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.

Brooke has been involved with developing the White Shepherd in Australia since 2000 and also been heavily involved in many disciplines in dog training and behaviour for over 25 years.  

Brooke has also rescued, rehabilitated and re-homed dogs in need, fostering for rescues, as well as trained in a myriad of dog sports, such as sheep herding, lure coursing, tracking, agility, obedience and protection work.

During her time involved in dogs, Brooke has been on National television, a guest on 3AW radio and written articles in several national dog magazines and been featured in the Herald Sun newspaper.  Over the years, Brooke has held prefixes with the ANKC and been a member of Dogs Victoria over the years (not current), as well previously running her her own professional pet photography business in Melbourne.

Brooke has hosted and judged the Swedish Aptitude Testing and Dog Mentality Assessments during her time with the Australian White Shepherd Club, which she founded in 2000. She have 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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She was originally 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, and is continuing doing the same with the Lykos breed in development.

Even though her involvement in dog sports has reduced in recent years due to family and work commitments, Brooke continues to take her passion in dogs very seriously.

Dogs bred by Brooke are on record for having the best hip/elbow/DNA and temperament results in the country while breeding purebred White Shepherds.  This took over 20 years of hard work, money. extensive research and sacrifice, as well as fantastic relationships with our puppy owners, all working together as a team.  

Over the years, Brooke has leased stud dogs from abroad, imported frozen semen from America, Germany and Italy.  She has also exported her dogs 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 Australian bred whites 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's successes in developing the White Shepherd breed in Australia and contributions to overseas breeding programs, was enough for her to be able to slow down her breeding program as she felt she improved the quality of the breed up to a very high standard . So now Brooke only breeds her exclusive White Shepherd lines every few years to continue on her precious, original lines.

Brooke believes a breeder should always breed 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 and knowledge, 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 in helping protect their puppies and bloodlines, by using official legal puppy sale contracts, which protects them from ending up in the hands of backyard breeders, rescues, pounds or shelters. 

Brooke has successfully trained and rehabilitated rescue dogs with severe behavioural issues over the years and found them loving, family homes. She has taken on these dogs of her own accord and at no charge or profit. 

In 2014, Brooke had an accidental litter of Husky/White Shepherd (these pups did not form part of the Lykosia breeding program). The Husky was not a 'rescue', but Brooke just wanted to help the lady owner find good home for him as he was escaping her property. Mixing breeds was horrific to Brooke at the time, as in former years had been very outspoken and negative about mixing breeds, being a purebred dog breeder. Brooke began researching what this unexpected mix would look like... and discovered other wolfy breeds overseas, such as the Northern Inuit (1980ies) and Utonagan (est 1987), which are also not officially recognised by a kennel club. 

Brooke loved the look of the type of dogs overseas, but discovered that importing one was off the table due to the Australian Government not permitting dogs with wolf content into the country. After considerable research, Brooke decided to plan the breeding program in Australia to create a dog with beautiful wolf looks, focussing on health and sound temperament.  Brooke chose the name "Lykos" due to its contemporary feel, plus it also means "wolf" in Greek (liekos/lyk). The breed name is also trademarked - a first for any dog breed in Australia.

Priority is given to the best health of course, 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 that 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 bred carefully and selectively, using all available scientific methods of health testing including full DNA screening and hip/elbow x-rays. From the commencement of the Lykos breeding program, dogs were hip/elbow x-rayed and DNA tested.

Brooke's first generation Lykos litter was born in 2015, after writing the Breed Standard and blue print for the breed in 2014.  This litter surpassed all expectations, both in looks and temperament!  Even when they were still babies, Brooke noticed they were very different to the purebred breeds. They were quieter, much more laid back and easy-going - exactly what she was aiming for!  It was a great success to have such an amazing, well created foundation in the Lykos breed! Even early in the breeding program, Lykosia has produced scent detection dogs, sports dogs, dogs used in commercials/advertising, therapy dogs, assistance and service dogs.
 
Lykosia do not endorse breeders who keep kennels full of dogs and breed them for commercial profit. Puppy buyers should always ask breeders how many dogs they have.  In Victoria, our Animal Welfare Laws are strict, and rightfully so, as it aims to stop puppy farming which is rife in other States.  Animals cannot simply live their best lives when kept like livestock in small cages/enclosures. We strongly believe dogs should be cherished family companions, given the best opportunity for a wonderful life - raised 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 and have proven to be legally enforceable. Lykosia will always take puppies back and find them a good home if owner's cannot keep them for any reason.

At this point in time, Brooke embarks on 9 successive generations (20+ years) of hard work and research with these special and unique bloodlines. They were founded based on her original purebred White Shepherd bloodlines. With a history of intense research, no expense was been spared in sourcing the world's most quality, reliable foundation dogs.  Their ancestors excelled in jobs as guides for the blind, therapy, service, police, and search & rescue.  We have purposefully selected these lines as the foundations of the Lykos, directly in line with our vision and goals.

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, genetic science, creativity and art learnt over the course of over two decades, combined with selective breeding for a specific temperament, type and other qualities. 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.