Our Story by Ron Rubrecht

Turbo Retrievers breeds the best hunting and field Golden Retrievers possible. Turbo Retrievers has a limited breeding program and maintains the highest standards in breed clearances and the genetic information available to improve the breed with our every breeding.

Turbo Retrievers is owned by Ron and Pat Rubrecht. We have owned Golden Retrievers since 1984. Our Goldens and training are not our primary efforts in life as we still work for a living. Our breeding program is dedicated to the personal pride of doing the very best breeding we can do using the technology available today to produce the smartest dogs available anywhere.

Our kids are grown & gone, now 30+ years old. The dogs are now the kids in our home along with our new grandson Tristan. The old kids often wonder why the golden girls have a better childhood than they did, enjoying a pool custom built for the dogs and with a big yard to run.

Our first golden was purchased as a pet in Minnesota while on work assignment there. Our first golden, Buddy (Rubrecht’s Buddy), had a strong field pedigree, but at that time we did not know what we had. We moved to Florida in 1985 and shortly thereafter received a female golden, Cozy (Golden Cozy Bear) from a friend who could not handle the golden girl they had received. Buddy and Cozy had an unplanned litter resulting in 2 puppies. One of those pups became our boy Bouncer (Bouncer Rajah of Sands CD). Bouncer was a great dog, never getting into trouble and worked hard to please. Buddy grew up with our children when they were young, and Bouncer arrived to grow up with our children as teenagers. Bouncer would play ball until your arm fell off. At this point in our lives, we did our own training, but had never had any formal training lessons, and did not compete in any type of dog competition, as we looked at our efforts as only a family breeding program and only for our pet production to carry on the lines and memories of our previous goldens we have owned.

Our working status changed around 1998, and Bouncer was aging. We went looking for a female golden to add to our family with intentions of continuing our family line from Bouncer. We added a Topbrass puppy, Buffy (Topbrass Smoke’n Escapade CDX JH WC) in 1999. At that point, we became interested in training for AKC obedience and field events.

Bouncer went to novice obedience class and we were told that Bouncer was ready but I needed to be trained. Six weeks later, we had a CD on Bouncer. Buffy went on to compete in obedience trials and hunt tests, and we learned as we went. Buffy and Bouncer were bred once and resulted in a litter and we added Josie (Turbo Smoke’n Wildfire CDX JH CCA CGC) and Diesel (Turbo Van Diesel CDX JH WC) to our family, and presented the other puppies to friends and family as we knew the value that our dogs could bring to the lives of others and we wanted them to be part of our lives as well.

We campaigned Buffy, Josie, and Diesel and all reached the titled level of CDX and JH still without any formal training. It seemed that these dogs were more capable than I and I was the limitation of their success. Josie was our female hopeful until she was injured during a hunt test getting a thorn in her leg. After a long recovery and a litter of puppies, she became a mommy’s (Pat’s) girl along with Buffy, which was okay as my time became consumed with the training of several of Josie’s puppies and our new pup, HayLee.

At this point, we understood the strong field background of our previous dogs, and began to focus on breeding with the best field golden studs available. We moved to purchasing frozen semen samples from these studs and conducting surgical insemination of our girls with great success. This is a credit to our regional fertility specialist, the late Dr. Brimacomb at the Highland Pet Hospital in Highland City, Florida, south of Lakeland. I have learned a lot from my limited participation that they have allowed me to observe and answer my curious engineering evaluation questions of the process. I must thank her for her patience in answering my questions in detail with the reasoning involved.

Of Buffy’s pups, Josie, and Lola (Lola Topbrass Turbo) were bred with Boomer (FC AFC FTCH AFTCH Can. OTCH TNT's Explosion Am. UD, FDHF, OS Can. FDHF, OBHF). Boomer was the #1 field golden in 2003 & 2004 and was the first golden retriever to ever obtain Field (FC/FTCH) and Amateur (AFC/AFTCH) championships in the US and Canada. These two breedings were the backbone of our current Turbo Retriever program.

