About Us

"ACTIV" GOLDEN RETRIEVERS

I am a country boy at heart, growing up on a beef farm in South Gippsland, Victoria only moving to Melbourne to pursue a career in petrochemical engineering. I started breeding thoroughbred race horses and various pedigree dogs along the way. From a young age I was involved in the training of our dogs for Sheepdog and obedience trials, and that passion has stuck with me for the past 30 years (probably more!).

My Father had been breeding Kelpie sheep dogs since the 70’s. His interest in them was contagious with my own training and breeding program starting in the 90’s. Along the way focusing on Golden Retrievers due to their wonderful natures, ease in training and high intelligence

My engineering career flourished and that saw me travel the world and most of Australia on assignments. However now I am settled into an amazing 82-acre property on the outskirts of Brisbane. We have horses, dogs and assorted native animals with unhindered access to our house.

I have competed in both Sheepdog Trials and Obedience Trials. I have been fortunate enough to have been placed 2nd at national level in both disciplines. At the Royal Queensland Show (The Ekka), I also placed second in 2010.

My first love however is competing in Obedience trials with my golden retrievers.

Breeding dogs is an art and takes a lot of experience, I love the challenge of improving the breed and creating amazing dogs.

In 2010 I decided to change over to concentrate on Field Golden Retrievers. My experience with show line Golden Retrievers in the 2000’s led me to do more research on this amazing breed. I discovered the Field Golden Retriever suited my ever-higher goals for intelligence and therefore higher levels of train-ability for competition obedience dog trials.

My research showed that there very few straight working line strains in Australia. I looked at strains available in the US, Europe before finally deciding upon one from the UK. I have persevered through the long import process. My first import was a bitch in 2014 from very special and famous Holway lines in the UK. Unfortunately, I lost her in 2015 in an accident. Hurt but undeterred I imported Auchencloch "Fairy Tale" (Nessy) in 2017. Nessy being from the Auchencloch lines from Scotland.

Nessy also proved to be everything that I had expected and more. So, my plans to breed Field Golden Retrievers was proven to me. Time for the next stage now; in 2017, I started the process of importing semen from what I believe to be one of the best sires in the world Echobrook Dexster and his son Kertis, this is an exciting step in my breeding program.

I love the satisfaction of training my dogs, it is not just about winning the competitions that come up from time to time. There is an immense sense of accomplishment in seeing these wonderful animals perform to their highest capability. The dogs themselves are probably happier than I am, they love to be active and they love the attention paid to them. Their bloodlines are historically associated with hunting and other field work, so they are highly active, very intelligent and enjoy the intense interaction they have with their handlers as they have fun while training.

Nessy is a fantastic dog, everyone deserves to have a dog who is as intelligent, loyal and gentle as she is.

“Once you have had a WONDERFUL dog, a life without one, is a life diminished.”