Overdene Ruadhnait

Owner : Overdene Golden Retrievers
Breed : Golden Retriever
Location : WITNEY, Oxfordshire
Birthdate : 3rd May 2012
Colour : Golden
Health Tested

With a name meaning "red haired girl" in old Irish, Rúadhnait (pronounced roo-nit) was the second puppy to arrive in what turned out to be her mother Grian's only litter of 5 bitches and 2 dogs born on the evening of Thursday, 3 May 2012 - she was also the darkest of the 7 puppies. Rúadhnait caught my eye from the minute she arrived, and in the weeks that followed, despite trying to be objective about which bitch puppy to keep, I was not able to persuade myself to choose another of her sisters - although Grian did a wonderful job. All the puppies were stunning and had magnificent coats, despite the warmer weather we had in middle of June.

As is the case with all our bitches, Rúadhnait has been DNA profiled. She has clear eyes under the KC/BVA scheme (date of last examination October 2018), and her hip score came back at 5:5. She is also DNA tested clear for GR_PRA 1 and 2 (see results of health tests above).

Rúadhnait gave us 3 lovely litters, from which we kept Sibéal (born 2015) and Dearbhaile (born 2019) to carry on our direct bitch line. Although she retired from the show ring at the end of 2021, in early 2022 we decided to let her try again to qualify for Crufts from Veteran bitch classes at Championship shows. It took until Windsor in June 2023 for Ruadhnait to be placed 3rd in Veteran and with it, finally got her Crufts qualifier - it was the show which I had decided would be her last, so it was "job done".
Although she's still quite naughty and unruly, like her grandmother Aoife, she is finally starting to settle down and behave herself - most of the time!

A real character, and very much one of a kind!