Page 241 - K9News_Issue12_July2020

After Rex has passed on, another
Dobe came into the house. This
was Curt (Escafeld Sekunde)
who was born in January 1962
and bred by a policeman in
Sheffield out of Edna Barnacle’s
dog Ch Talaureen Hurricane.
I was told that he was my dog
and that I would need to train him
and to show him. Well, I joined
the local Ipswich Dog Training
Club. This was a whole new world
to me and I thoroughly enjoyed
working my Dobe amongst all the
other breeds at the club. They
were principally interested in
obedience training, competing
in obedience competitions and
doing demonstrations at local Curt (Escafeld Sekunde)
events. No show training, just a My first Dobermann and the first dog that I showed
concession that he would stand
when the other dogs sat. Show
training classes had not been invented then, so I had very little idea of what dog showing was all
about.

The first show I was entered for was the Willesden Town Show in September 1962. I had no idea
what to expect but it was a memorable experience and started me on a journey that was to continue
for the rest of my life. Before the judging started, Mother bought a nice new red leather lead so that
he would look smart in the ring. Well, it was a bit wet that day and when I eventually got into the
ring, I was having an unexpected problem. The red die was coming off the lead in the rain. I was
covered in red die and the lead was so slippery that I could barely hold my dog, let alone try to show
him. With a young Dobermann who was a bit lively to say the least, it was certainly a baptism of fire.
However, we survived and had many more
adventures in the months and years to
come.

The next big adventure saw me showing
at an open show at Clacton-on-Sea. I had
entered four classes and sat there for
hours waiting for my classes and couldn’t
understand why they had judged best in
show before I had been in the ring. Well,
nobody had explained to me that I should
have entered in a class called ‘Any Variety
Not Separately Classified’. In those days,
open shows always had numerous classes
after best in show, such as ‘bred by
exhibitor’, ‘not bred by exhibitor’ and ‘AV
Non-Sporting’, and it was those classes
that I had entered. The judge was Ben
Rex (Frenches Gaynos) bred by Rita Price-Jones
Johnson and I won two seconds and two
The Dobermann that I lived with during the 1950s.
fourths, so I was able to go home with a
241
K9 NEWS DIGITAL / JULY 2020