About Snow Angel Retrievers
Todd, Gina, and Taylor Lykins are living our dream life just north of Mahomet in Central Illinois. We have 12 spacious acres for our ‘Snow Angels’ to romp on. Lots of stimulation with deer, rabbits, and geese stopping by to visit.
Our primary occupation is running our two family friendly veterinary clinics, The Pet Pro, in Champaign and Mahomet, Illinois. Dr. Lykins received his DVM from the University of Illinois in 1983. Gina Lykins , a registered nurse by profession, joined the Pet Pro in 1998. We see many breeds of dogs at our clinic, and while many are good breeds, we fell in love with the golden retriever years ago. We even have a golden as part of our veterinary clinic logo. Our first golden, Sage, was red in color and soon he had a friend in a rescue golden we named Tasha (also an American golden retriever). Sadly, Tasha passed away at the age of 14 in November 2009.
Gina’s brother first introduced us to the European cream golden retriever when he came home for the holidays with his new puppy ‘Austin’ in 2004. His temperament was that of a retriever in that he was intelligent, friendly, as well as obedient. His docile nature convinced us that this gorgeous white dog was perfect to promote as our recommended family dog. Over the next years, Gina used her experience as a genetic nurse to find 5 of these sweethearts with different bloodlines. This involved searching Europe and resulted in importing puppies from 5 different countries.
Our goal is to genetically design the most beautiful, healthy, family friendly dog possible that is raised in a loving home environment. Raising puppies in a kennel situation or solely outdoors does not prepare them for the typical family home environment. It is important that they experience the sounds of a home, frequent human contact and even experience car rides before they come to you. We love having them in our home to give them these important experiences. And while we do believe in crate training for the puppy once they become your new furry family member, you will not find any crates in our home.
We are convinced, that this is what it takes for a puppy to be a healthy, happy and well adjusted family pet for you.
And YES, we miss them when they leave...
