Couple Starts Golden Retriever Farm in Vermont — and the Playful $75 Experience Goes Viral (Exclusive)

Douglas (Doug) Worple and his wife Becca have managed to create a piece of heaven on earth at their Golden Dog Farm.

The Jeffersonville, Vermont-based couple created the Golden Retriever Experience, where people from near and far visit their farm and feast with the happy golden retrievers — a collective term for a group of golden retrievers — for a set amount of time. The unique experience, which Doug started in September 2023, got off to a slow start, but has since gone viral a million times on social media as more and more people visit.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit in 2020, Doug and his wife needed a change. He was in the advertising business for 27 years and she was a children’s photographer for 10 years and they, like many others, needed a break.

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“I had a job where I traveled a few hundred days a year, and then all of a sudden it stopped and became the Zoom life,” Doug told PEOPLE exclusively. “I decided to change course, so when someone asked at the very beginning of COVID if we were still interested in selling our house, I said yes.”

The couple – whose college-aged children were away at school – decided to sell their house in Cincinnati, rent an RV and spend six months on the road, exploring. At the end of those six months, they found a 270-acre property in Vermont that is now Golden Dog Farm and settled.

As the Worples — who at the time owned four golden retrievers — moved into their new home, they realized that one of the downsides of living on a farm was that their dogs wouldn’t have much human interaction.

Doug and Becca Worple on their farm.

Golden Dog Farm

Then they came up with the idea of ​​creating an event where people could come, meet and spend some time with the goldens, and on the contrary, their cubs could get used to other people who are not in the family. However, implementing their idea will be a challenge.

“One of the reasons we moved to a place like this was so we could build our own happy place out of gold coins, but we realized how much work [that was going to be]. “Especially with adult dogs, they have a pack mentality,” Doug explained.

“We had three dogs, [and brought in a fourth] and it took some time to integrate him into the household. So we realized it would take us forever to get to a certain number of dogs where we could have that experience.”

Butternut Hill Golden Retrievers.

Golden Dog Farm

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That’s when the Worples called their neighbors Dana and Susan Menne, “conscientious hobby breeders of AKC golden retrievers,” who run their business, Butternut Hill Golden Retrievers, and own 13 goldens of their own. Thus, the Golden Retriever Experience was born.

The first few events were scheduled for the last Saturday in September 2023 and the first two in October, as it was peak fall foliage season. However, after the experience went viral on social media, tickets quickly sold out. The Worples eventually added more dates and the event has been ongoing ever since.

The Golden Retriever Experience.

Golden Dog Farm

“Me [initially] we put it on our social media to see if anyone would be interested and we did [a few signups]but it certainly wasn’t an overwhelming response,” he told PEOPLE. “But then a TikTok account called Vermont Lifestyle posted about things to do in Vermont during the fall foliage season and they pulled some of our content and put it in their video and four to five million views of that video later, we sold out.”

The Golden Retriever Experience is $75 per person. Each group has a total of 28 people who can play, pet and socialize with the retrievers “until they are kicked out”.

After playing with the dogs outside, the Worples then lead the group and the dogs to one of the barns on the farm, where guests are treated to hot chocolate if it’s cold outside, and can have lunch and sample other treats from the farm.

Usually the whole event lasts about an hour and a half, but Doug explains that they usually last as long as the weather permits and the dogs and guests are up for it. Since his wife was a professional photographer, guests who want to commemorate their experience also get professional photos.

Guest with lucky gold coins.

Golden Dog Farm

“We get the best feedback and people are so happy. We hear all the time, ‘This is the best day ever,’ and some people say, ‘This is like therapy.’ We’ve even had kids say this is better than Disney,” Doug revealed.

Although it’s all in good time, the experience also caused strong emotions in others. “It’s amazing. The energy and the smiles and the happy cries. There are also people who have lost a dog who come and it heals,” he revealed.

The experience also makes a great venue for a birthday, anniversary or any special celebration. In fact, the Golden Retriever Experience has facilitated five proposals so far, and in one case — two people from the same group popped the question to their loved ones.

Guests of the Golden Retriever Experience.

Golden Dog Farm

Since the event is only a few months old, they haven’t organized any parties yet, but Doug revealed that they are working on possibly hosting a stag and birthday party during the warmer months.

Although he admits that running the entire farm is like “working two full-time jobs,” the response from the people has been well worth it.

“I feel like all the experiences I’ve had in my life and all the experiences Becca has had in her life have come together to make this possible… I feel like kismet. I feel like it was meant to happen,” he shared. .

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education