Since 2000, Brooke has played an integral role of the development of the White Shepherd blood lines in Australia and on an international scale. She has extensive experience in training and behaviour and has displayed breeding ethics of the highest calibre, resulting in Australia's soundest and healthiest White Shepherds.  She is now also using that experience and knowledge to also develop the Lykos...

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For Brooke, dogs have always been an integral part of her life.  Since she was a small child, her passion has been animals, nature and all its intricate, yet immense beauty and wonder. Growing up, Brooke always had canine companions in her life, mixed breeds and purebreds alike.

At Lykosia, our 5 dogs live inside with our family and have free range of our large backyard. They are cherished family members. We are very active with their training and take them hiking, camping, to our local beaches and forests. We feed our dogs a combination of balanced raw (vegetables, organs and fruit) as well as premium kibble. They are our life and the biggest loves! Our Lykos dogs are only bred once (or twice) and we continue the next generation with the pick of the litter puppies to continue to progress our bloodlines.

Breeding is not our 'job'. It's our passion and hobby to develop our bloodlines, which we have enjoyed for many years. We run our own business as an art and home decor brand, as well as Peninsula Pawtraits Pet Photography. We feel that no breeder should be breeding for an income - a controversial opinion (and hated by some who partake in this kind of business), but we believe dogs deserve more than being used as "breeding machines".

The Lykos is made up of several purebred dog breeds but contain traces of (but not limited to) the German Shepherd Dog, Alaskan Malamute and Siberian Husky as predominant breeds, carefully selected for a specific temperament, their health, type and trainability.

More about the history of the breed and it's developed can be found on the webpage of the Lykos Wolfalike Council of Australia here. 

Lykosia do not endorse breeders who keep kennels full of dogs and breed them for commercial profit. We strongly oppose over-breeding and unethical breeding. We have been outspoken in our views surrounding this, which has attracted some controversy and opposition from people partaking in this activity.

In Victoria, our Animal Welfare Laws are strict, and rightfully so, as it aims to stop puppy farming which is rife, particularly in other States of Australia.  Animals cannot simply live their best lives when kept like disposable livestock in small cages/enclosures. We strongly believe dogs should be cherished family companions, given the best opportunity for a wonderful life - raised, developed and trained the right way.

No puppies bred by Lykosia will ever end up in a rescue organisation or shelter. This is written into the puppy sale contracts, which are legally enforceable. We protect our puppies, their bloodlines and will always stand by our word. Lykosia will always take puppies back and find them a good home if owners cannot keep them for any reason. We care for our puppies and their wellbeing - for LIFE.

Over the years, Brooke has rescued, rehabilitated and facilitated rehoming of dogs in need, as well as also fostered for rescues and continues to support these organisations through her love of animals.

She has trained in a myriad of dog sports, including sheep herding, lure coursing, tracking, agility, obedience and protection work. Over the years, Brooke has also shown dogs in conformation and had her pups have achieved numerous working and conformation titles in Australian and overseas.

BLOODLINES

At this point in time, Brooke embarks on 9 successive generations (25 years) of hard work and research with her unique, generational bloodlines.

With a history of intense genetic research, no expense was been spared in sourcing the world's most quality, reliable foundation dogs which made up her White Shepherd breeding program.  Their ancestors and relatives excelled in jobs as guides for the blind, therapy, service, police, and search & rescue. They also had working titles such as FH1, FH2 (tracking), BH/VT (traffic-sure companion dog test), SCHH1, SCHH2, SCHH3 (protection), IPO3, (International highest level working trial qualification),  including FCI World Show Winners.  These bloodlines have purposefully been selected as the foundations of the Lykos, but focussing on lower drives but high trainability for experienced working dog owners.

During her time involved in dogs, Brooke has:
* been on National television for breed interviews
* a guest on 3AW radio
* written articles in several national dog magazines
* been featured in the Herald Sun newspaper
* held prefixes with the ANKC and been a member of Dogs Victoria over the years (not current)
* run her her own professional pet photography and art and wallpaper businesses in Melbourne.
* hosted and judged the Swedish Aptitude Testing and Dog Mentality Assessments during her time with the White Swiss Shepherd Dog Club, which she founded in 2000.
* written many articles on behaviour, training and breeding which have been shared around the world on many websites over the years in the early days.
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Brooke was an Australian Representative for the White Shepherd Genetics Project in 2001 and kept a National database of all health records for White Shepherds in Australia. She is also keeping the same type of database while developing the Lykos breed.

Dogs bred by Brooke are on record for having the best hip/elbow/DNA and temperament results in the country during her time focussing on breeding purebred White Shepherds.  This took decades of hard work, money, extensive research and sacrifice, all while having fantastic relationships with puppy owners - all working together as a team for breed improvement.

Brooke's extensive experience with White Shepherds has also included leasing stud dogs from abroad, importing frozen semen from America, Germany and Italy.  She has also exported them and frozen semen to Italy, Hawaii, Sweden, Netherlands and Finland, as well as helping other breeders in Russia by providing them with new bloodlines (for free), solely for the improvement of the breed on a world-wide scale.
 