We added HayLee (Turbo Explosive Comet CDX SH WCX) to our family, and I was compelled to give up most of my offshore fishing and big game hunting hobbies to train HayLee and several of her siblings. Up until then, we were working with the talent of our dogs out of the box, and HayLee forced me to seek additional formal training to get myself up to speed in the obedience and hunt test arenas with visions of field trials.

We have titled three girls and one boy out of Josie’s litter and still competing with Tia (Turbo Spinning Bear Tia CD JH WC) in the fall of 2014, our last hope to get the one point bump of a WCX to get Josie an Outstanding Dam status. It has been since 2010 (3.5 years) and our sudden loss of HayLee to cancer, that I have been able to continue this revision of our story. The loss of HayLee and Josie to cancer changed our life and the way we now work to prevent and minimize the opportunity of cancer in our dogs with food intake and hazardous environmental exposure reduction. We have no lawn treatments and minimize our dog’s exposures to chemicals including the flea & tick treatments without cause. Our girls now drink bottled water as we do, as I feel that our well water was the worst part of their intake. Turbo Retrievers now supports the Morris Animal Foundation Golden Retriever Lifetime Study to provide long term data on our dogs to assist in fighting the curse of our breed. Several of our younger dogs are now enrolled in the lifetime study as well as many of our recent offspring who have been placed with conscientious and caring Turbo owner families also dedicated to our breed and the improvement of Golden Retrievers everywhere.

We have titled three of the girls from Lola’s litter which I call the Turbo Trilogy, Daisy (Turbo Bloom’n Wildflower CD JH WC CCA), Dixie (Turbo Southern Explosion CD JH CCA) and LeeAnne (Turbo The Destoyer JH WC CCA), the Turbo Trilogy. These girls have now been retired after each having one litter.

Dixie was the first of the Turbo Trilogy to have a litter of puppies as she was bred to Stanley, (FC AFC OTCH FTCH AFTCH Can MOTCH TNT's Stanley Steamer UDX, WCX , MH, OBHF, FDHF, OS) and we placed Bella Marie (Turbo Steam’n Southern Belle CD SH WCX) in our breeding program. Bella Marie lives with Cindy and Andy Sciandra a couple miles away and Bella Marie is part of the current Turbo team. Bella Marie has completed all her health certificates and was scheduled to be bred to Bart (FC AFC Glenhaven HTRS MN Baronet MH OS FDHF) at her next heat expected in the fall of 2014.

Daisy was bred to Hawk, (Topbrass Rugby’s Redtail MH ***) and produced some very nice pups and as predicted, these pups were bigger than the norm and our expectations. One of the girls from this litter is Darby (Turbo Dart’n Darby Of Springdale SH) at Team Turbo North with Wayne Babcock in Columbus, Ohio. Darby is entered in numerous master hunter tests this fall of 2014 looking for her MH title before breeding considerations and after completing clearances.

LeeAnne was bred to Copper (Choctaw's Yukon Copper Penny MH MNH WCX **) and produced 4 puppies. Two pups from this litter has entered the Turbo breeding program. Brooklyn, (Turbo Brooklyn’s Copper Penny) became ill as a pup and was placed in a Turbo family home as a precaution and has grown to be a very nice little girl with Kim and Mark Hudak. Brooklyn will be part of the Turbo breeding program as she matures and passes her clearances. A second is co-owned with Keith Farmer of Tremblin Earth Kennels in Waycross, Ga. Keith had always wanted to train a field bred golden and now has Jazz (Turbo Strike Up The Band) to play with his three young daughters.

