The secret to running a good kennel is having great staff who enjoy coming to work. Our team are absolutely committed to making sure that our puppies receive optimal care and socialisation and that all our breeding dogs have great lives during their years with us. I am very lucky to have such great people to work with.

Alex started with me in May 2014 as a smart, young girl with some experience in vet nursing, and a passion for animals. She has matured into a confident young woman and in 2019 sailed through a vet nursing course while working nearly full time and being a great mum to Lachlan, her 4 year old boy. Alex now works as a nurse in Bathurst and works one day  a week with us assisting with puppy desexing surgery.

Heidi started here in 2015 and very quickly became indispensable. She manages the kennel and is here from Monday to Friday. She oversees the daily operations ensuring that I (and everyone else) do what we should be doing in a timely fashion. I regard Heidi as “the boss” and ask her every morning what I should be doing for the day!

Candice initially became part of the team because I used her pet minding business “Dece the Critter Sitter” to socialise puppies we were keeping for breeding. Then she started work putting the dogs away at night, then she started two mornings a week helping Heidi and providing office support. Now she is also helping me in communication, managing the waiting lists and pretty much running my office. ‘Dece has a degree in Equine Science and is a “crazy horse person” who also like s dogs.

Desiree looks after the kennel on the weekend and is also our handyperson and gardener one day each week. She’s a gun with a drill or hammer, is a great gardener and also has a certificate in conservation and land management, and catering, and education support, and business admin and…….!

Jesse was here longer than anyone except me. He started cleaning the yards every Sunday for us as a youngster when we first brought the dogs here to O’Connell. He lives down the road and when he started he was too young to drive. We thought we’d lose him when he went to Uni but he stuck with us (occasionally bringing a car load of, mostly attractive female, Uni mates to visit the puppies). He went to work in the US (working at Disneyland!) for over a year …. he came back for a while but sadly has gone to Canberra to study.

We keep him here because he was such a great part of our team for so long

Donna looked after the kennel on weekends for some time before she decided it was time to move on and have a life on the weekends. She has started a grooming salon and now comes to us 4 or more times a year to groom all our woolly dogs. Grooming dogs is my least favourite job but Donna makes it look easy. If you live in or near Bathurst and need a good Groomer give us a hoy and I’ll put you in touch

Jacen joined us in 2020 and immediately we knew we had an excellent new team member. Jacen puts the dogs and puppies away most nights, looks after the kennel on Saturday mornings and does the Sunday afternoon cleaning shift. He’s a meticulous and observant worker with a quirky sense of humour (although not good at smiling for photographs). While I think he really prefers his pet pythons and fish, he is terrific with the dogs and occasionally helps out on the farm as well.