About us                                   part 2

... and our dogs

 There were  terriers in our family before the collies :
Since 1983 Teddy - an Airedale - very soft and gentle, playfull
  and absolutely  patient with children. Then in 1986 Joker -
a Scotchterrier - a pretty guy but a little daredevil until very aged
 and a very special and individual character. 
But both got along very well, thank to Teddy´s perfect manners.
He just reacted in an adequate kind of defense to Joker´s assaults 
and never got aggressive. He loved to have Joker as a dog-playmate. 

In 1992 we got Ginger, a Borderterrier Mixture, spoiled from
her dog brothers and all the famliy. She was bright and intelligent, 
cuddly and a great personality. She passed away only in Feb.2006
we miss her a lot.   
All three of them came from England, at least we picked up Ginger
on  a trip to Cornwall. They all loved children and were perfect
family dogs. Our children were young  and we had not too much
spare time for doing any extra training with the dogs.
But they were irreplaceable playmates for our daughters.
        





 


 

What we didn´t enjoy that much was the hunting instinct
of our terriers. Living at the countryside, we had to stand
several unpleasant situations.  From the menaces of the
local hunters to shoot the dogs, and waiting for them fearful
minutes, sometimes hours - where are they, will they - and
when will they come back - up to the day when Teddy
didn´t come back until it got dark. There were tears until
deep in the night from the children.  Very early in the morning
we got a call and could pick up Teddy in a village about 7 miles
away. It seemed he lost his way completely at one of his
hunting trips. He never disappeared that long after this adventure,
 but his hunting passion was still alive. When he had found
a track he couldn´t be called back and was on tour for hours.
Being such a charming boy and a great character we loved him
very much inspite of his hunting passion. When he died at the
age of thirteen and a half year, especially the children were
inconsolable, he was "always there" and a sort of a brother for
them - he was a real family member -as we think every family
dog should be.

My husband who always patiently shared my dog passion,
had died in 1999.

He especially loved Teddy, who was HIS dog.
 

My older daughter had left the nest and the younger one would
leave me soon, so I decided to have a young and bigger dog again. 
This time  we wanted a short coated dog with not too much
hunting instinct. He should be soft and gentle and  he  should
have a long nose :-) just like Teddy.                                                                                          

All of that had the Smoothcollies - so our first
bitch Cara came to us in April 2000. She was
from the Jack Mack´s kennel of Gudrun
Hartmann and  she was the begin of my love
to that breed. 
Joker, very ill, died with 14 years when Cara
was just half a year. Ginger, being an elderly
lady at that time too, wasn´t very happy with
our new girl. The only thing she loved to share  
with Cara, was running like mad, until their 
tounges were hanging down to the floor.

 

Then in August 2001 came the second Smoothie
girl - Kylie - again from Jack Mack´s. Cara and
Kylie were a wonderful team, wisely chosen from
their breeder, Cara, the calm and soft one and
Kylie, the little cheeky monster, who couldn´t
keep silent for a minute. When she was a puppy
she drove crazy poor old Ginger, who didn´t like her
at all - possibly less than Cara. Kylie of course  became
a well educated lady meanwhile, but her temperament is
still exuberant. This made it necessary to visit a dog school
training urgently, because more than two dogs should
be really obedient - as our terriers unfortunately never have been  ;-)                       

We´ve got our third Smoothcollie Nuala from England in 2005.
She is a very different character from Kylie, more like Cara.
Always eager to be a good girl and very sensitiv. She is a very
cuddly darling, and a little beauty with her chocolate-eyes !

All my dogs are fond of walking and enduring  hikers. 
Kylie loves to do  Agility, Cara had some Dog Dancing
training and Nuala Noodle is yet capable of the simple
"Noodlejump", we´re working out the double one ! 
Bonnie was quickly learning basic obedience, and is very
keen on searching her toys , when I´ve hidden them, and
apports them to me.
Since I´m not prefering competitions of any kind, I work
with them in the garden with a little Agility equipement.
Or we have our fun while walking at a meadow with horse
hurdles , little streams and ditches of every size,  with fallen 
trees in the wood or wood-piles on our way for balancing.
And honestly - we like that much more than dog training places :-) 
Kylie is always keen on new things to learn, and all my ladies
are very good with joggers and bikers. They will sit at the wayside,
Nuala does it mostly before I give any instruction, and there they
wait until those "fast humans" - similar to a hunting loot in their
movement - pass. 
Once a biker lady said to me while passing: "Should be nice if 
husbands would be that obedient too!"  Well, I don´t know the
husband of that lady :-) but I know my dogs - they are well trained,
because they are absolutely easy to train !                                                                                                                                         

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