Dogs have always been an important part of our lives and throughout our childhood Phil and Sarah grew up with several dogs and different breeds, including, Poodles (Toy, Miniature and Standard), Pyrenean Mountain Dogs, Jack Russell Terriers ,German Shepherds, an Afghan hound and rough collie.
WHY BRIARDS?
Our love and discovery of Briards started when we were searching for an Eternity ring and visited a jewellers in Totnes, Devon. From behind the counter came this magnificent black hairy dog called Lewie, he jumped up at Phil and put a paw either side of his shoulder and licked his face, we were both absolutely smitten with him and could not stop thinking about him. Regularly we would go along to the jewellers just to visit Lewie and started to do some research in to the breed. About a year later (August 97) we lost our rough collie at 14yrs following crippling arthritis and blindness and decided to get another dog as a companion for our German Shepherd, Sheba who was now 10 yrs old, we felt she was missing some K9 company. We were fortunate enough to get on the waiting list of a breeder with pups due in September and waited in anticipation that there would be enough born! On 20 September 1997 ‘Sasha’, Valleyhouse Velvet was born and Jackie Wragg (her breeder) agreed that we could have her at 8 wks old. We were so excited and making plans for a new puppy in the home when we noticed that Sheba was having problems breathing. To cut a long story short – we sadly had to have Sheba put to sleep with a cancerous tumour a week before we were due to collect Sasha. To add to the heartache, our Cat of 12 yrs, ‘Lucky’ also fell ill with liver failure and was put to sleep. This was the start of our life with Briards and the beginning of our new hobby of dog shows and breeding. Our Briards have totally changed and took over our lives! We have moved house twice to accommodate our dogs better and changed our vehicles no end of times! We have attended many shows at different levels and to date have bred 3 litters keeping a puppy from each litter.
There is also a new member of the family – Mojo a Tibetan Terrier who is adorable and she is featured in this site as well.
We are both committee members of South West Working & Pastoral Breeds Association and Sarah is Secretary of Newton Abbot and South