Our fourth litter was with HayLee’s and Tia’s sister Bella (Turbo Sweet Bella CD (BoomerXJosie)) who was bred to Stanley (FC AFC OTCH FTCH AFTCH Can MOTCH TNT's Stanley Steamer UDX, WCX , MH, OBHF, FDHF, OS). It was meant to be as Bella was co-owned with Paul Stanley. We later found out that Paul was raised in Sutton Caulfield, England nearby where Ron had lived for two years as a child. Stanley Steamer was Boomer’s stable mate at TNT and the second golden retriever to ever obtain Field (FC/FTCH) and Amateur (AFC/AFTCH) championships in the US and Canada. Stanley also has OTCH obedience championships in both the US and Canada with 6 perfect 200 point scores in his career. Stanley was the #1 amateur field golden retriever in the US in 2007. This breeding produced some wonderful pets and our two competitors Sharlie (HRCH Turbo Steam’n Twilight Dragon CDX MH20 ** WCX CCA VCX OD). Her sister Stella (C-ATCH 6 Turbo Steam’n Wild Desire) runs the CPE Agility Trials and she is a CPE Agility Champion six times over. This makes Stella the second ranking golden in that venue. Stella lives with Ritch and Linda McAdams, Team Turbo North, in Columbus, Ohio.

Sharlie came with this litter at a time of great turmoil in our lives and with HayLee, Tia, and Riley as the Turbo competitors at the time, we were not prepared for a puppy. When the puppies were tested, it was so apparent of Sharlie’s talents, that the puppy assignment was swapped between Sharlie and Stella, and Sharlie (unnamed at the time) was searching for a qualified field working home. After going on vacation with us and HayLee and presentation to most of our family and friends on the way, Sharlie did not find a home on the trip, but based on her performance on what turned out to be her vacation interview, it was decided that Sharlie was not going anywhere and was named. Sharlie was a combination of Ron’s sister Sharon, and his dad Charlie. We liked the name, but could not come up with a formal name. We searched the internet to learn that Sharlie was the name of a plesiosaurus who lived in Peerless Lake in Idaho. Sharlie was known locally as a Twilight Dragon, thus, Turbo Steam’n Twilight Dragon.

HayLee was Sharlie’s mentor. In 2010 we took a trip up north with Jim Bryan and Marlo, to train as we had a trip planned to take HayLee to Canada for our first real hunting trip. We stayed to run a double MH test with HayLee who needed one pass to become a master hunter. We also had Sharlie entered in the double MH test, and a double JH test with Stella. HayLee and Sharlie went into season the day before the test and were scratched. HayLee got sick on the trip home and shortly there after, her devastating diagnosis was accepted and we put HayLee down just days before our planned trip to Canada. Ron was devastated over the loss of Haylee and didn’t know if he could still make the trip to Canada without her. While grieving over Haylee, Sharlie seemed to make the decision for us as she came and sat next to Ron as if to say, “Let’s go, I’ll fill in for you dad.” That’s when we realized how much of a God send Sharlie was in our life. Without Sharlie, Ron’s coping with the situation would have been much worse. So off we went to Canada to meet up with my Canadian business associates who had invited us on their family Thanksgiving hunt gathering in Gravelburg, Saskatchewan. After three days of driving, we arrived worn out from the drive. The local boys had not used a dog before and Sharlie, just 18 months old and already with master passes, blew them away with amazing marking and handling like a master hunter and diving under water to pull up swimming wounded ducks. The Canadian geese were a little big for Sharlie, but she tried. What a great trip, but HayLee was missed the entire time. Sharlie was a champ.

