Alnclair
Golden Retrievers

Challenging the future, Valuing the past

    

Up close and personal - Ch Alnclair Aiming High (Aimee) "modelling" aged 10 years and 8 months old.

  A WONDERFUL day on Sunday 4 May 2014 - click to see every breeder's dream come true!

Please note we stopped breeding our beautiful Goldens in February 2017.

 

We are based at Old Bar on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, approximately 3 to 4 hours north of Sydney.  Often referred to as "God's own country", the area encompasses lovely beaches as well as peaceful rural lands.  Our kennels have been established on a beautiful, flat 3.5 acre property which provides plenty of room for sleeping kennels, day runs, specific puppy runs and accommodation, and of course all our dogs are house dogs as well.  In fact the kennels are not actually USED as kennels and have been 'spare storage sheds' for years - the dogs are our only "children" after all.

Golden Retrievers have been a part of our lives for almost 34 years.  All our Goldens are dual purpose - much loved family members, and animals that we exhibit at conformation shows - the first purpose being more important than the second.

Our first "Golden" was actually a cross bred puppy (probably Labrador x Kelpie) that we bought for a really ridiculous price when we were first married.  A typical impulse buy from a pet shop and (in hindsight now, we realise) she would have been lucky to be 5 weeks old at the time. Reba was however an absolutely fabulous child/pet, but she was tragically  run over by a car when on a routine exercise run with us in March 1983.  As her temperament was exceptional, we had no option but to buy a "pedigree breed" to try to reproduce her wonderful nature.  The closest to our Reba was the Golden Retriever - and we have never regretted the choice.

The first Golden Retriever to come home with us was "Norjean Mardi Gras" (1/7/83-15/11/99) and at this time we "got talked into showing".  Billie-Jean "Meykel Facilitie" (6/3/84-14/2/00) followed "to keep Marde company".

We are only a small show and breeding kennel, yet we are very proud of our achievements to date.  Although we have been showing Golden Retrievers since 1983 we didn't exactly rush into breeding.  In 1985 we obtained our kennel prefix and waited until 1996 before we finally whelped our first litter.  This litter produced our Jimi   CH Alnclair Olympic Gym (w. 29/10/96) who gave us so much pleasure in all ways. Since then we have been privileged to produce a number of homebred champions, including Golden Retriever Specialty Best in Show winners in two countries.

In addition to CH St Magol Jye, CH Tulamore Sparkler and CH Taplar Dusky Gleam we have produced multiple homebred champions from our occasional breeding, and have other progeny well on the way to their titles, including some obedience titles.  Our third litter produced Ch Alnclair Maggie May (w. 7/3/98) who made us very proud by becoming a GRAND CHAMPION on 15 November 2003.  This is an extra special achievement as Maggie has also won Best in Show and Runner-Up Best in Show at State Golden Retriever Club level.  Miss Maggie continued to have great success in her mature years including winning Best in Show (and Runner-Up Best in Show) at All Breeds Shows aged over 10 years old.  Her last impressive accomplishment was winning the Reserve Bitch Challenge at the Queensland GRC show in July 2008 at the age of nearly 10 and a half years.

Our state breed club, the Golden Retriever Club of NSW Inc, has a policy that all Goldens involved in breeding programs must be hip and elbow scored, and also have their hearts tested by a Vet Specialist to check for Sub-Aortic Stenosis (SAS) and other heart problems.  The club also requires that breeding Goldens have current clear eye certificates issued by Specialist Vet Ophthalmologists.  Thus we test all our dogs annually before breeding them as some conditions can present later in the dog's life - for example, Posterior Polar Sub Capsular Cataracts (commonly known as "Star Cataracts").  In more recent times some breed-specific DNA tests have become available and we also have these run on our Goldens who are part of our breeding plans.  We fully support the Club's policies and always follow these breeding guidelines, including when allowing our dogs to be used by other people.

Please note the majority of our puppies will be sold on the "Limited Register", and we ask the same price whether the puppy is for a pet or show (they are raised exactly the same way after all.)  Read here for more information on the "Limited Register".  If you would prefer an older Golden, why not contact Wendy at the Golden Retriever Rescue where you may find the perfect adult dog for your family.

Apart from the show ring, we also have Alnclair Goldens competing in Obedience and Agility trials.  They include Alnclair Brave Benson RN and Brie (Alnclair Shooting Star JD ) who lives in South Australia.  Brie has her Jumping Title and is also a star of the stage regularly performing a wonderful role as Sandy in the musical "Annie".   Brie obviously has brains as well as beauty, and we are very proud of her achievements.  Another dog we bred, O. Ch Alnclair Mr Tanner  continues to have a very exciting obedience trialling record to date and we wish Marty all the best for the future.

Our puppy "Aka" (w.13/2/2006 from Missy Alnclair Miss Aisle to Ch Dobro Diamond Edge) graduated as a Seeing Eye Dog in Queensland on November 9th 2007 - a fabulous achievement which reinforces the versatility of this wonderful breed.   Aka's half sisters Nelly and Nina joined him at SEDA in late 2007.  Nina is a working seeing eye dog while Nelly is a much admired public relations dog and ambassador for the SEDA program.  We are honoured that SEDA has approached us for five Goldens to date with the latest successes being two male puppies, Darwin and Dougal, from our litter born 7 June 2010.

See photos & videos of some of our puppies at the Puppies page, & click these links

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l86mFlaCb_s  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dec9Sp8GWRs 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcWqOgdiWQ0  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12LyWr2M-Rk 

to see some VERY brief videos of our big dogs swimming in their personal dam.  

Also check out our darling Maggie on her 12th birthday at home  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQx2hCrLHG0 

     A neighbour wrote a song about Guide Dogs & used video & photos of some of our Goldens.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA77uYy_gQY

LAST (but not LEAST) - although our lives are now huge operational dramas if we want to go away for a "non-doggy" holiday, we wouldn't change a thing!

Wayne & Sharon McGrath 

We hope you enjoy visiting our much loved family.

        

(c) Alnclair Golden Retrievers 2003 - Last updated  23 February 2017

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