In early 1986,
Rip was having epileptic fits on a regular basis and his medication
was having less and less effect. When he was well, he worked
extremely well nearly always in the cards in his Obedience Class at
Open and Championship level. In the summer of 1986, the fits got too
much for him and he had to be put to sleep.
For about a
year, we had been looking for a replacement GSD, but, we could not
find one which was healthy so we turned our attention to the BSD
Tervueren. Several well known handlers had very well in obedience
with them. In early December 1986, we were lucky enough to buy Talamo
Flurry at Merrywood, bred by Jenny and Shaun Eaves. She was
born on 17/10/86 Ch Bandol De La Pouroffe At Snowbourne being her dad
and Kyann Bulah Of Talamo her mum. She was our first Tervueren whom
we named Zoe. She wasn't ‘the pick of litter' from a Breed Show
point of view but that didn't matter as the intention was to continue
with Obedience Shows. We decided to visit open and championship
breed shows whilst continuing her obedience training and much to our
amazement she did very well and interestingly enough won more first
places at all levels than her brothers and sisters!
At the end of
1989, we decided that she was everything to base future Tervueren
Generations on and bred from her producing five boys and one girl in
March 1990. Unfortunately, our hopes came to nothing, as all her
offspring went to pet homes except Jake (Merrywood March Madness) and
Millie (Merrywood Modern Millie). Neither of whom managed success in
the breed ring once out of puppy. Jake ended up as a big cuddly
‘teddy bear' much over size and unfortunately had to be put to
sleep at the end of 2001 due to a degenerative nerve disease in the
spine. Zoe's heart wasn't really in obedience and around the end of
1991, we decided to concentrate more on the agility and working
trials side of training which she took to with much enthusiasm.
Once she became
a veteran we decided that going over the jumps and scale was not the
thing an old lady should be doing and so she retired and lived out
the rest of her life in luxury finally being put to sleep in mid
2001. I took on Millie and Felicity took on Jake but neither wanted
to do obedience (or for that matter anything else!). Felicity
acquired Sadie about six months after we got Zoe. She was a beautiful
Tervueren and might have gone far in the Breed Show world if she
hadn't damaged her back as a puppy. This caused her movement to be
unbalanced and eventually arthritis overcame her resulting in her
being put to sleep in 1998.
Lucy, now an
honoury Belgian, also had a stress related illness and the kindest
thing was to give her sleep. This meant that Felicity had no working
dogs, so we obtained Bonnie Charlie (Charlie) a Malinois who
was bred by Mrs J. Tyers from Gwashleas Brownie by Gwashleas Dale. He
was born on 1/12/91 and during late summer 1992 we took him on. He
had been returned by his first owners because they said he was
unmanageable. It took him about a year to settle down and then he
responded to training very well and eventually gaining his CDex in
working trials. About this time, we gave a home to a rather elderly
Tervueren Blustag Adams Brandy (Body) whose owner was migrating to
Australia and had decided that he was too old to make the journey. He
was a super old boy and we missed him dreadfully when he eventually
died at about 15 years old.
Charlie
eventually retired from competition and even gained his studbook
number in the Show Ring. He was only 10 when he had to be put to
sleep in the summer of 2001, after a tumour was found. Felicity was
now back onto big dogs and she acquired Gwashleas Roxanne (Lizzie) in
November 2000. Lizzie was born on 5/09/00 being bred by Betty
Duffus from Gwashleas Reine Marquerite by Brown Warrior. Lizzie
has already gained her Kennel Club Good Citizen Silver badge and has
had much success in the Breed Ring winning Best Puppy in Breed at
Blackpool Championship Show in 2001. She has now taken up Agility
Training and is showing progress.