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Welcome to our website, and we hope you take the time to enjoy viewing the dogs who are curently living with us, and those who we have loved and still greatly miss.
We are a small kennel who own and breed German Shepherds (GSDs) and Cardigan Corgis (Cardis) all of which have excellent temperaments and appropriate size, construction, soundness colour and good health. Our dogs are intelligent, stable in mind and body and have loads of character. All our dogs over 12 months old are hip scored and the GSDs are also elbow scored.
All our GSDs are from German lines, although we do not have overly angulated dogs, as ours are fit and able to be on the go all day, they love to swim, run followed by coming home for a snooze in front of the fire. We do not follow the trend for the type of dogs who have been highlighted on TV and in some of the dog press, shown with the wobbly, overly long hind legs or those with restricted shoulder movement. We insist on good temperaments, both in our dogs and those who we use at stud. All our dogs are socialised from birth and we are lucky in that our children and their friends also help with developing their social skills.
Our dogs are pets first and second and last! We do occasionally show but it is not a regular thing and will not become so. We'd rather see our dogs running free over the common that in the ring. We do some showing, I think in 2011 we have attended 6 shows and will only do 1 more with the Cardis. We no longer show the GSDs as the way the showing for this breed has gone is not something we wish to take part in.
Our Cardigans are all genetically clear from PRA and we are very unusual in undertaking hip scoring, something that is not seen to be a problem in the breed, but as proactive breeders we feel that we need to screen our GSDs and do not see any reason why the Cardigans should be treated any differently. This screening is not because we feel that we have a problem, but so that we can learn more about the construction of this outstanding breed.
Several of our dogs have done well in the show ring, and although we enjoy showing all our dogs are pets and members of our family first. Several of our puppies have gone to homes which have included a member who has special needs, and those dogs as they have grown and developed have given an extra something to those people's lives.
 We are proud to have dogs who have qualified as Pets as Therapy (PAT) dogs and who also spend time working with children and adults to help them overcome their fear of dogs as well as introducing people to dog behaviour. We go out to many Guide and Scout groups as well as schools on request - please see the "Safe and Sound" page for more information.
We welcome visitors to come and meet us and the dogs as well as the other two and four legged residents that share our home.
 Currently living with us is ours GSDs; Tegan, her daughter Boudica and Tegan's granddaughter Nyssa, along with our Cardigans; Dillon, Tansy and her pups Sorrel, Comfrey and Fennel, the boy's cats and 15 chickens. Please see individual pages for more information on our dogs.
The dogs lead pretty spoilt lives and we are lucky enough to have a fantastic garden that the dogs enjoy playing in, digging up or just moochings about in and regular walks are taken on canal towpaths or the very large common lands that are just minutes away, where the dogs get to enjoy a lot of free running which helps to keep them healthy in mind and body.
The dogs also get frequent trips to school where they are always popular in the playground where they seem to enjoy all the attention and being walked round the perimeter of the playground by different children, giving them centre stage for all the attention of so many people. They have even been part of an animal welfare lesson at the Junior School - they thought everyone was there to see them.
Our dogs love playing together.
About Us
They all live as part of the family, sleep in the house at night and go on holiday with us. Our dogs are expected to have manners and behave appropriately to the situation. They love to socialise both in and out of the home.
 Jo has had GSD's in her life since she was eight, although unfortunately her first dog only made it to 5 months old as he had such severe hip deformities that it wouldnt have been kind to allow him to continue onwards. After that she had the fantastic Rafeki and Radar who both came having had other homes, she has also been fortunate to have been actively involved with many working breeds including Collies, Rottweilers and Dobermans. Martyn had a slightly different introduction to dogs having grown up with Pugs!
Tansy snuggled up to Asher, they were the best of friends
We purchased our first GSD together in 1994 and along the way have had many trials and challenges, and our dogs can be found on the other pages on this site.
We are also lucky and very grateful for the support and encouragement that is given to us by H ilary Linnett at Conquell German Shepherds and Pugs both with breeding and in the show ring. We also get a lot of encouragement from Eileen Eby at Kilvroch who has helped to educate us about the Cardis in general and with the careers of our short friends both in the ring and also their exploits out of it.
Our son's Kieran (12 years) and Owen (10 years) both enjoy the dogs and help with their training and as a result of their wanting to start junior handling we added the cardigan's to our family (little did we know how addictive they can be). The boys are also great at helping socialise all our dogs and our puppies are handled by the boys from the day they are born.
2012 was busy from the start, we started the year with Sorrel pups, these were our 2nd generation, and with them fathered by Dill, you can imagine the characters we got! Crufts was to bring wins from both Mint and Comfrey when they were handled by Johanna Flinck. Next was to see Murphy (Tansy son) have his first weekend in the ring and come away with 3 first prizes and qualification for Crufts 2013, his owners Karen and Adrian Marks were delighted. May has brought GSD pups and we are aiming for a quiet second half to the year! Hopefully another trip to Finland might be in the pipeline.
2011 has started with a blast. First in February we qualified Tansy, Comfrey, Sorrel and Dill for Crufts 2012, then we managed to get Boudica in whelp to Voko, and then we went to Crufts and got a 1st Puppy Dog with Comfrey and 2nd with Tansy in Good Citizen Bitch. We were then lucky enough to purchase Mint from Finland. We were then delighted with the arrival of Bou's puppies in April. We are now looking forward to the summer and hopefully some time out at shows. June brought us Tansy's 2nd and last litter. We have kept the beautiful girl Fennel, and her siblings are scattered round the country and one has even flown off to Finland! An early christmas present arrived in the form of Mint on 8th December and was further polished with her qualifying for Crufts in Helsinki on the 7th and in Birminham on the 12th!
 2010 Has so far been good, we had the joy of seeing Dillon go Best Puppy in Breed at the South East Corgi Show and then get 3rd in Special Puppy Dog at Crufts. This was quickly followed by the arrival of Tegan's puppies, April brought the arrival of Tansy's puppies and we are please with the way they have settled into their new homes. Tansy also had a busy Spring, with taking on the needs of a foster litter of Pembroke corgis who are also now settled into their homes.
2009 Started with a big high, when Tansy went Best Puppy in Breed at Crufts which delighted us. We then had the arrival of Tegan's puppies, and the introduction of Dillion in April. Unfortunately then in May we had to say farewell to Asher (Conquell Wasko) he had an extremely happy life and we were surprised at how long he lasted, and his final day was one of his favourites, bright sunshine along with a ride in the car. The year didnt end too badly either as in November Dillon went on to be "Best Puppy in Breed" at the Welsh Corgi Show under Margo Hackney.
2008 had its highs and lows, and despite the enjoyment of getting Tansy and learning all about Cardigans and the fun we had with all the dogs, especially the wins with our babies Tegan and Tansy. The loss of Carla (Presidio Carmen) in March came as a big blow, especially as it was so unexpected. It ended on a better note with the arrival of our first litter of puppies, girls Anais and Adria, who both are in their new homes, both with families who include someone of special needs.
Carla in the garden watching the youngsters play
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