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show winning dog. Another abiding
memory of that show in the Pier
Pavilion was a nice young lady with
an Afghan Hound. She had spent
all day grooming her dog and just
as she got up to take it in the ring,
she gave it a kiss and left a lovely
ring of red lipstick on the top of its
head.

I graduated to showing at
championship shows towards the
end of the following year, 1963.
We won a second at LKA under
Betty Hoxey and a first at the
Birmingham National under May
Pacey. This was followed by my
first time at Crufts at Olympia in
Mother (Daisy) and me with our first four Dobermanns in 1964 under Helen Shavo from
about 1966. Canada. My, that was so memorable,
possibly for all the wrong reasons.
She gave the CC to a young blue
bitch from the novice class, putting it above all the established champions and winning dogs. In those
days, the breed was numerically small and all the exhibitors knew each other and if you had a Dobe,
you were immediately welcomed as part of the family. After the judging, Charlie Starns asked her why
she had put up such a mediocre dog over all their champions. The judge then uttered the immortal
words ‘If a thing is rare it is beautiful, and a blue Dobermann is so very rare’. Well, there really was
no answer to that one. Little did I know then that some twenty years in the future I would also win two
Junior Warrants and a CC with blue Dobermanns. Another abiding memory of those early Crufts dog
shows was that no dog could be removed from the show before 8.00pm. We would then pour out into
the dark and try to find our cars in the streets of South Kensington. Oh, happy days.

The next show was Manchester where I showed under Bernard Horton. The show was held in the
exhibition halls at Belle Vue Zoo, and we had to walk through part of the zoo to reach the show which
was most exciting. In those days, it cost 12/6d to enter your dog in a class and an extra 5/- for the
benching. For you youngsters, 5/- is 25p in today’s money. In return, you won prize money for the
first three places of £2, £1 and 10/-. Even the open shows gave prize money, usually £1, 10/- and
5/-. This prize money was always given out at the shows and you had to present the prize money
slip which was a tear-off strip on the side of the prize card. At this show, they were also giving special
commemorative Churchill crowns to all fourth-place winners – and I won one. I think I was more
thrilled to win the crown than if I had won the first. It is certainly the only prize money that I have ever
won that I have never spent and still possess to this day. I always remember asking Bernard after the
judging if he liked my dog. Yes, I was that green and naïve. Bernard looked me in the eye and said
‘do you like him?’ I replied yes, to which he said ‘good, that’s all that matters then’. Over the years
many exhibitors have asked me the same question and you know that all they want is for you to be
nice about their dog.

In those early days, very few open shows had Dobermann classes and when they did, we all tried to
support them. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed those early shows, they were an excellent training ground
because you never knew what you were going to encounter. One of those early shows was in a
hanger at an American air base. I was waiting at the ringside for my class, and Curt managed to slip
out of his show chain. He was off, straight out of the hanger door onto the airfield. After an extensive

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