The Golden Dog Farm Vermont, USA: What Was the Golden Retriever Experience Like?
The Golden Dog Farm in Vermont is one of the sweetest places I've ever been to. Not only is it filled with gorgeous Golden Retrievers, but the setting is beautiful, with powerful views of Mount Mansfield. Located in the heart of Stowe, Vermont, it's a farm where a family and their one Golden Retriever lives.
What happened was, during Covid, the family wanted to move to Canada, but the borders closed. So they stopped just short of that in Vermont. As they now needed a source of income, they wanted to open a Golden Retriever experience day, but they were missing one thing - the Golden Retrievers.
So they collaborated with the Butternut Goldens, which is a farm not too far away where around 16 Golden Retrievers live with their parents. This is where all of those Golden Retrievers have come from! Anyway, we were headed to Canada on our recent road trip, and so we decided to stop off here along the way.
In this blog post, I'm going to be going through how the day goes, what the experience was like and whether or not I would recommend it. So, here's what we thought to the Golden Retriever experience at the Golden Dog Farm, Vermont.
Arrival
When you first arrive at the Golden Dog Farm, you all sit and wait inside a small wooden hut. Here, you can get refreshments, browse the gift shop and go for a loo break. This is also where you meet Lenny. Lenny is the family's one and only golden retriever, and he's an old boy, so that automatically makes him a sweetheart.
Once you've finished giving Lenny cuddles and having a drink, a talk is given about what the next steps are. The experience itself happens in another field, which is only a short walk up and then down a hill,so make sure you're mobile enough to do this. Lenny comes with you, too!
The experience
Once you get down to the field, you wait for about five minutes when, suddenly, a pick-up truck filled with Golden Retrievers comes rolling around. This van is filled with eight Golden Retrievers, all of which are absolutely beautiful. They will come bounded out and they'll run towards the lake at the bottom of the field. This is the part where they wear the Goldens out, giving you a chance to cuddle with them when they aren't so excited and boystrous.
Once the dogs had been exercised and worn out a bit, they're brought into the warm and the dry so they can get some lovin' from all of the dog lovers on the experience. You really are surrounded by these beautiful dogs and we were both in awe...even Tom, who now wants a Golden Retriever himself, haha. But just before we went into this hut, another car load of eight Goldens came, making the number go up from eight to SIXTEEN!!! It's every dog lover's dream!
There were a range of other bits and bobs to see while you're in this hut. You're also given a cup of hot chocolate and a sample of their delicious Vermont maple syrup, which we had to buy a bottle of, of course. The dogs stay around for quite some time after this, just running around and generally enjoying life.
There's also a little bucket there where you can write the name of your dog on a piece of paper, and I wrote the name of our old dog, Rudi, who died just over ten years ago. It's so dog-orientated, of course, that everyone feels the same affection for their fur babies, even the ones who are no longer with us.
That and everyone leaves the experience with a smile on their face. It's then time to head back towards the hut, where you started. The whole experience probably lasted for about three-four hours, so not a whole day because the dogs need a break. But before the dogs left, you have a group photo with all of the Goldens, getting them all around a bench for some pro shots!
On that note, it was time for the doggies to head off home. That was an experience in itself, watching the owners round them all up because they were all having such a good time. Some were even playing games with each other and jumping over dry stone walls! It really did make us chuckle, and they're all so athletic! But eventually, they were all rangled together and safely got back into their truck to go back home.
But while it's still quite some time, it never felt like long enough, mainly because we were having such a great time! There's a lot you can do there, and they never rush you along. You can even go for a walk through their land if you really want, which we did. I took a few more pictures on our way back to the car!
Would I recommend it?
If you're a dog lover, especially of Golden Retrievers, then of course...YES! While it's not a cheap experience, it's definitely worth it. I felt like we got value for money throughout the course of the day, and it was more than worth it to help fund the life of those stunning Goldens.
Even non-dog lovers will have their hearts melted by these amazing creatures. They're also great with children, as there were a couple on the day with us, and they all looked like they were having hoot...and so did the children, haha! If you love dogs as much as I do, then this is definitely worth a stop.
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post and found it useful. Let me know in the comments below whether you've been or whether I've persuaded you to go and I'll see you all again soon with some brand new content!
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