The Snowmead Story

As a family, we have always had a pet dog and when we returned from three years of living in Norway in 1980 the house seemed empty without any animals.  My mother, Ann, became friendly with the local RSPCA volunteer and her first step was to acquire a rescue Siamese cat, followed closely by a Siamese kitten from a friend. Although Barney and Ko-Ko helped to make the house more like a home, Mum was still desperate to have a dog.

My father Keven, was not so keen on the idea, but Mum had my heart set on a shaggy dog.  We attended a fun day at the RSPCA centre in Cobham, and part of the day was a parade of 'rarer' dogs.  It was there that Mum saw the dog she wanted - a Bearded Collie.  She started her campaign to have a Bearded Collie.  Dad was still resisting but my sister Tiffany and I, were keen and we all set to work bringing him round.  Mum knew of a person in the village who had two Beardies, a brown and a slate,  and introduced me to them.  My first thought at 10 years of age, was that "the grey one looks old, we will have to have a brown one Mum,".

Mum contacted the Southern Counties Bearded Collie Club and was given the phone number of Mr and Mrs Seath in Godalming.  On her first visit to see the puppies, she went alone, not wanting to get Tiffany and my hopes up.  Mum wanted a boy and Wendy and Richard had a choice of two - a brown and a slate.  Mum told them that she wanted the brown.  Richard explained that the slate boy was a better prospect for showing and was she sure she wanted the brown one.  Mum just wanted a shaggy dog as a pet and entertained no thoughts of showing.  So, she said the first thing that entered her head, "it has to be the brown one as we have brown carpets and a brown cat, so he has to match,".  Little did she know that they thought she was serious and were not sure whether this strange lady who had to have pets to match the house was going to be a good home.

Brady, the brown Beardie came to live with us in 1982.  He was typical of the 'naughty browns', into everything, stealing washing from the line and running rings around the whole family.  Despite Dad's reluctance to have a dog, Brady soon became his dog.  The Seaths had given Mum contact details of the Southern Counties Bearded Collie Club, and a little while after joining, she received their newsletter together with a schedule for their Championship show.  The show was quite near home and Mum thought it might be nice to enter Brady and go along and see other Beardies.

Brady was entered in Novice and despite neither of them having any idea of what to do, achieved a third place.  That was it.  It seemed so easy.  And we started on the road to showing.

Although Brady did well at open shows, it was not enough.  Mum wanted a 'show dog'.  Toni Teasdale lived close to us, and together with ringcraft classes, introduced us to Sue and Willie O'Brien who had a litter.  We  could have pick of litter, and came home with a beautiful blue boy whom we named Aussie.

As a 'proper' show dog, Aussie introduced us to the serious side of showing - Championship shows.  We no longer thought Birmingham was a long way to go to a dog show and we regularly clocked up the miles at the weekend.

Peter Lancaster (Desborough) also lived close to Toni and expressed an interest in using Brady at stud.  Of course, we had to have one of the puppies and Sonny came to live with us.  A beautiful slate, Sonny started his show career with a bang, winning two Minor Puppy classes at consecutive Championship shows when he was six months old.  He followed this by winning a Challenge Certificate as an adult.

By this stage we had decided that if we were serious about showing, we would have to breed.  To do that, we would have to have a bitch.  Peter Lancaster had another litter, this time from his bitch Cleo, Shilstone Minuet.  He used the O'Briens young dog, Sammara Standing Ovation.  It looked like it was going to be a very lovely litter.  There were only two bitches and Sue and Willie were going to have pick bitch.  The other bitch was smaller and plainer and Mum wasn't sure whether it would be a good idea to have the second pick from the litter.

Brenda White went to see them and told Mum that second pick from a litter like that was better than first pick from an inferior mating.  Even if she didn't do very well in the show ring, the breeding was superb and she would make an excellent foundation bitch.  Desborough Dulcinea (Dulcie) exceeded all Mum’s dreams by becoming a Champion and has proved herself to be a wonderful foundation for the Snowmead Bearded Collies.

Dulcie retired from the ring to have a wonderful litter to Ch Potterdale Philospher and we started campaigning Spencer, a beautiful young dog Mum had bought from Wendy Neal (now Hines).  Spencer, Ramsgrove Wharfinger at Snowmead, not only proved to be successful in the ring including being joint Top Puppy in Breed, but proved to be a very good stud and has left his mark on the breed through his offspring.

The household can currently boast two Champion granddaughters of Dulcie - Ch J'aime de Chester at Snowmead and Ch Coalacre Satisfaction at Snowmead.

With my mother’s untimely death in 2000, I have continued showing and am currently campaigning two youngsters of J’aime and our successful stud dog Frazer, Snowmead Senator – Snowmead Sans Faute JW, was Top Puppy in Breed last year and his sister Snowmead Sans Rivale JW has proved to be just as successful in the show ring.  The latest edition to the Snowmead household is Florence – Silent Memory, a daughter of Sans Faute and Sequent who will be making her debut in 2003.

Owning Beardies, has undoubtedly changed our lives.  With 13 Beardies, living in the home, the house revolves around them - wooden floors and tiles and a leather suite all go to making life easier when they come back muddy from the park in the morning.  We wouldn't have it any other way.