My first dog was bought for the princely sum of �35 from Plymouth Dogs Home in Devon, England in 1983, and I knew even before he arrived that I wanted a dog to work in Obedience competition. I went to the Dogs Home on a very wet day, and started at one end of the pens and worked my way to the other end.

Here, there were four litters of very young puppies, but I hadn�t really seen anything I liked, so I decided to walk along the outdoor pens again. Once again all the dogs came rushing up to the fence, barking and growling. Then, I noticed a young dog sitting on a piece of wood, keeping himself off the wet floor. I called out to him and he slowly picked his way around the pools of water over to the fence. (We soon came to learn that he hated water and would always walk around the puddles rather than go through them, and also hated to be outside when it rained). I placed the palm of my hand against fence and he proceeded to lick it (my hand, that is, not the fence). I decided at that moment that he was the dog for me.
I called him Sam. He was a Collie crossbreed of some sort, although I never knew quite what he was crossed with and was about 6 months old. We did work obedience competitions together, and even won the odd class, but mainly our enjoyment came from taking classes at the local dog training club, where Sam would help me by demonstrating exactly what we wanted the handlers and their dogs to do. He lived until he was 13 years old, I rarely went anywhere without him and he was very special to me.

My next dog was a Dalmatian. His pet name was Cid (pronounced Sid, black spotted, b.30/05/90) and his KC name was Marricdale El Cid (Wig Wig Amber of Marricdale X Marricdale Frederick George).
I bought him as a six week old puppy, and my intention was to work in Obedience Competition with him. We did this until he was about a year old, his greatest achievement was being placed 6th in Beginners Class at Winchester Championship Show.

However, before he was six months old, his breeder Maree Kenyon, persuaded us to give Breed Showing a try. His first show was L K A Championship in Birmingham. We missed all of the Breed classes, because on the way there it snowed very heavily, so much so that we had to abandon the car and walk the last couple of miles through three foot deep snow. It was so bad that the police would not let anyone leave the venue, and so in the evening the Kennel Club gave permission for a charity exemption show to be held. Cid was entered into the Puppy Class along with over 100 other puppies, and he was given 1st place.

That spurred us on and Cid was consistently placed at the other shows we entered, gaining his Junior Warrant at 17 months old, as well as the Dog CC at Blackpool Championship Show in June �92 under Joe Kirk, the Reserve Dog CC at South Wales K A Championship Show in July �92 under Billy McKay and 1st place in the Limit Class at Crufts in 1993 under Oonagh Gore.

Sadly, Cid died quite suddenly at the age of three & a half years old, and left a huge hole in my life. I have never felt quite the same about showing any other dog since he died. I started to devote all my time to helping out Dalmatian Welfare & Rescue, as well as taking in the other odd waif & stray!! It was many years later, that I felt I could start showing again, but not with another Dally, and that is partly why we had a Chinese Crested Hairless puppy.