part of our family! We raised puppies when our first children were little and truly had a blast. Even though we took a little break when we were too busy changing diapers, giving baths, and tying shoes, our oldest sons never forgot the joy that accompanied raising our adorable puppies. They begged us to start our breeding program again and we could not resist complying! We started to import the absolute best European Champions with outstanding health clearances, temperaments, and pedigrees. Our children now shows our AKC dogs in the show ring and are doing an outstanding job being amazing junior handlers!
We now have 2 sires, both vying for the position of Legacy’s Top Dog! International Champion Legacy’s Lone Ranger could easily be argued to be one of the best stud dogs currently in the U.S. Alright, so we might be a little partial to our big boned, blocky headed boy, but he is truly amazing. He is our very own sire – whom we raised out of our breeding stock. He has an amazing personality, confirmation and completely clear genetics! is a 75-pound International Champion with an excellent PennHip rating, OFA hips, normal elbows, normal heart, normal eyes, ICT clear, PRA 1 clear and PRA 2 clear, MD, DM, GRNCL and PRCD CLEAR! We are so proud to say that Ranger is an International Champion that our son, Jared taught our younger son Jaden how to train him and showed in the rings. Now for a few words of praise for next boys who joined our ranks last year. We raised Polar with great hopes that he would fill a much needed place in our breeding program and he did just that! He has made an amazing sire compatible with Gander’s beautiful girls who we have kept to breed. Please visit his individual page to learn more about his outstanding qualifications (both boys have all the same health certifications) and view the pictures that show their stocky beauty and conformation. Puppies from these studs are amazing! We know that you cannot expect to raise the best puppies without the best parents, so we have been very diligent and even picky about the dogs we have taken into our family. Our goal is to better the Golden Retriever breed. For all of these reasons, we can tell you that you have found the place where you should adopt the next member of your family!
When you are ready to explore the options for bringing one of these adorable and loving puppies to your home, fill out our puppy adoption questionnaire so we can learn more about you. We will hold your puppy for you with a non-refundable deposit and based on what you’re looking for, help you choose the perfect puppy for your family. We reserve the right to have first choice and keep puppies from each litter to help continue our amazing breeding program. We have a very hard time letting our puppies go, so understand that we thoroughly check each adoptive home to make sure it is the right fit for our little ones. Make yourself at home, peruse the pages of our website and enjoy all the pictures of beauty and love that will give you a glimpse into our home and show you our commitment to the most incredible breed in the world—the Golden Retriever!
—John DeGraffenreid
Co-Founder of Legacy English Goldens
