Well, where do I
start......
I'm 28 and am lucky
enough to live in rural Essex where dog walks are a plenty.
I work from home so am fortunate that our dogs are very
rarely left on their own and never for long. We are also
lucky in that we have a large garden too, which is put
to good use as you can imagine with 4 dogs tearing around
it on a daily basis (ok, 3 dogs - Layla doesn't do tearing!)
For as long as I can remember I have always been animal
mad! We were brought up with a variety of pets, a shed
full of rabbits & guinea pigs who were bred and shown,
cats who had a few litters between them and not forgetting
Nicky the budgie!!
However the one
animal I always longed for was a dog. I can't count how
many times I begged mum to get one and every birthday
it was top of my list! My dream was realised when I was
10 years old & mum finally bought home a Cavalier
from a local breeder. Callie was a sweet dog and once
she was old enough we took her back to her breeder to
be mated. She had 8 pups, one of which we kept, Jem.
All I remember was the fun & pleasure involved with
having the pups, of course I didn't have to do any of
the work though!!
After we lost Callie
the house was too quiet with only one dog so we set about
finding a new pup. There was no question on what breed
it would be since mum had wanted an Irish Setter for over
30 years. So, research was done and we found the Kirkavagh
Kennel which, fortunately happened to be situated in Kent.
What a wonderful breeder and wonderful dogs, we are so
thankful we found Linda and her gang. So, in August 2003
Layla came home. As a puppy she was a naughty little thing
but we loved her anyway! She has grown up into the most
wonderful dog you could ever wish to have, she's beautiful
as well as being perfectly behaved, we are so lucky to
have her and thank Linda for letting us non showing folk
take one of her special pups home.
Sadly, we lost Jem
the next year so again we set about researching some breeds.
Truth be told I wanted another Irish Setter but mum is
the boss and she wanted something different and her choice
was a Welsh Springer Spaniel. We found some nice people
in this breed and spoke to a lot of breeders. Unfortunately
there were some who were very dishonest and sneaky and
we found that most would only sell to the 'in' crowd and
us not wanting to show had a virtually impossible task
of finding someone willing to sell to a pet home.
As well as the Welsh Springer we also had the Australian
Shepherd in mind as I had always enjoyed obedience work.
With our negative experience with the Welshie people we
decided to go down the Aussie route instead and found
a litter near Cambridge which was due a few weeks later.
Luckily there was a Red Tri bitch available and 2 months
later Tia came home with us.
Although Tia is amazingly intelligent and great at obedience
work sadly she is also dog aggressive and therefore I
cannot do the competitions as I had hoped. She is such
a loving dog and if you ever visit our home you have to
be prepared to be pounced on by her, she loves everyone!
The story continues
with the next member of our family, my absolutely fabulous
girl, Ava!!!
I remember visiting Crufts when I was about 11 and being
in awe of those lucky people being able to show their
own dogs and wishing one day I may just be lucky enough
to set foot on that green carpet myself.
So, I thought it was about time for another doggie and
this time I thought I could dabble in showing, maybe.
As explained on Ava's page I decided on a Spinone. What
can I say about Ava......she is absolutely brilliant and
I love her to bits! She's asleep under my duvet as I type
this and is never far from my side. She's not the most
outgoing of dogs and is not a huge fan of strangers...puts
up with a stroke but is happiest asleep on her bed! But,
she is so well behaved (apart from chewing up anything
she can get her paws on) and such a clown, always making
us laugh in one way or another. I thank my lucky stars
that I found Spinoni and apart from the Irish Setter,
I will never have a different breed. I am equally thankful
to Ava's breeder Tracy for letting us have her and helping
me so much along the way with everything from showing
to grooming!
Since getting Ava my leisure time has changed completely.
I now spend most weekends at dog shows, my Tuesday nights
at ringcraft and obedience classes and my car has rather
more miles on the clock than it used to!! The early starts
and long journeys are all worth it when you see all those
friendly faces around the Spinoni ring, canine & human!
I have made many friends along the way and can't thank
everyone enough for all the help & advice I have received.
The
story continues..........
September 2008 &
I was looking forward to the end of the year when I could
hopefully bring a brown roan girl home with me. I was
wishing the time away as I hate waiting & not knowing
what the bitch would produce. However all that changed
when I saw a picture of this gorgeous brown pup posted
on an online group I belong to. Thinking nothing of it
I emailed these pictures to my friend jokingly saying
I am so tempted by her. The reply I got was that she was
stunning and I should go for it. This put the ball into
motion and after asking all the relevant health questions
I was getting more and more excited! It was very difficult
to decide whether I should have this gorgeous girl or
should wait for the original litter I had planned on having
a pup from.
But, after a lot of thinking off we went up North and
upon seeing Maya we just could not leave her there.
I am so happy that the Spencer's allowed her to join our
family and look forward to the times ahead.
In Oct '08 I decided
that now I had the two dogs to show I could finally realise
a long time wish of having a Kennel Name of my own. I
came up with quite a few ideas but unfortunately the first
8 were rejected by the Kennel Club for being too close
to taken names. As a last ditch attempt, my last before
I would have given up, I came up with Mavaya, obviously
an anagram of my two girls names. And, to my surprise
it was accepted. Unfortunately you have to wait a few
months until you can use it in full as the KC has to publish
it and allow people time to send in objections. Fortunately
this time was up on 15th Jan 2009. Mavaya.co.uk was bought
and the website made!!
