About Brackendell Golden Retrievers

Tony and I have been involved in the dog world for decades. We are ANKC registered and have been members of DogsSA for close to thirty years. Previously, we have both served on the committee of the Golden Retriever Club of SA (GRCofSA) and the Gundog Club of SA.

While on the committee of the GRCofSA I maintained the website GRCofSA as well as the Caring Canine Companions for a time.  Tony and I were passionately involved in GRCofSA  Fundays spending much of our time grooming Goldie’s for the members and I also passed several dogs with the Caring Canine Companions and visited nursing homes.  Tony was also a qualified micro-chipper and dog hugger wherever he went !

Tony’s interest was club focused, he loved donating his time to improve things for everyone involved in the dog world. He served as a member and, eventually, the president of the Gawler Kennel Club for many years. He volunteered his time as a steward at the DogsSA DotY PotY Shows until his untimely passing in 2019.

We have been involved with showing over the years with success with our dogs gaining Class in Group and In Show winners, Runner-up Best In Show, and Royal Show Best of breed along with many other awards at champ show level.

As well as exhibiting our dogs in the show ring, we felt it was important to also maintain the working ability of our breed. Therefore, we have been actively involved in multiple other dog sports including Obedience, Agility, Flyball, Retrieving and Endurance with our Golden’s and have had multiple titled dogs in many of these sports over the years.  Early on, I was a member of Gepps Cross Dog Training Centre and eventually became an obedience instructor,  served on the committee and edited the club newsletter.   We joined Golden Grove Obedience Dog School and was also an obedience instructor for a time there.  My family was also involved in Flyball when it was first introduced into SA and one of our dogs was a part of the first Flyball team to complete at the Royal Adelaide Show.

We are proud to say that Brackendell have bred a number of dogs that have served as Therapy Dogs, Prevent a Dog Bite dogs and Nursing home visiting dogs over the years.

In more recent years Lydia and I teamed up to run a heart/eye and DNA clinic for our breed in SA which went very well, we are planning another one this year and working on  adding All Breeds to the clinic

Our litters are planned with temperament, conformation, and soundness in mind. With thoughtful, well researched selections, our expectations are a biddable, friendly, intelligent pup that will grow into a sound, well-tempered, loving dog with working ability. Often, we intend to keep a pup from the litter, so when we breed, we look for these qualities in our girls and the same in the stud dogs we use.

Brackendell dogs are from good healthy quality Australian, English & European lines and are tested for hereditary problems in our breed. Our dogs are of sound temperament, and are all hip, elbow, eye, heart, and full panel DNA tested for hereditary problems. We do not breed for colour as every litter can have colours ranging in the breed standard from Cream to Gold (but not red or mahogany).