Molly joined our Turbo family at a time when we were in a void and needed a puppy infusion into our life after the loss of HayLee. In 2011, we signed up with Jackie Mertens for another Topbrass girl looking for some diversity, but still having Boomer presence (Grandfather) on the pedigree. We committed to this litter needing a puppy in our life and not expecting a litter from a Turbo breeding. This quickly changed with the unexpected breeding of Dixie/Stanley the first of our Turbo Trilogy. We were excited about this new puppy and Ron went to pick up Molly, flying to Chicago, meeting Jackie at the airport. Molly bonded to Ron immediately and of all our girls, is the most devoted to Ron, much like HayLee was. Molly and Sharlie were a new pair until Sharlie had puppies and we kept one of her pups, and then JoJo was focused on bonding with her mommy, Sharlie. While the bond between Sharlie and JoJo was something we had to compete with, Molly became the third man out and became even closer to Ron. While she plays with the pack and enjoys the competition, with the other dogs it’s all about competition between each other, but Molly is totally focused on Ron. When we knew we had a new pup coming, we had decided her name was going to be Molly. Jim Bryan pointed out a song called “Molly” by a group named Sponge. We listened to the song and while it was about someone whose sixteen candles went down the drain and the main repeating lyric was “Don’t Ask Why, Don’t Ask Why, Don’t Ask Why”. Never is there any lyric about “Molly” mentioned in the song. So, Molly became “Topbrass Turbo Don’t Ask Why”!

Our breeding work has been quite limited. We strive to produce extremely intelligent athletes for field work, obedience work, and for just being the best dog that one could desire as a family member. Few of our dogs are show quality as we are breeding working dogs with short trim coats that are perfect for work in the field. We do not compete with the bigger show dogs with long thick coats as required in the show ring. We have found that the short trim coats of the field bred golden retriever are perfect for our intentions, especially living in Florida.

The field world of golden retrievers have traditionally created darker red goldens for work in the field as they have been expected to have the most drive in order to compete with the Labs in the field trials. Our breeding goals were intended to produce these intelligent athletes in lighter coat goldens. While we have been successful many times over to create this lighter golden with the drive of the darker golden, with several in our current breeding program. 

After the loss of HayLee, and a selfish desire to create another HayLee and replace our lost Boomer pup, we did a line breeding with Sharlie and her grandfather Boomer. This litter got Sharlie qualified for her Outstanding Dam with 5 qualifying prodigy at the age of 22 months and before Sharlie turned 5 years old and before her second litter. Sharlie/Boomer pup JoJo (Turbo Twilight Explosion CD MH ** WCX), is named after her great grandmother, Josie, and is a really nice medium golden from the Sharlie/Boomer Line Breeding and getting redder all the time. This Sharlie/Boomer line breeding produced nine pups and five of those are master hunters (MH). To date, this is the best group of offspring from any one litter we have produced.

Based on the success of this Sharlie/Boomer line bred litter and the clear Ichthyosis status of Boomer, Stella’s family decided that they also wanted Boomer line bred pups and Stella was bred to Boomer. 

Our litters are infrequent and with very limited quantities of dogs available for purchase. We strive to do the very best breeding with the best studs available and using the technology available today to mate dogs that are 3500 miles apart or dead. We strive to produce the finest, and foremost, healthy family members and secondly, strong competitors for those wishing to explore the field, obedience, and agility venues. These dogs are very birdy with intense desires to retrieve. Testimony to this is HayLee’s desire which can be seen on this website retrieving off the bottom of the deep end of our pool. We now have several diving to the bottom but not yet to the deep end. Now Cali’s video is posted on the website of her diving to the bottom of the pool which is nine feet deep with underwater shots. Our dogs are a pleasure to take with us to other places and to friends homes, as they are well behaved and accepted because of their behavior. The dogs in our breeding program have all of the recommended OFA health clearances required for golden retrievers, and we breed with only PRCD/PRA (genetic eye disorder) cleared males. While we hope to be clear of the prcd/PRA disorder, we are testing for PRA1 and PRA2 as available based on the new testing available. In 2011, Turbo Retrievers became aware of a test called Ichthyosis, which is a genetic skin disorder. After a great deal of testing, we identified many prominent golden retrievers that were carriers or affected with this disorder. While insignificant in comparison to PRA or other genetic contributors, Ichthyosis has been a recent contributor to the breeding prospects of our girls. Since then, we have been breeding around the Ichthyosis genetic defects as most of the field bred goldens are carriers or affected.

