Retrieve a Golden of the Midwest (RAGOM) — Local services in Minnetonka

Wish I could not leave any stars but have to do at least one to let me post. We remain shaken by our experience. Our sweetest 16 year old golden was treated for pneumonia a few months ago and was on antibiotics off and on since . She had been just having difficulty walking and her breathing became noticeably labored and we made the difficult decision to euthanise. She had a huge presence in our life and left a huge hole. We heard from a friend she was fostering 2 goldens so our family and our other two dogs went and introduced ourselves and it was an awesome meet and greet by an awesome foster family. We filled out the application and then received an email the next day saying that the vet we listed on the application were contacted and that the vet could not provide required information about their care and history for the last three years and that is a requirement per the application that we filled out. We contacted our vet and they explained that they informed the person requesting information that they needed more clarification for....like invoices for heartworm for the last three years....but not all the other vet info...the heartworm ONLY. Our vet agreed he himself would call and give them anything they need but some may have to be verbally expressed since they updated their computer software within the last three years. The RAGOM rep would not do a phone call saying they don't have time for multiple phone calls. The email exchanges seemed rude...cold....and unprofessional. My wife, being already quite fragile after losing a pet that had been with us for 16 years felt hurt and discouraged by this treatment. Typically, not to be boastful, the rescue shelters we found all of our other pets were very happy and grateful for us adopting pets there. This, well, it felt totally different, like they were finding stuff that would be impossible for us to achieve, like documentation of our pets veterinarian care that may not be there due to the computer software change. We thought ...did RAGOM look at our facebook profile and find out we are a mixed race family? Because it really felt like the vet documentation was a sticking point. My wife, feeling hurt, and frustrated and of course still grieving the loss of a cherished family pet sent the director an email stating how we felt and requested they withdraw our application. I fully expected a response expressing concern and empathy. Instead we received another rather snarky and defensive response stating....get this...."the information from the veterinarian would have sufficed" and went on to say we did not allow them time to work on other things and other adoptions and so on and our application is withdrawn. I could not believe this. I feel insulted. Not once did they ever offer condolences or any empathy whatsoever! Just demands which they lead us to believe would disqualify us if we could not satisfy. I remain deeply offended and extremely appalled! By the way our vet was able to produce and email to us a copy of transaction history for the last three years for our pups that showed heart-worm preventative flea and tic preventative. Kudos to a dedicated vet. But this would not have worked according to email instructions from RAGON rep to send heartworm preventative purchases only. I just hope they treat the pups with more dignity that they treated us! Really I do think that God has a reason for everything....so there must be a good reason this did not work out for us. The reasons usually eventually reveal themselves. time to go destress and take our remaining two dogs for a nice long...

Don't let them waste your time if you LITERALLY don't meet their requirements. You will go back and forth fighting to adopt, but if you don't meet 100%, you're out. Such a joke! They don't even want to meet you. All they care about are records of your pets that are passed on. SERIOUSLY! My husband and I so wanted to adopt from RAGOM. We raised 2 dogs from pups to be 12.5 and 13 years old and they denied us. We were not consistent with vet visits over the years, and did our own preventatives. Our dogs led a healthier lifestyle than we did. And because we didn't do it the same way they did, but somehow managed to raise beautiful, loving dogs, we were denied. Where is the common sense in this?! It is very understandable to have a good screening process because there are definitely people out there that should not have pets! But take time to get to know us. SERIOUSLY consider how we actually kept our previous animals alive! I emailed back and forth about how we cared for our dogs over the years. I asked them to come and meet our family, see our home, and learn about how we take care of our family, including pets. None of it mattered. Here is verbatim, their response "While we could have asked for an exception on the heartworm preventatives, though, any adopted dog would be expected to receive heartworm prevention such as Heartgard, Interceptor, etc, our website and the application are clear we do require heartworm tests, vaccinations, etc. Between not having yearly tests and not doing heartworm prevention, you do not meet the requirements to adopt from us." We did test, just not yearly. We did prevent, just not with what they deem is the only way, and yet, somehow, we had healthy dogs for 13 years. There's absolutely no logic in any of this. We could have done everything thing the way they wanted it and adopted a dog, and the dog could be dead in a year, from ANYTHING! Serious power trip going on or someone had such a bad experience with heartworm. Fine, heartworms are horrible! But not impossible to get, no matter how hard you try to prevent. Such a joke this place is! Extremely discriminating! So frustrated. I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one that has a bad rating for...

We had been thinking of adding a Golden to our home for some time, and followed RAGOM via social media prior to taking the step.

We were fortunate to find a Golden being fostered in the same town we live, so first met her at a Meet & Greet in Des Moines. Liberty was rescued from a breeding operation in early 2022, she was pregnant when rescued and had some health issues.

RAGOM found the perfect foster family for her, where she was taken such good care of, through having her last litter of puppies and being treated for her health issues until she was ready to find her own forever home.

Through our research we knew that RAGOM always has the best interest of their dogs as the top priority. I realize at times their requirements for adoption may not sit well with some potential adopters, but there are very good reasons that their dogs can't be put in just any home environment. These former breeders for example don't even really know how to be a dog, a pet, a part of a family. Our household consists of only two people, it's a quiet home and even with that at times Liberty would panic when we got up out of a chair, or even reached for the remote, so I totally understand and support RAGOM's requirement on "no children under __" in the household for some of their dogs. Some of these dogs would live in constant fear just from the noise and actions of young children.

I apologize for the long review, but after reading some of the negative reviews concerning RAGOM's rules, I wanted to express my opinion on why these rules are in place. I would rather adopt from an organization that puts nothing ahead of the best interest of the dog, than one that just wants to get a dog out the door.

Also, every volunteer we worked with before, during and after the adoption was fantastic. They explained their process and the reasons for each step of...