Doug and I reside on five beautiful acres just minutes outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario which lies on the shores of the Great Lake Superior. We love our little piece of paradise with the wonder of Mother Nature and wildlife that surround us on a daily basis. There are many majestic pines on our property and it is a slight uphill climb to our home where the land then stretches out to encompass the dog and horse pasture....thus....Balsam Ridge.

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We both work in fields where the health and safety of a fellow human being is our major responsibility. Doug is a Health and Safety Inspector for the Ministry of Labor in the mining division and previous to that an underground miner for many years. I am employed in the Healthcare field on a part-time basis as to afford more time for the care of our dogs. We are very close to our families and have six wonderful children and the same amount of grandchildren. The two youngest, Jessica and Jarod still reside with us. My son Jarod is eleven and has ASD, which is Autism Spectrum Disorder. He is very high functioning, has a great sense of humor and a fascination and love for all life that is inspiring to us all. Standards are often used as service dogs due to their amazing temperaments, intellect and a high ability to train thus I knew that was that type of breed that I wanted around my son.

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Both my husband and I love the outdoors. My husband is an avid hunter of birds and moose and we both enjoy fishing. Living in Northwestern Ontario we are surrounded by literally thousands of lakes filled with some of the best pickerel and trout in North America. Here at Balsam Ridge I love to watch things grow so gardening is one of my favorite hobbies when the summer finally arrives. Just about 15 minutes up the road is my parent's summer home on the lake. All the family spends a lot of time there in the warmer months as there is nothing like a good old fashion sauna, hot tub and a refreshing swim in an inland lake. It's also a perfect place to work with the dogs on retrieving in the water, a job performed by this breed for centuries past.

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As in many homes, I have all the ideas and perform most of the customer service online and over the phone, Doug puts all my creative visions together with his amazing talent in repairing and building just about anything you can think of. We are a very good team in which we support eachother at all times and that is how we run our business. We will never be large in size as our dogs are our pets and live within our home, not separate kennels. We work hard but truely love what we do and hope that always comes across to our customers. Purchasing a new family member is an exciting and happy time, we wish only to enhance that experience with excellent customer service and continued support.