Who are we?

MARAGARET AND DAVID HEAN
In the beginning???.

David and I bought our first Golden in 1973. I had shown Labradors from 1966 but Danny (Gunwa Topcard) stayed at home with my parents when David and I married. Connie (Ch Moorfield Constance QC CDX) wasn?t a world beater but was a good all round Golden who gained her title in the show ring, and won her way through to Test C in Obedience and into Open Class in field trials.

Through Connie we learnt heaps and when David obtained his first Golden Ch Markman Aaron QC he started showing. David and Aaron did extremely well taking Specialist Best In Shows, Reserve Best in Shows (Allbreeds Champ) and the challenge at the National as well as winning at field trials.

During the time that our children (Daniel and Rebecca) were young we traveled extensively with our dogs and had some great times camping and showing throughout New Zealand. As the children grew up and started school it became more difficult for us both to travel and David spent more time at home while I continued showing and working the Goldens.

In the 1980?s David?s brother John Hean became interested in Goldens and started to show them and work them as rough shooting dogs. John, Rebecca and I traveled together showing the dogs both in NZ and overseas until John?s untimely death in 1997. John and Rebecca together established the ?Arangolds? prefix and we all still miss John?s dry sense of humour, his knowledge and his company terribly.
Over the years we have been very fortunate to have owned and bred some outstanding Goldens and I feel privileged to have been on the ends of their leads!!

I also feel very fortunate that our daughter Rebecca has inherited our love of the dogs. As well as being my daughter she has become my mentor and my best friend.

Over the years we have made many very special friends world wide through the dogs. Special mention here must go to Glyness and Murray Taylor (Glynmuir Golden Retrievers) who we think of more as family than as friends. I would hate to think how many of our animals, Goldens, Shelties, Abyssinian cats and goats have gone to stay with Murray and Glyness for short periods never to return!!! They fall into what is commonly know as (Granny Glyness??s black hole!!!) At present I believe that Glyness is sharing her bed with Ch Arangolds Extravaganza and Ch Coffee Cream of Arangold.

Over the last couple of years I have not been as active in the showring due to changing work commitments and hamstring injuries. However, it gives me even more pleasure to see dogs that we have bred or that our dogs have sired continuing to do well and to see newer kennels whose foundation stock are based on the knowledge and thought that we have put into carefully planned litters in the past proving their worth in the show ring, obedience ring, agility and field trials.



REBECCA HEAN COOMBES

I was born into the Golden Retriever kennel of Arangold having represented the zone in obedience as a bump, attended a dogshow two days before being born (the judge was the late Ray Curry) and my first outing was to a field trial, to check I wasn't gun shy!

Since then I have handled dogs since I could walk. I was the youngest person to represent New Zealand at Crufts at age 14 and won the International Junior Handler title ? the only NZer to do so. I have worked and trained with a number of the large show and field trial kennels in the UK and a few on the continent.

I have completed my Masters in Veterinary Studies from Massey Uni. I have worked as Breeding Manager at Guide Dog Services and currently work in research at the Auckland University of Technology. My main interests revolve around behaviour and genetics, both of which I have studied extensively. My kennel name is Arangolds, this dates from the time when only two people were allowed to own a kennel name (but you could add an 's' and keep it in the family, and as such my late uncle, John Hean and myself had Arangolds), but is freely interchanged now with Arangold.

I am currently based in Auckland, and my dogs change often between my parents and myself - allowing them the freedom of country living and the bussle of city life (with the exception of my husband's little girl Spirit, who is wrapping Mike round her little paw constantly in Auckland!). This is changing soon, as we are selling our house in the hope of finding some land round Auckland to give the dogs a bit more room, and us the chance to have more than four. They will still get the city life at weekends when not at shows, as they enjoy to cafe scene!! Also, they have been known to spend a lot of time round campus :)

What I count as my two greatest achievements are being breeder of Best In Show winners under Golden Retriever specialist judges such as Mervyn Phillpot, Ruth Thompson, Mr Crosbie, Audrey Richardson and being 'allowed' to show my mother's precious Sean (GrCh Chaterhall Gaelic Gold) at the Rover Supreme (as it was then called) when I was just 10. I probably should add that my other great achievement is finding a man that accepts 'love me, love my dogs, no exceptions, no compromise' and now I find it is difficult to get to a show without him AND he wants to show the dogs!!!