I have lived with Old English Sheepdogs since 1969. My husband, Nigel, was brought up on a farm & his family always had several dogs, mainly gundogs. When we married he brought with him his Labrador cross who accompanied him out & about on the farm during the day. I was brought up in a town &, despite regularly asking for a dog, I had never been lucky enough to own one. My mother was too houseproud & also a little frightened of most dogs & petrified of cats.

Almost as soon as we settled in to our home we wanted another dog to be with me during the day & Nigel thought he would like an Old English Sheepdog. We went to see a litter advertised in the local paper & came home with a bitch with two wall eyes. In 1970 we went to Crufts which was at Olympia, the judge was Miss Loughrey, who was on crutches & just lifted a crutch to point at dogs she was interested in for the steward (I believe George Gooch) to sort out!

At Crufts we introduced ourselves to Jean Gould (Rollingsea) & through her found out about the Old English Sheepdog Club & some of the Bobtail fraternity in East Anglia. Over the years I purchased 3 Rollingsea bitches. In more recent years I have had two bitches from Pam Tomes who became Ch Brinkley Sofia of Raynham & Ch Brinkley Emma Rose of Raynham. I bred Emma Rose & kept a bitch who became Ch. Raynham Good Day Sunshine.

I first judged 4 classes at the Newmarket & District Show in 1977 with an entry of 25, judged several more times including a Club Limited Show, with an entry of 66, before judging my first Championship Show for the South Western Club in 1986 with an entry of 127. I have now been fortunate enough to judge 12 more times at Championship Level in the UK, including breed Club shows for the East Anglian Club, the Greater London Club & the Old English Sheepdog Club, as well as judging in Denmark, Sweden, Holland, Italy, Germany & Australia.

When judging I always place great importance on structure & movement, bearing in mind that our lovely dogs were originally bred as working animals requiring stamina & endurance. I look forward to judging your dogs & trust that my opinion will be accepted in a sporting manner.