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 time 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 her son Lachlan. 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 has recently dropped back to four days a week. 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 (known to everyone as Dece) initially became part of the team because I used her pet minding business “Dece the Critter Sitter” to socialise puppies. Then she started work putting the dogs away at night, then she started two mornings a week helping Heidi and providing office support. That’s when I realised she has a degree in animal science, a memory like an elephant and she’s very good at organising things.  These days she is my Office Manager. She manages communication, the waiting list the, wages, she’s pretty much made me redundant.

Desiree (Des) maintains our gardens and is our “handyperson”. 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…….!

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 we knew from the start that  we had an excellent new team member. These days he shares kennel management with Heidi three days a week  and also does afternoon shifts. He’s a meticulous and observant worker with a quirky sense of humour (although not good at smiling for photographs). While I think he may really prefers his pet pythons and fish, he is terrific with the dogs and occasionally helps out on the farm as well.

Hannah. Hanna started working for us just before she started her HSC year in 2023. She’s a local farm girl and has a certificate in animal studies. She works part time, putting dogs away in the evenings and helping Heidi in the kennel. She’s competent and reliable and I fear that we will lose her to higher studies sometime soon, but in the mean time she is an excellent team member.

Allison also started in late 2023 and is finishing her HSC in 2025. She works on the weekends. She is great with the dogs and they love her. I’m hoping she’ll do an animal based TAFE course in 2026 (and get her driver’s licence) so we can give her more work.