In the beginning...
Laurie went looking for a dog to be her companion. She wasn't certain, but she
thought that she might like a Golden Retriever. She went all about asking questions,
for she had many questions, and read many books about pure bred dogs. One day,
she came upon a fine fellow who said that he knew of a Golden puppy that she might
be interested in. Now this puppy was the "pick of the litter" and had been reserved
with a deposit before he was even whelped. But alas, the people who he was being
saved for moved across the land without picking up their prized pup and so the
"pick of the litter" was the last puppy left. Laurie saw this fine pup and it was love at
first sight. Seeing this and only wanting the pup to have a fine home in which he
would be loved, the breeders of this fine pup let Laurie have him at a reduced price
since they had already pocketed the deposit money. Besides that, he was growing
fast and eating them out of house and home. So they cheerfully waved good-bye to
Laurie and her fine new pup. Laurie looked at the handsome Golden pup and said,
"What shall I name you?" His coat was so shiny that it reminded her of the gold that
came from the mountains she had seen in Alaska. Then it came to her. She looked
him in the eyes and said, "You will be Laurie's Yukon Gold."

Yukon matured into a handsome "Hunk of Burning
Love" and became quite a charmer. Rare was the
person or dog that he couldn't win over with his
dynamic personality and humorous antics. He
introduced Laurie to other "Golden People" and they
soon came upon his first serious romantic interest,
Gold-Sun's Whirlwind, although he just knew her as
Lucy. Yukon and Lucy produced many fine offspring
but only one was to stay with Laurie to carry on the
Denali Kennels line while the others went to loving
homes all across the land to be someone else's "Hunk
of Burning Love." Sadly, Yukon and Lucy are no longer
in this world but they wait for Laurie at The Rainbow
Bridge and their Golden spirits are carried on by
Denali's Kenai Kiss and her offspring and her grand
offspring and her great grand offspring.

Laurie's Yukon Gold CDX
The founding father of
Denali Kennels

Denali Kennels today...
Through our contacts in the DFWMGRC, we have been fortunate enough to
introduce excellent bloodlines into the Denali line and feel as though we improve the
breed with each generation. In our efforts to produce healthy animals, we follow
GRCA guidelines by getting hip, cardiac and eye clearances on all of our breeding
stock and insisting that any outside stock that we breed to has proper clearances
also. After health, our next concern is temperament. The Golden breed standard  
describes the temperament as "Friendly, reliable, trustworthy. Hostility or
aggressiveness towards other dogs or people, undue timidity or nervousness in
normal situations is not in keeping with the character of the Golden Retriever." We
develop the proper temperament with a program of breeding only the best tempered
of our Goldens and socializing the pups by whelping and raising them indoors,
giving them daily human contact and love. Of course, the dam and the sire, or a
surrogate sire, are on hand to teach them all they need to know to be a dog, while we
teach them how to be man's companion. Testimonials from our puppy buyers tell us
that we are succeeding in producing excellent family pets. We hardily encourage
everyone to take their dog to, at the very least, basic obedience class. We enjoy
training our dogs to show in obedience competition and have put Obedience titles
on most of our dogs. Lately, we have been making strides in Field training as well as
Confirmation. Q has earned his WC and we now have several UKC Champions. We
feel like it's only a matter of time until we breed "The Great One" that can do it all.

The English connection...
While having a casual conversation with a more experienced breeder, Laurie asked,
"What do you think the next step is that I should take with my breeding program to
improve my line?" Without hesitation he replied that she should get a stud dog from
England. That is what he had done in order to produce many champions. Thinking
that was impossible, she forgot all about it until over a year later, while attending
college, she saw a notice for an English Lit class that would be traveling to England
for two weeks. She quickly signed up for the course and called her mentor to see if
he could give her some breeders to contact while in England. He provided her with
a short list, the most promising of which was John & Jess Clark's Sinnhein Kennel
near Glasgow, Scotland. Laurie fell in love with his dogs, Sebastian & Toddy, as soon
as they retrieved her into the house by grabbing the tail of her sweater and her wrist
and gently tugging. Unfortunately, the Clarks were no longer breeding Goldens, but
John promised to keep in touch and would let Laurie know of any breedings that she
might be interested in. Nearly a year later, the message came that one of
Sebastian's nephews had been bred to one of his daughters at Petsan Kennels near
Manchester. Laurie phoned Ms. Susan Goodwin at Petsan and made arrangements
to purchase a male. John would motor down from Scotland to pick the pup and
Laurie would fly over to bring him home when the time was right. That is how
Petsan Morgon (call name Q) came to Denali Kennels. Q was mentored by Yukon
as a pup and has been adored by the Denali girls ever since. He is a dream come
true.

Denali Kennels Pedigrees & Titles...
Laurie has worked hard lately putting more titles on our pack. Training for
conformation, obedience, rally and field takes many hours each week. Going to
shows a weekend or two each month and bringing  home ribbons and titles makes
all that hard work worthwhile. Her most recent efforts have been at hunt tests. She
passed with Q at an AKC sanctioned WC/WCX to earn his Working Companion
title. Having been thoroughly bitten by the field bug, Laurie took dogs to UKC
sanctioned Hunt Tests on consecutive weekends to earn three legs of Q's Started
title and two legs each for Alice and Tess. She also brought home Puppy Stakes
ribbons for Tana, Tina and Cash. Watch out ducks, here comes Denali!

Denali's Glacial Gaia CGC, CDX, U-CD                      "Gaia"
U-CH Petsan Morgon CGC, CDX, RA, WC, SHR           "Q"
U-CH Denali's Aurora Borealis CGC, CD, U-CD        "Alice"
U-CH Camoflage's Denali Wilderness RN                     "Flo"
U-CH Denali's Talkeetna Tess RN, WC, SHR             "Tess"             
U-CH Denali's Big Dipper CD                                      "Scoop"
U-CH Denali's Tenacious Tanana  CCA, RN, CGC    "Tana"           
U-CH Denali's Mendenhall Martina                               "Tina"
U-CH Denali's Chugiak Cashmere                                  "Cash"

A few words about rescued Goldens...
As responsible breeders, we are active members of our local Golden Retriever
rescue organization, DFWMGRR. Our main contribution is as a Foster Home,
usually long-term while a dog recovers from heartworm treatment or surgery. We
have found this to be quite rewarding. Our experience with rescues has also taught
us to screen our potential puppy buyers very carefully so that the pup's first home is
his or her forever home. Nothing we can do will absolutely guarantee that our
Grand-dogs won't end up in some rescue organization, but we do everything in our
power to keep that from happening. We follow up with our puppy buyers and help
them with any problems that they may be experiencing. We also state in our
contract that, in the event that the buyer has to give the dog up for any reason, they
will bring it back to us and we will find it a new home. I suppose we are lucky in that
this situation has only happened once. We highly recommend that anyone wanting a
Golden Retriever for a pet check with the local rescue in their area as many fine
Goldens are waiting for their "forever" family to come along. They are very loving
animals just wanting someone to return the love to them. They become loyal and
grateful companions over time, making the new family wonder how anyone could
have given them up.