Laureate.ca
Title
Laureate Shelties, Ontario Canada
Description
We have been breeding Shelties with the Laureate Prefix since 1987. Prior to that, Kim had Gordon Setters. Her first Gordon, Can. Ch. Grianan Keltic Shelagh, had a litter in 1980 and again in 1982. From the first litter came Kim's first homebred Champion, Can. Ch. Grianan Morgan, co-owned with Margaret Bocking (Shelagh's breeder). In 1987, both Gordons passed away and we were looking for a dog for our new home. Kim's family had Shelties and Peter was very taken with them, so we went looking for a show prospect. We purchased Wyndspell Aston Ceilidh from Wanda Holmes in Cardinal Ontario. Ceilidh was one of the smartest dogs we’ve ever known and soon obtained her CDX and two Dog World awards. She had a beautiful soft expression, but after a trip to the U.S. National, we decided that she wasn’t what we wanted in a foundation female. The trip to the National put us in contact with Chris Lynch of Westwind Shelties in California and several months later we were able to purchase a young female, who became the foundation for Laureate Shelties.
"Holly" was 14 inches and had tremendous quality. After her first litter it was evident that she consistently passed along her good qualities, which is very rare in Shelties. She is an American Shetland Sheepdog Association Top Producing Dam, and is the ONLY Sheltie female to have both the ROM (Record of Merit) and ROMC (Record of Merit Canada) titles. She has produced six American and eleven Canadian Champions to date, and her full name is American/Canadian Champion Krystalyn Just An Illusion, ROM/ROMC.
Holly’s first litter produced the multiple Specialty Best of Breed winner and multiple Best in Show winner, Am/Can Ch. Laureate Starlight Express along with her Specialty winning sister, Am/Can Ch. Laureate Search Party. Starlight Express, or “Sparkle” as she was known around the house, was the Top Sheltie in Canada and also the Top conformation dog in the Herding Group in 1995. That was the ONLY time a Sheltie has ever topped the Herding Group! She also won Best of Breed at the Canadian Shetland Sheepdog Association National Specialty.
