History

Oakshire Golden Retrievers was established in 2005 by myself, Lindsay Julian, and
my other half, Grant Ho. Grant and I have been together for 9 years, but were friends
for 6 years before that. Throughout my childhood, we had some great family pets
thanks to my dad and his desire for good gun dogs, and my mom who grew up in a
family that bred and competed with their dogs.
My first being an English Springer Spaniel, two English Setters (both working gun
dogs for mydad's corporate hunting retreat), a Labrador, and can't forget to mention
our Shih-Tzu.
My Mom did some brief campaigning with her German Shepherd, who later became
an award winning drug dog; my grandmother used to show Irish Setters and Poodles.
Grant grew up with Penny, a Boxer, also owned a Golden Retriever and Siberian
Husky.

Our first Golden we owned together was American Bred, named Brinkley, who has
been nothing but a great dog. After getting Brinkley, we decided to search for another
addition to the family, and were introduced to the Golden Retrievers over in the UK
(Grant is also half English as his mother is from Manchester, England), Europe and
Canada. After much deliberation, we decided on Golden from our friends Jennifer
McAuley and her daughter Rebecca (who have been very helpful and informative
throughout the years) from Chrys-Haefen, a top winning show kennel in Canada. An
involvement in conformation shows sounded like something exciting, and that we
would enjoy with our new puppy, so from day one we embraced competing, and have
since fallen in love with it

In 2008 Grant went to England for Crufts, the biggest dog show in the world, and met
our friend and mentor Jennie Andersson from highly regarded and famous Kennel
Dream Max in Sweden. Jennie and her parents Ewa and Kjell Nielsen, who are both
FCI judges, have been extremely influential in the breed in Sweden and all of
Scandinavia, having over 130 show and tracking Champions throughout their program
and progeny! They have also won the Stenbury Trophy, first given out in 1994 for the
most winning show Golden in Sweden, a fantastic 9 out of 17 years!

Crufts was an amazing learning experience for Grant. Unfortunately I could not attend
due to finishing my degree; I have a B.S. in Psychology. At Crufts, Grant began to
learn first hand about differences in types within the breed, and what trends you see
in different bloodlines regarding structure, health, movement, and temperament.
After the show, he flew to Sweden to pick up our first Dream Max dog, Riven, and
stayed at Ewa and Kjell's house, and got to learn even more. The experience and their
family's continual help and knowledge regarding everything about the breed has made
a lasting impression in our kennel now and for the future of our program.

In our program we strive for soundness, physically and mentally, and to continue to
have dogs with attributes you don't see much of with many Goldens being sent to the
US from the the UK and Europe. From what we commonly see, the US breeders with
import Goldens often produce dogs for color and a good head. But these are just two
aspects of the whole package, and many don't seem to be interested in doing things to
enhance the quality of their lines as a whole. Additionally, only a small handful of the
US breeders with this type, campaign their dogs, but we look forward to seeing more
and more involvement in competition with import lines.

We own and operate The Yellow Retriever Pub and Grill in Magnolia, and continue to
enter our upcoming stars in shows during our busy schedules! In Spring 2009 I began
taking handling lessons under legendary handler and Best in Show/Sporting Group
judge, Mrs. Adelene Pardo. I handle in the IABCA shows and in AKC as well, but have
begun working with a handler here that has much more time to travel to the right
judges than I do! We also are proud to have Rebecca McAuley in Canada present our
dogs.

What the future holds for our program should be very exciting!!

Countless thanks to everyone who has helped us in the past and continues to
enlighten us.