Page 68 - Aussie Magazine - 2023 Issue 2

Interview
never achieved anything and I would think to
myself that I’d love to get my hands on him, he
gave me goosebumps and at that time I didn’t
know fate would bring us together a year later.
When I lost Austin I was broken. He was my
everything I’m even filling up as I write this. I am
so grateful to Dori and Kerry for allowing me to
campaign Mark and for his co-owner, John for
seeing what we saw and taking him on.
We had the best 12 months together. He came
to me about 3 weeks before Crufts which was to
be our debut. I’m not going to lie, I had my work
cut out. His coat wasn’t great, in fact his coat was
my biggest challenge to date. It was a very dry
coat and took a lot of work, but I like a challenge
and we went to Crufts. He took BOB G4 that day
and went on to win Top Dog all breeds 2019 and
2020 although we only had 3 shows in 2020.
It was agreed that Mark would live his days out
as our family pet and enjoy the quiet life. He had
done quite a lot of travelling around the globe
and deserved to chill out, so I started to look
for my next show dog and like fate had brought
Mark into my life it too did the same with Viking.
Viking also hit the ring in style winning his first
CC and BOB from a puppy. He went on to be Top
Pastoral 2021 and third Top Dog all Breeds, he
currently holds the Male record.
I often get asked what I feed my
dogs and how do I keep them
fit? Sorry I don’t have any secret
regimes or any magic potions.
68 | A Worldwide Magazine for the Aussie • Issue 2/2023
You are showing a lot – your dogs are always
on TOP in year ranking in UK. Are you showing
also in another European countries? What is the
greatest distance you have ever travelled or the
most interesting place you have visited?
I’ve shown a few times in Europe and really enjoy
it it’s great to compete against other dogs and
also see what dogs are around about whether its
looking for the next dog to campaign or looking
for new lines to add to our breeding programme.
I think the most fun show we attended was the
Split 4 Summer Night Shows. A group of us went
with a small team. I was showing Austin at the
time, he was still in Junior and ended up winning
Supreme Junior Best In Show. We had so much
fun I think everyone needs to go. Where else can
you sunbathe on the beach by day and show by
night. I could never imagine anything like that
being done here in the UK. I think we arrived
back from Split and immediately booked the
WDS in Milan, but this time we took the Beagles
as well. They did super, winning both Dog and
Bitch and I made the cut in the group. In Aussies
Austin actually stood 2nd in the Open class to
Quizz, which was a huge honour for me. I finally
got to see Quizz in the flesh and of course the
legendary Rowan winning BOB.
You have been showing USA shows too – is it
very different system (atmosphere) to compare
it with UK / European shows?
In 2018 Lee and I decided to travel around the
USA, Actually, I was bored at work one day and
said I have a great idea. Let’s sell our house,
buy an RV and travel around the USA for a year.
We can take Austin and I can show him. Lee
agreed so I think the USA is the farthest we have
travelled and we did some travelling starting
in Florida, crossing over to the west coast, up
into Canada and ending the trip in New York
where we got to stay with Austins Breeder
Betsy. On the way I got to show Austin
at the USASA which was amazing and
also at Woofstock where we actually
took BOB from the classes. This
was his last show. I think the AKC
and FCI are similar as both have
a Champions class or Best of
Breed class but I think the