If one word could describe our breeding program, it would be diversity. Though our program is a closed one, we endeavor to include as wide as possible a variance within the available gene pool. We could not do this without the openness and generosity of the other Hamilton breeders. Befriending these people, discussing the intimacy of pedigrees and health issues, and sharing their individually unique perspective of the breed has kept us diversified.

Though partners now, Cheryl and I started our adventures with Lhasa Apsos on separate paths. Cheryl had a young family and I was a High School senior when we acquired our first bitches from the same kennel. We later became members of the Ann Arbor Kennel Club and met Camilla Thorne, a Pembroke Corgi breeder and judge. She taught us breeder ethics and the legalities of a breeding program. We learned about sales and stud service contracts, record keeping, the lifelong responsibility to the puppies we produced, and fairness between co-owners. She also demonstrated the strength of saying "no" to persons who were not good prospects to own our breed. At that time, our breeding stock was comprised of Verles, Hamilton, and Luigi pedigrees. Our breeding program had some success and Sharil Lhasa Apsos was granted ROM status by the American Lhasa Apso Club. But along the way we felt the more Hamilton breeding in the pedigree, the more the dogs conformed to the standard. So in the early 1980's, we reduced our breeding stock to the few straight Hamilton dogs we already had and started our search for worthy stock.