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Tim
Tim has held an active interest in dogs since he was a young child. He has been an active member of the dog community since 1995. He started out with Dalmations, and with the encouragement of a good friend, the late Arlene Valentine, he joined the Lincoln Afghan Club, and was a member until the club dissolved. In 1996, Tim joined the Corn Belt Kennel Club, and has maintained his membership ever since. He was sponsored by noted AKC judge, and then CBKC member, Bill Usherwood, and Arlene Valentine. He has served as a board member, chief ring steward, and has judged several AKC Santion-B matches for CBKC, as well as for other AKC affiliated kennel clubs.
Tim began his AKC show career with an Afghan and a Dalmation at the same time. While PJ, the Dal, never did anything in the ring, Joey, the Afghan, excelled in the ring. Tim, as a newbie, took a Reserve to a major, and then at the next two shows, Joey took breed and placed in the groups, which is almost unheard of, especially back in the 90’s when entries were so high.Tim started with Cocker Spaniels in 1996, with the Pride prefix, and finished his first AKC Champion in 1999, Ch. Krismyth Meriyank Jus Do It. In 2000, Tim finished his first Bred-By Cocker Spaniel,Whitney, Ch. Pride’s I Will Survive. Since 1999, Tim has purchased, bred, and finished a total of 17 AKC Champions, and recently one UKC champion. These numbers do not include the numerous Champion Cocker Spaniels that Tim has bred for other kennels. Over the years Tim has given and lent his expert advice to other breeders, resulting in many champion get for these breeders. He also holds membership with the Miniature Australian Shepherd Club of America, and the North American Miniature Australian Shepherd Club of the USA. In 2004, Tim received a Miniature Australian Shepherd from his good friend Sonya Vanhook, from Artistry Minis. Premier had a stellar career in the showring. As a puppy, Premier won a Reserve Best in Show Puppy, at an IABCA show at Purina Farms, and also 4 Best of Breeds. As an adult, Premier was shown with much success. In the IABCA ring, Premiere took a Group 2, placing over many top specials. Premier finished his MASCA, and NAMASCUSA championships, and received 2 five point majors from Rarities. Later, Premier finished his Rarities championship, ARBA championship, and was awarded the 2007 Nationals Premiere Male. Tim has several minis that will be showing in 2008, and looks forward to campaigning them this year, with the goal to repeat our success. We are working with the Minis, with the ultimate goal of AKC acceptance, as their own breed. Tim is also a certified AKC Canine Good Citizenship Evaluator since 2005. In 2007, Tim decided to immerse himself in the world of Poodles, and joined the Great Lakes Poodle Club of Chicago, with the goal of showing and finishing poodles in the AKC ring. In 2007, Tim decided to start showing in the UKC (United Kennel Club) ring. Since then he has finished our UKC Ch. Roustabout’s Best of Minnesota (Buff Cocker Spaniel), who received a Group 4 placement at the tender age of 6 mos. old, and pointed our silver Standard male, Udo, at 6 months of age also.Tim owns and operates 2 successful grooming salons in the Central Illinois area. He has been grooming professionally since 1997.In 2004, Tim decided to form a kennel partnership with Jimmy Kennard. We both share many goals, and similar views in the world of dogs, and look forward to much success in the near future. From 1996 to 2007 Tim bred and raised Cocker Spaniels under the Pride prefix. After attempting to register the Pride prefix with AKC, and being told that Pride could not be registered due to it being found in the dictionary, Tim and Jimmy made the decision to change our kennel name to BoKen, a combination of our last names. We were granted the BoKen prefix by the American Kennel Club, now making us BoKen, Registered. All future AKC dogs will carry the BoKen prefix. We will continue to use the Pride prefix with our Aussies, since the Pride prefix is registered to us through the breed clubs.Jimmy
Jimmy has also held an active interest in all animals, since early childhood. The love for animals comes natural since Jimmy is the 5th generation of a horse training family. For several summers Jimmy spent a good deal of time on his uncle’s ranch, who raises top performance Quarter Horses, in South Dakota. Jimmy’s grandfather has also raised mustangs on the family ranch for almost 60 years. Jimmy has had the priviledge of training and working with his own horses under some truly great trainers and teachers. Jimmy’s first interest in genetics started when he met a good friend of his, Susan Paulton. For over 30 years she has been working on the recreation of the Spanish War Horse. Through selective breeding, and the strict use of the culling process, she has been able to bring forth a type and breed of horse that had been all but lost for over a century. After seeing what could be accomplished in a horse breeding program in a 30 plus year time frame, Jimmy was inspired to do the same, only in a much shorter period of time. Jimmy decided that he wanted to raise dogs, and shortly thereafter met his kennel partner, and mentor, Tim Bowling.In the short period of time since Jimmy has been raising and showing dogs, he has finished 2 Miniature Australian Shepherds, bred a Best in Show Puppy Miniature Australian Shepherd, finished our Cocker Spaniel male, Ch. Roustabout‘s Best of Minnesota, with 3 competitive wins in a row, at just 6 months of age. Jimmy has also finished a silver male standard poodle, and put a major on our silver standard poodle, Udo, at his first show at 6 months old. Jimmy looks forward to campaigning our up and coming stars, in 2008.Jimmy is a member of several dog-related clubs, which is furthering his education in the world of dogs. He is a member of Corn Belt Kennel Club, Great Lakes Poodle Club of Chicago, Miniature Australian Shepherd Club of America, North American Miniature Australian Shepherd Club of the USA. Jimmy has chosen to show through numerous show venues besides AKC, such as UKC, International, Rarities, NAKC, etc. to prepare him to show abroad. Jimmy looks forward to a long, successful career in the dogs, and we are sure that you will hear much more from him, not only as a great breeder, but also as a successful competitor in the competition ring, in the near future. About Us
