Bertschire Flat Coated Retrievers was founded by Mark and Nancy
Cavallo of Atlanta Georgia.  Andrea Holsinger bought her first Flat
Coat, CH Bertschire's Cotswold Chaos CD TD JH WCX HOF from
Nancy in 1984.
Chaos 

Chaos went on to win a Sporting Group, as well as multiple Group placements, and to win 2 Best of Breeds at the prestigious Westminster Kennel Club dog show.  When Andrea wanted to start breeding flat coats, she and Nancy decided she should breed under the Bertschire kennel name. Their first litter together produced a single puppy: Ch.Bertschire's The One And Only WC.  Maddie became the foundation for the current Bertschire bloodline.  Among her children and grandchildren are Sporting Group winners, a UDX title, FCRSA Hall of Fame inductees, Senior Hunters, national specialty winners and cherished companions.

Maddie contributed soundness, longevity, great health and exceptional side movement to the Bertschire breeding program.  Bred to four different stud dogs, her children and grandchildren have proven valuable in many different areas. 

In the years since Maddie's first litter hit the ground running, it has been a great adventure meeting the wonderful people who have given our puppies loving homes.  Since that time, we have also diversified our breeding program, bringing in bitches from other kennels to add talent and breed type, while still maintaining Maddie's legacy.  Most notably, CH Twin Oak's Joyeaux Noelle, generously shared by Joan Sharpe of the famous Twin Oaks kennel, has produced very typey and trainable litters for us.  Ellie was killed while being shipped for her last breeding, and she is sorely missed.  We are hoping that her daughters, Venus and Serena, will be able to contribute as much in breed type as Ellie herself did, and we have some very good sons of Ellie's as well.

Donna Slavin joined the Bertschire family in 1991, when she chose "Redneck" (CH Bertschire's Full Spectrum UDX JH NA WCX HOF) from Maddie's first litter.  Redneck went on to win a Sporting Group 1 (and many other placements), High Combined at the 1997 national specialty and Judge's Award of Merit in both Best of Breed and Steady Singles competition at the 1998 national specialty.

Donna also co-owns LeRoy (Ch Bertschire's Bad Bad LeRoy Brown NA), Bones (CH Bertschire's Bad To The Bone), Slick (CH Bertschire's One Last Lick CD SH WCX) and Birdman (Bertschire's Flew The Coop) with Andrea.

In 1998, Kass Goulding moved in with Andrea and also joined the Bertschire family.  Kass has been in dogs since 1973, and brings nearly 20 years of field training experience (she owns and operates Pacesetter Training Kennel and has earned multiple Junior, Senior and Master Hunter titles on flat coats, goldens and Labradors).  Kass' dogs include her first flat coat, "Dash" -CH Driftwood's Negative Space CDX SH WCX, "Danger" - CH Amani High Voltage CD MH WCX, "Shinda" - CH Mshinda Wa Amani CD MH AX OAJ WCX HOF (winner of FCRSA Steady Singles Championship in 1996, and winner of a Judge's Award of Merit at the 2003 national specialty), and "Rocket" - Amani High Velocity SH WCX.  Kass is co-owner of many of the Bertschire dogs.

Bertschire's latest venture has been overseas.  We are integrating our imports into our existing breeding program, and have been very pleased with the results so far!  Our Dutch and Swedish lines are producing favorably in all areas, so we will continue to judiciously cross imports into our "old" Bertschire lines.

5 week old pup getting some love!