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History

Oakshire Kennel was established in 2005 by myself, Lindsay Julian, and my other half, Grant
Ho. Grant and I have been together for 7 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 showed. My first being an
English Springer Spaniel, two English Setters (both working gun dogs for my
dad'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.   I
also used to show horses in hunter-jumper classes.   Grant grew up with Penny, a Boxer, also
owned a Golden Retriever and Siberian Husky.

Our first Golden we owned together was an American type, 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 English type Golden Retriever (Grant is also half English
as his mother is from Manchester, England). We prefer the pale shades, but soundness and
quality come first. Our first English type Golden came 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 established 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 128 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 12 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 was able 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 the quality of dogs we strive to have.

Throughout the last 4 years we have learned and experienced so much. Starting off, we
thought we had an idea of what we were looking for, but have continued to learn more of the
differences between lines and specimens within the breed. Thanks to some excellent mentors
and friends, in the last two years we have moved away from our program having similar lines as
majority of the breeders here, and begun to restructure our foundation dogs to what we think
is the correct type of Golden Retriever.

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 English types in the US. From what we
commonly see, the US breeders with import Goldens often produce dogs for color and a
square head, when those are just two aspects of the whole package, and also with disinterest
in doing things to enhance the quality of their lines. Just a small handful of English type
breeders here campaign their dogs, but we look forward to seeing more and more involvement
in competition with import lines. I handle my dogs in the US, but have Rebecca handle for us
in Canada.

We are some of the only owner/handlers in the US with European imports who show in the
AKC, and have placed.
Whether we place in those shows or not, it is important that we, and other import owners put
the dogs out there, so more judges get used to seeing the pale colors in the US show rings.
Competitions are known to be very political, but a pale colored Golden can become an AKC
Ch, if the right handler travels to the right judges.   Anyone can state they have the top
quality bloodlines and dogs, but our goal is to continue to make proven champions, and not
just capitalize off of the hard work and success of the people who own the dogs in our
pedigrees.

We own and operate The Yellow Retriever Pub and Grill in Magnolia, and continue to
campaign our dogs in conformation shows during our busy schedules! The dogs simply are
our true passion.
In Spring 2009 I began taking handling lessons under legendary handler and Best in
Show/Sporting Group judge, Mrs. Adelene Pardo, and am loving the schooling on what
proper showmanship is and how much work and commitment it takes. 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.