Over the last 50 years the Halsted family have been deeply involved in the dog training world.

John Has been interested in dogs from a very young age, following on from his father he went into the family business and to this date still breeds trains and runs dogs competitively.  John got his first dog when he was 6.

In 1987 John ran in his first competition and won 1st place and since then has continued to win. He qualified for the IGL Retriever Championship firstly in 1992 and since then has qualified every year, John is the first and only  person to qualify for 25 consequtive years in a row, a feat never before accomplished. In addition to qualifying John has also won 25 times

John has also been a strong member of the England international gundog team which have taken the trophy on many occasions and continues to push to better the family name.

Johns Father, John Halstead Snr first entered the field trial world in 1968 and won 2nd place and hasn’t stopped winning since then, a few years later his wife Sandra also started running dogs alongside. Since then they have continued to push and improve, both qualified (A) Panel Judges and have also Judged the I.G.L. Retriever Championships. Sandra won the Retriever Championships in 1979 and has been a member of a winning England international gundog team on many occasions.

John Snr is known mainly for his Labradors but he has had an interest in many other gundog breeds, he has competed in field trials succesfully with Labradors, Flatcoats, Golden Retrievers and English Springer Spaniels.

John Snr has won the IGL Retriever Championships on four occasions, by doing this he won the championship challenge cup, he re-presented it to the I.G.L. for perpetuity. He then won again in 1992.