Eagleridge Golden Retrievers (Polk City, Florida)

This review pertains to Eagleridge under the current ownership and management of Jen Francis, not the previous owner who I certainly cannot comment on or rate since I never met nor had dealings with. My experience with Eagleridge, Jen Francis and her staff been nothing short of outstanding. There is a reason they are rated as one of the top Golden Retriever breeders in the state of Florida and also the US for 2023 by independent reviewers – because they have earned it. When I did my research prior to purchasing a beautiful healthy puppy, Eagleridge kept popping up on every list I made. Working with Jen and her staff has been a dream. Her approach and understanding of top-quality breeding practices should be a standard for all breeders. Jen’s breeding pairs are DNA-tested, OFA certified and carefully chosen to pass on only the best genes to their pups. This is one of the reasons I chose Eagleridge. It’s more than absolutely gorgeous puppies, they are puppies that will have the best start in life. My pup stayed for the training program too, which was an all-around great decision. Beautiful, healthy, AND well-behaved! I will no doubt become a repeat customer. Thank you so much, Ms. Jen Francis and staff.

We got our Golden from Eagle Ridge, and he was worth every penny. We live local so we visited the facility and I spent a good amount of time talking to the owner. The place is really well run. They breed and raise their dogs with the utmost care. Our dog has an amazing disposition, and he was an excellent addition to the family. We’ve had him for two years with no health issues.

We just recently picked up our 16 week old trainee boy Denver from Eagleridge. The whole process was great, this is our first puppy and was a long thought out and heavily researched process for us. Jen and the entire staff were awesome, they really care about their dogs and the puppies they provide for customers. The puppy cam really gets you invested into your dog and their litter mates early. Any questions we’ve had have been answered in a really timely manner and I’m sure if we had questions even now Jen wouldn’t hesitate to help. Tanner did an amazing job training Denver, he’s so smart and obedient. Last night was Denver’s first night in his new home and crate which was a little rough but today he has been sleeping in his crate and just being so well behaved it’s awesome. He walks really nicely on his leash and is much better behaved than other puppies his age. Overall fantastic group of people and we couldn’t be happier. Thanks Eagleridge Goldens!

My husband and I bought our 10 month old Golden Retriever from Sharon and Dennis in December. Since then, we have dealt with many medical problems with our puppy from infectious diseases to congenital musculoskeletal disease. I am urging anyone who is considering purchasing a dog from Eagleridge to please read this post, consider purchasing elsewhere, and most importantly really research your breeder.

1. Congenital musculoskeletal disease: Our dog has recently been diagnosed with elbow dysplasia. Elbow dysplasia is a hereditary condition (passed down from parents). Our dog’s mother was knowingly bred while having left elbow dysplasia. In our binder received by Dennis, there is an X-ray of our dog’s mother whose left elbow is documented to have arthritis of her medial coronoid process- if you are not medical, you would not know what to make of this but this is a form of elbow dysplasia. She is not OFA certified but our puppy’s father is. My husband and I regret not doing more research about OFA certification so please, do your due diligence about researching before purchasing your golden retriever. OFA certification indicates quality of the dog being bred (golden retrievers should be certified for elbow, hip, eye and cardiac). Since elbow dysplasia is hereditary, these dogs are not recommended to be bred. How could a breeder who is supposed to love and care about his animals breed a dog with elbow dysplasia who will pass down this condition to his offspring? Elbow dysplasia causes early development of arthritis (our dog is 10 months old with arthritis) and progressive disease with very poor quality of life. I highly question where Dennis and Sharon’s heart is with their breeding.

2. Infectious disease: as a physician myself, I know illness happens. People and animals acquire infections and it is difficult to prevent. However, our dog came home to us with Parvovirus. Parvovirus is one of the most deadly infectious diseases a puppy/dog can acquire. There is a very high mortality rate (15% of dogs die) and treatment is supportive care (fluids, nutrition, antibiotics to prevent secondary bacterial infection). Most breeders are extremely cautious about this and require extreme hygiene for all people that enter their home and visit their puppies. It was an unfortunate circumstance that parvovirus was brought into EagleRidge and I do not fault Dennis and Sharron but it was the way they handled the situation that was unprofessional. When we called Dennis to inform him, he simply stated it was probably a false positive. A false positive? Our dog had severe diarrhea, vomiting, and the vet as well as us were worried about him dying. We called to give him an update and he informed us that multiple dogs on site and puppies in our dog’s litter also had parvovirus. After our dog was hospitalized for most of the first week that we had him, he survived. We called Dennis to receive reimbursement of our vet bills (lemon law for infectious disease in Florida does exist), and he refused to reimburse us for the entirety of our medical bills. He said “your dog is the most expensive, you should have brought him here for us to take care of him”. Most expensive dog? He SURVIVED which we were grateful for. Does he really care about his animals was the question I had then and question more and more each day. In addition to him being hospitalized, you have to isolate your dog with Parvo for months. Parvo also stays in your soil and outdoor surroundings for up to 2 years EVEN with bleaching it is impossible to rid. How are they still breeding in the same area? He also had ticks on him when we took him to the vet for Parvo that we had to remove. In addition to Parvo and ticks, you will read in many of the reviews of EagleRidge about Giardia. Finn also had Giarda. What a pain to get rid of.

With all of this said, we love our sweet dog and we are grateful we can afford to take care of his medical ailments. I question the poor breeding practices of EagleRidge and urge Dennis and Sharon to reevaluate where their heart is with breeding dogs.

Our dog was not trained as they said she was, when we paid for training. They said to use the “hand signals” we asked for photos of the signals and their meaning, and they wouldn’t. Told us to watch a video for the signals which was very unclear. Dog was very very skiddisk and afraid of loud noises. She also gobbled up her food in 30 seconds everytime we fed her, like she hadnt been fed what she needed in the past. Only good thing was the dog was very sweet and loving. She was also extremely small, i dont think she was purebred golden retriever.
She had the sweetest temperament. I honestly think Dennis lied about her and she was a mix of lab and golden. Sadly she died at 6 years old. please look at other low score reviews they have had a lot of early deaths in their litters. Cassie died of kidney failure.

In response to the new owners. I can see how this could be problematic for you and can seem unfair. If you took over I’m assuming you took over what Dennis had as breeding dogs and I need to let people know that I had a bad experience and that Cassie died at only 6 years old…..with the same dogs (again assuming) I do t want someone else going through the same heartache. Also in the last few years I’ve seen reviews of unhealthy dogs

We purchased two male puppies, one puppy had a major birth defect which cost us THOUSANDS of dollars. In our opinion Dennis responded very poorly and offered very little help. Please research this breed, thoroughly!!!