Our Story......

Our story and reason for raising dogs is somewhat unique. It also explains where the name Roark's Royal Rose Pups came from.  It actually started when our very first Golden Retriever, Nicki Rose, came to join our family as an Autism Assistance dog back in 2007, when our son Ryker was just 5 years old. Ryker chose her name.  She was 6 months old when she became ours and she was exactly what Ryker needed.  She went places with us and wore a vest with a patch that said "Ask To Pet Me".  That is different than most Service Dogs because they are often NOT to be petted when working.  Nicki, however, was increasing Ryker's social interactions with people.  She also made outings much calmer for him.  After some time, he didn't need her to go in public with him anymore, and she became more of a companion dog at home.  We were all crazy over her and she sure did love Ryker. Nicki crossed the rainbow bridge in 2017 after being diagnosed with cancer at 10 years old.  On that final drive to the vet, I sat in the back of the van with her big 85lb self in my lap and sobbed as I thanked her for helping my baby. 

Ryker was 15 at the time and immediately knew he wanted another Golden in his life.  We had all just fallen head over heels in love with the breed, so we didn't wait long before adding Abby to our family. We picked Abby up from her breeder's and on the way home I opened her AKC papers. I immediately noticed her mom's name was Stella Rose. ROSE. The same middle name as Nicki.  Ryker knew right away he wanted Abby's middle name to also be Rose.  Over the next 3 years, Ryker began to talk about how he would love to raise Goldens.  His BIGGEST dream is to someday raise and train Goldens as service dogs for US Veterans and people with Autism.

He was SO proud of Abby's first litter and signed the AKC puppy papers with pride. He has been my right hand man in raising the litters and has learned a LOT.  Quite honestly, all of our kids have stepped in during deliveries, clean ups, puppy bathing, play-times......you name it! We're excited to see what the Golden future brings.......and especially excited now that we've added Yorkies to our family!  We've always said, we will only raise a breed we absolutely love........well we got Chloe in November 2021 and that was that for the Yorkies.  We are a homeschooling family, so having 4 kids still at home means we have lots of built in puppy snugglers! 

Thanks for reading our story! It was shared with Ryker's permission.