|
I bought
my first Belgian Shepherd Dog (Tervueren) in 1990, and I was probably the
luckiest person imaginable. Quite by
chance I managed to get a wonderful puppy, who was a real character, and became
a Champion before she was two years old.
She has formed the foundation of my breeding and even in her great
grandchildren much of her fundamental being shines through. Before that point I only knew the theory of
what the breed was like from what I had read and researched over the previous
couple of years, but in fact that told me very little about the true
character of our wonderful breed. This
is something I have learned about by knowing and loving my own and other
people’s dogs over these years, and they still surprise and amaze me.
When I
was married, my husband and I bred and showed Dobermanns, in a very small
way, and  worked
both Dobermanns and German Shepherds in Working Trials. Some years after my divorce, the dogs I had
taken with me were getting older, so I started planning for the future. I decided that a young Dobermann would be a
bit much for my parents to cope with whenever I went away, so I started
looking at a few other breeds, and paid a visit to Leicester Championship
Show in 1988. Although I had seen a
few Belgians when I had been showing the Dobermanns in the early 1970s, it
was only when I saw them at this show that I realised that they could be the
dog for me. I chatted to a few people
at the show, and arranged to visit some, although none I went to visit either
had puppies or were quite what I was looking for. I was idly looking through the catalogue at
home many months later, when I noticed that a dog called Kyann Blake of
Charbonny CDex UDex had been entered.
Because of the Working trials qualification, I decided to telephone
his owner to ask about what it was like to be working Belgians. That owner was the late Caroline Harvey,
who talked to me about the breed for at least two hours. Her enthusiasm and knowledge were pure joy,
and this was only the first of many pleasurable hours I was to spend talking
with Caroline. By then, my last
Dobermann had died and I had organised a sabbatical at Yale
University in the USA for 5 months. My plan was to get a puppy shortly after I
returned. I had decided a Tervueren
was what I wanted, but Caroline had no breeding plans for that variety, so I
contacted a few other prominent Tervueren kennels, but went away with no definite
puppy booked. Whilst I was away,
Caroline wrote me a six page letter about her dogs and told me she had
decided to mate her young Tervueren bitch ‘Spider’, Paliss Supernatural of
Charbonny, who had been BIS at the BSDA Championship Show from the puppy
class in 1988, to an exciting young dog that had recently been imported by
Janet Andrews and David Brett from Belgium, namely Ninja van de Hoge Laer at
Delator. I booked a bitch puppy and
the mating actually took place the day I landed back in England from the USA, and I thought that this was
an omen. When I got back from the USA
I went to visit Caroline and I met and fell in love with the ‘Blake’ that had
first prompted me to contact Caroline, as well as her other dogs. I attended the BSDA Championship Show
(which was then in October at Solihull) and
met Ninja and many other wonderful dogs who confirmed my decision to have a
Tervueren.
When
Spider’s puppies were born I went to see them when they were about 10 days
old and was enchanted by the smallest bitch puppy, who  was at
that time called ‘Mouse’. I must have
driven poor Caroline insane, visiting whenever I could – I could hardly wait
to take my puppy home. ‘Mouse’ was
small, but strutted about like she owned the world, bossed all her
littermates about and just had that indefinable something that made her stand
out from the others.
She came home with me in January and I called her ‘Wysiwyg’ which soon became shortened
to Wyzzy. Although I was not convinced I wanted to get
back into dog showing, I had promised Caroline I would show her anywhere
within 2 hours drive of home (pretty much everywhere if you live in Central
England). I was seduced, like most
people, in that once Wyzzy started
winning, I took her wherever the judges were good (according to my mentor,
Caroline). Wyzzy amazed us all by winning the bitch CC at only 9 months old
at Richmond,
and followed that at 10 months by winning the bitch CC at the BSDA of GB
Championship show. She was Top Puppy
in 1991, but then dropped all her coat.
At that time, to get a Junior Warrant all the wins had to be between
the ages of 12 and 18 months, but Wyzzy
did not win a single point! However,
eventually the coat grew again, and she took the bitch CC at Richmond in 1992 to
become Ch Charbonny Hedda. She
ultimately won 6CCs and 4RCCs and was Commended Elite. She passed her Good Citizen test and BSDA
Character test too. Most of all she
became my close companion and by showing her I met loads of wonderful people
and got back into the social part of dog showing.
In about 1992/3 Caroline’s life became rather
complicated and she asked me if ‘Blake’,
then aged 12, could temporarily come and live with me. I had broken my leg, and Wyzzy and I were staying with
friends, but nevertheless we went and collected him. In fact, he then stayed with me until he
died aged 14 and it was a privilege to have such a wonderful dog living with
me. Not only had he been a top agility
dog in his day, but also won a CC a Crufts.
He oozed personality, and wherever he went with me people would say
‘Hello Blake’, because he was so
well known. I took him and Wyzzy to a
big charity doggy event at one of the local parks in Leicester,
where Wyzzy was part of a local
display of ‘obedient’ dogs. Whilst we
were working, I left Blake with my mother.
By the time I came back he had a huge admiring crowd round him – he
was that sort of dog. I can remember
taking him to the Lake District on holiday
and taking him paddling in Coniston water – he looked back with pure
enjoyment on his face. He was a great
dog and a wonderful ambassador for the breed.
He also provided a great companionship for Wyzzy. When he was older he went very lame on one
front leg, but he still wanted to go out and about with us.
Back to Profile
Back to Bergeau
Back to HOMEPAGE
|