As luck may have it, most of our girls are Clear/Clear/Clear of all of the genetic tests including Ichthyosis and are breeding to many field and amateur field champions that have been exposed to be Ichthyosis carriers, except for Boomer. Based on the technology involved and the genetic factors available, Turbo Retrievers produced two Line Bred litters with Boomer who is one of few FC/AFC that is clear of the defective Ichthyosis gene. Boomer is tenth on the list of all time field producers.

Sharlie (HRCH Turbo Steam’n Twilight Dragon CDX MH70 ** WCX CCA VCX OD was bred with Flash (FC AFC Topbrass No Time To Paws MH CCA WC OS FDHF) and puppies were born in March of 2014. From this litter, we have Lilly, (Turbo Flash Dragon) taking us back to 5 dogs in the house. Diva (Turbo Apaws 4U), Lilly’s sister, is co-owned with Bethany Carvallo in Clearwater. Bethany is an accomplished obedience and agility trainer with numerous OTCH and MOTCH titles with high hopes for Diva. Diva and Lilly will be part of the Turbo breeding program upon coming of age and getting clearances.

So we get to train some in the evenings, while Pat and I both work. I am lucky in that we can take the dogs to work and they work with us all day, unrestrained in our daily life. Then as the economy tanked a few years ago, I had more time to train throughout the week. Now, we are much busier and I am lucky to have the weekends off to compete as we have. We are doing quite well in that we have three Master Hunters in the house with Sharlie, Molly, and JoJo.

Molly (SH Topbrass Turbo Don’t Ask Why CD MH ** WCX) ran a Junior hunt test in Chardin, Ohio at the Cuyahoga Golden Retriever Club hunt test in June of 2014 and as far as we know and as far as AKC knows, is the only dog to have passed a junior test and receive her Junior Hunter Title, which rolled a pass to get her Senior Hunter Title, which rolled a pass to get her Master Hunter Title all at the same junior hunter test on Sunday. We have designated this the Hunt Test Trifecta. Molly, (SH Topbrass Turbo Don’t Ask Why CD MH ** WCX) has now been bred to Stanley (FC AFC OTCH FTCH AFTCH Can MOTCH TNT's Stanley Steamer UDX, WCX , MH, OBHF, FDHF, OS).

We are also near term planning a litter with Bella Marie (Turbo Steam’n Southern Belle CD SH WCX) with Bart (FC AFC Glenhaven HTRS MN Baronet MH OS FDHF).

We owe a special thanks to Jackie Mertens of Topbrass Retrievers who over the years has provided dog infusions into our family and provided guidance in not only the who’s who of golden retrievers, but also memorable guidance in life. Thanks Jackie.

Our success in our use of frozen semen has received the support of many high level golden retriever studs in North America. A special thanks to Janice and John Gunn of TNT Kennels, who have also supported Turbo Retrievers in our early steps to move up our level of breeding with intrusting us with TNT semen for our collection including Boomer and Stanley. Our breeding with Boomer and Stanley has been the foundation of what Turbo Retrievers is today.

Since then, we have been entrusted with Semen for our collection of future breeding potential from several others including, Linda Brown with Rugby (AFC Emberain Rugby WCX OS FDHF), John Graf with Copper (Choctaw's Yukon Copper Penny MH MNH WCX **), Kaye and Roger Fuller with Flash (FC Topbrass No Time To Paws SH CCA FDHF) and his brother Laddie, (Topbrass Lad Of The Lakes MH ** WCX) from Lindsay Ridgeway. We now have brought Bart (FC AFC Glenhaven HTRS MN Baronet MH OS FDHF) to our collection with support from Glenda Brown. We are proud of the trust that has been provided by these great stud owners in providing the future opportunity of utilizing these great field goldens, current and past.

We have been running Hunt Tests and Field Trials with several hunt test goals completed. We also have Bella Marie and Cali running Master tests with Master passes into the Fall of 2014. While we will be working to get the necessary master passes with Bella Marie and Cali, our focus is now moving to getting the three Master Hunters we have in house into more field trials in search of some third asterisks (All Age Qualified)!