Florence Mattice with one of her golden retriever puppies. Our Champion Laura, with her litter of 4 puppies. Shown Above: "Bear" and his friend, (NM) Shown Above: kuvasz "Stratus" and Florence winning another Working Group First win

Florence started showing golden retrievers in 1987. She has been breeding under the kennel prefix: "Mattiaci" since 1989. She titled her first golden "Queenie" with a Utility Dog title, the highest obedience class you can enter at an AKC show. She put two more Companion Dog titles on 2 other goldens, with a High Score In Trial tie with Mattiaci Double Diamond CD. Her 2nd Companion Dog titled dog, Maraia Catch The Spirit CD finished 1/2 point away from a Dog World Award: dogs who finish with three consecutive scores of at least a 195/200. She was a member of the Dog Obedience Training Club of Alaska in the 80's and 90's when living in Anchorage. Awarded Breeder of the Year when she was a member of the Five Valley Kennel Club of Montana, who also awarded her with a crate dolly for her years of volunteer work offering conformation handling classes in the 90's while she attended the University of Montana while living in Missoula. She has trained dogs in AKC obedience, conformation, agility, schutzhund, tracking, weight pull and has satisfied the requirements to apply to be an AKC conformation judge -- but competes only in conformation shows & obedience trials. In February 2008, the American Kennel Club awarded Florence with it's "Special Silver Medallion" & in January of 2009 with it's "Special Gold Medallion" in recognition of her valuable contribution to the sport of purebred dogs. She is the recipient of the highest Award AKC gives, to breeders who have finished the minimum of 10 Champions from the Bred By Exhibitor class. She has produced 22 AKC Champions under the Mattiaci Prefix as of January 2010. AKC lists breeders like Florence who have finished the Championship of at least 5 dogs from the Bred-By Exhibitor class on their website at http://www.akc.org. Florence has also been on NBC national news with her group winning kuvasz Ginny; Martha Stewart Living with her breeder-owner-handled #1 kuvasz Stratus; the CBS Early Show with Stratus; and featured on Animal Planet at the Houston Dog Show with Stratus. Showing mainly in conformation, Florence has owner handled or breeder handled 20 AKC Champions. She has produced: Sporting Group Placing golden retrievers, Chinese Champion, Internation Champion, Working Group Winning kuvasz, the #1 kuvasz, Swedish & Mexican Champion kuvasz, Mexican Best In Show, Crufts Winner 2007, and Westminster Kennel Club Invitees. She has also had dogs awarded in the AKC's Canine Good Citizen program. Florence has handled show dogs in the US, Canada, and Sweden. She has shown dogs to Group 1st wins in Canada: Sporting & Working; in the US: Working. Group Placements in Canada: Sporting, Hound, and Working and in the US: Sporting, Working, Terrier and Herding. Above all, one of her greatest joys is taking all of her dogs for a mile run through the 50 acre hay field down to the creek and watching them gallop freely, and swim in the creek and romping through the snow in the winter. She is thankful for all of the families who give her dogs loving homes where they are a part of the family, and not just a dog. Her biggest accomplishments producing dogs that live into their teens and are someone or some child's buddy and soul mate, and/or working as a service animal. Boarding: We do offer boarding for our buyers. Cost is $10/day (owner provides food) Boarding, food provided by us $14/day. Training: Conformation and Obedience training services offered for dogs we bred.