Shinnhill Harper of Marlen

Harper is very special to us. We often joke about her as being the pack “Mom” because she cares deeply for every person and dog in our family. Her exceedingly kind nature and willingness to please is 10/10. Though this is not uncommon to see in a Labrador, Harper possesses many other great characteristics that make her the unique dog that she is.  The intelligence and mental awareness that she possesses not only makes her easy to work with and train, but also makes her reliable and trustworthy. Harper’s retriever training has only just begun but she is already excelling in many aspects of her life with very little effort from a training perspective. She is just an all around lovely dog. 

We spent a year targeting a pup from her sire and were thrilled to import Harper from our friend, Denise, at Shinnhill Labradors in Northern Ireland at 12 weeks old. She is out of Meadowlark Killer Queen (Shinnhill Labradors) and is sired by FTCH Kelmarsky Arkle of Astraglen “Ace”. Ace is regarded as one of the best all around dogs that his owner has produced in his career. Ace was a contender for the 2023 Irish Championship and was awarded a second place finish. Ace's littermate, FTCH Kelmarsky Ash, quickly became an accomplished retriever having placed well in the Irish Championship multiple times and won the Championship in 2022. Both of whom come from the 2020 Irish Kennel Club Retriever of the year, FTCH Kelmarsky Crow. This is just the tip of the iceberg when looking at Harper's background and the caliber of dogs she comes from.