Brooke's White Shepherds were the first Australian exports to be accepted by the World Kennel Club (FCI) as the worldwide new breed, the White Swiss Shepherd Dog.  Brooke continues to breed White Shepherds every few years to preserve their legacy and continue the quality of the purebred bloodline.

Brooke believes a breeder's goal should always be to improve/develop their chosen breed, with correct conformation, temperament, health, type and overall soundness being top, equal priorities.

This requires a lot of research, acquired knowledge, networking, continuous learning and a lot of dedication.  If you put enough time, money, knowledge and determination, with a willing attitude of continuous learning into your passion, you can succeed in your visions and goals.

Over the past 25 years, Brooke has been an outspoken figurehead in responsible dog breeding, promoting responsible ownership and training.  She also actively promotes and mentors other breeders, as well as advocating against backyard breeding by using puppy sale contracts, which protects them from ending up in the hands of backyard breeders, rescues, pounds or shelters. 

Contrary to common belief, "purebred" does not always mean "well bred". We have known purebred, registered  breeders breeding dogs with poor temperament and poor health and who have raised puppies in terrible conditions, while also constantly having puppies available. It is also a well-known fact that even dogs with championship titles may not necessarily be sound in conformation and temperament either.

There is no such thing as the "perfect" dog. The only way to know is meet the parents yourself and do your research.

In 2014, Brooke reached out to people who had advertised they had imported Tamaskans into Australia. They said the dogs were timid and had other undesirable traits, which was not something Brooke wanted to adopt in the Lykos breeding program.

Brooke loved the look of the type of all these dogs from overseas, and in 2017 and 2018, Brooke further researched overseas Northern Inuits and Tamaskans, hoping to find some with no wolf content that may be able to be imported into Australia. This endeavour proved fruitless for her, as they all ended up having wolf content or recent wolves or wolf-dogs in their lineage.

After considerable research, Brooke opted to develop the breeding program in Australia without any wolf content. She was the first breeder to do this in Australia.

Priority is always given to excellent health but also high trainability and calm, easy temperaments, with the versatility to perform service work and dog sports. The purpose is to breed healthy dogs, who make great family pets and easily fit into the average Australian family lifestyle.

With so much going on in the news regarding the declining health of many purebred breeds, the Lykos is selectively bred, using all available scientific methods of health testing including full DNA screening and hip/elbow x-rays as the bare minimum. From the commencement of the Lykos breeding program, dogs were hip/elbow x-rayed and DNA tested or cleared by parentage.

In 2015 Brooke was offered a female Czechoslovakian Wolfdog for the Lykos breeding program, called Kita. Her breeder was the original person who imported them into Australia. After their import, the Australian Government made it illegal to import Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs.  A couple of other breeders have continued these original Czech bloodlines, breeding brother and sister and diluting out the breed by crossing them with other breeds. Kita was a lovely girl, but Brooke found she had concerning traits such as severe separation anxiety and wanting to escape. Kita's other littermates were also advertised for sale at the time by owners due to their difficult breed traits. Due to these traits and knowing that temperament traits are highly inheritable, Brooke decided not to use Kita or any other Czech Wolfdog in the development of the Lykos breeding program.

Breeding is not just a matter of breeding a couple of attractive dogs together - even if they pass health test results. It's a combination of knowledge about conformation and structure, pedigrees, canine behaviour knowledge and genetic science learnt over the course of over two decades. This is also what makes our breeding program so unique, our long-term dedication to our dogs, multi-generational breeding and consistency of type, health and temperament.

This, also combined with selective breeding for a specific temperament, structure, conformation, type and other qualities bought the Lykos to life.

​​Our dogs attend pack walks and get togethers with other dogs and Lykos Wolfalikes. You are more than welcome to come along to one of these friendly get togethers to meet our dogs, other owners and relatives.

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We work in close consultation with some of the best veterinary specialists in the country and the Lykos Wolfalike Council of Australia Inc, of which we are registered breeders of.

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A select few of our puppy family work together with us to develop and improve the breed in the next generation under very reasonable breeding terms.

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Our signature Lykosia coat colours are silver and timberwolf agouti / wolf sables, wolf grey and white pups with brown, amber or light gold eyes, resembling the true wolf "look".

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Our bloodlines are amazing family pets who have also proven their working ability.

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​​When you have a puppy from us - you are part of our Lykos family! Our owners and their dogs develop long lasting friendships with us and other owners. We have a brilliant online community of Lykos Dog Owners (Facebook Group) from all around Australia, with some international (exported) Lykos owners too!

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We abide by Victoria's State's Pet and Welfare Codes including the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1986, The Domestic Animals Act 1994 and the Code of Practice for the Private Keeping of Dogs.

We are full audited members of Responsible Pet Breeders Australia and the Lykos Wolfalike Council of Australia and comply with their Code of Ethics.