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Shenandoah and YNDA today:
Shenandoah is
owned by Andy and Dr. Marti Anderson.
We specialize in English lines--field
retrievers, family companions, beautiful show dogs.
WE IMPORTED OUR FOUNDATION FEMALES FROM ENGLAND.
To see a pictorial history of our current bloodlines click on the link above.
Our labs live in the house, swim in our pond, and hunt with Andy.
all our breeding stock is
certified thru OFA and CERF
all of our labradors are Optigen A1 -- either tested or by parentage
Because Shenandoah is a National Park, a River, a County, an AKC Kennel Club,
and an incorporated town in VA,
we were not allowed to Register the name
Shenandoah with AKC as a kennel affix.
Consequently we have chosen to register
the new generations
of Shenandoah Labradors under the affix of
YNDA which is an anagram of Andy.
This has been recognized by AKC as a proprietary affix.
Our Labs Are Our Pets. Temperament
is very important to us.
We are a small, select kennel, keeping about a dozen labradors,
periodically offering
top quality Labradors to the fancy.
We sometimes
have started older dogs and occasionally have pups.
Andy is
an AKC Licensed Judge (for labradors) and
Marti Anderson, PhD is a retired Counseling
Psychologist.
Marti is a UKC Licensed Conformation and Junior Showmanship Judge.
We are very active in the AKC dog community,
Andy is a member of the
'parent' lab club LRC, Inc
Marti is a member of the 'parent' Ridgeback club, RRCUS.
We are both members of the Boykin Spaniel 'parent' club, BSCBAA.
Andy is a Founding Member of the Potomac LRC.
We are happy to serve as mentors to folks
wanting to learn about showing and breeding Labradors.
We are proud to be the founders of
the first UKC affiliated Labrador Specialty Club,
United Labrador
Retriever Association, ULRA
and
authors of THE LABRADOR RETRIEVER STUDY GUIDE.
We are ardent supports of St Francis of Assisi Service Dog
Foundation.
History
the first 20 years of Shenandoah Champions:
Shenandoah Labrador Retrievers,
was established 1969 in Norfolk England
by Kenneth E. "Andy" and the late Doreen Lea Anderson.
Using English Field Champion Ballyduff lines crossed to Ballyduff show lines,
they crafted their foundation
which they used with little augmentation
to produce the first 20 years of
Shenandoah champions.
Andy and Doreen were the
first conformation exhibitors that we know of,
to bring Ballyduff bloodlines to the USA.
The females they brought with them in 1970 to America were steeped in
"Ballyduff" lineage.
In 1970, they brought
to America
their 2 CH Ballyduff Hollybranch of Keithray (see below)
daughters
that they had bred and whelped in England.
Those "Ben" daughters were
CH Shenandoah Spritely Dianah "Sprite" and Shenandoah Ebon Empress "Emp",
and were out of
Andy and Doreen's Ballyduff FCH
granddaughter,
Shenandoah Jet Lady, "Dusty", bred and whelped in the Liverpool area.
Shortly after returning to the States,
they imported Curnafane Buoy,
"Marker", a Mark son, and also
Ballyduff Barnes of
Shenandoah -- both from Mrs. Docking.
Ballyduff
Barnes of Shenandoah finished his AKC
CH by going WD at Potomac in 1979.
Several years after Shenandoah
had imported Ballyduff Barnes,
a female from a repeat breeding of Barnes' litter came to the USA. She was Ballyduff Lark.
Eng CH Ballyduff
Hollybranch of Keithray "Ben"
Empress was Ben's daughter, and it was Emp's daughter,
Tuppence -- CH
Shenandoah Ebon Echo --
who became the Shenandoah trademark and icon.
Tuppence was sired by Eng & AKC CH Kimvalley Kenbarra Mr Softee.
Tuppence was bred to Barnes just once,
and this produced a litter
whose
descendents can be found in numerous pedigrees today
-- including Flying Cloud Taipan and
dogs in the Fantasy, Hennings Mill, and some West Coast lines.
The Hennings Mill connection came through a striking pup from that litter
--
Shenandoah Dinar Tite --
who went to the Tite kennel at about the same time
their import Ballyduff Lark arrived.
Although she won her American Bred
class at the Potomac
when shown their by her Shenandoah breeders,
Dinar was not used by the "now renamed" Tite kennel,
who quietly loaned her out to Hennings Mill.
It is through Dinar that the connection to Flying Cloud Taipan
and BISS CH
Ruthless Blazing Brently can be found.
The last dogs -- an entire litter except one --
of the
old Shenandoah Ballyduff lines remained at Shenandoah
until the death of the
last one in 1998.
They were produced from a breeding of
Sprite's son at
Fantasy Labradors to a daughter of Dinar.
The remaining dog went to Whidbey
Island, Washington
to become the companion of Doreen and Andy's Grandson, Nate.
Hobson became Nate's introduction to Labradors,
and now we have another
generation of Andersons who adore labs.
Among that litter was one girl who earned her CD in 3 consecutive trials with
Andy,
and brought home the last title on a Shenandoah lab that Doreen was to witness.
A yellow female English import
from Mr. Belshaw's
Strinesdale kennel -- Melody --
was the last surviving dog from the old
Shenandoah labs.
Melody was with us until she was 15 years old -- in 2000.
At age 14, she competed in the Veterans' Class at LRC Piedmont,
and brought the
entire crowd to its feet
as she gaily wagged her way around the ring with her beloved Andy.
our dear friend, Strinesdale Melody
There were few dry eyes among us
as we all knew this last ring appearance was
the end of an era for Shenandoah.
Shenandoah Labs
have always been about hunting upland game birds in season with Andy.
They
have always been about showing in conformation, with Andy and Doreen.
They
have always been about competing in obedience, working as service dogs,
and
often as foundation stock for other kennels.