Having come from a home that always had                       

GSDS, all be it from the local  animal shelter,                    

   I started young.                                                                     

 Rin was a lovely dog had an outstanding                             

  temperament as there was                                                     

              6 of us kids and no one ever got bit!                                          

     I have held the "Gurneys" Affix for 15 years                             

  now and have  shown at Championship                                 

  and Open Show level and have also                                        

   competed in Obedience and Agility.                                         

  I left home I bought my first bitch                                          

     Countess Francessca , she was a semi long                                  

   coat English in looks but very pretty needless                           

             to say but her breeding had  Tramella  in it.                                       

   I got her hip scored which came back 10 in total and               

     set about looking  for a nice stud for her.                                  

      A friend of mine had a dog,                                                        

          Spud was his name TUFFLYS VIRGO                                    

bred by Malcolm Evans who is a                                         

Championship judge .                                                         

Fran produced a litter of 7,                                                 

      I kept a pup and called him Chad.                                            

          I picked Chad by going                                                                 

     eenee meeni minee mo and chose him more                             

             by luck than any thing else.                                                             

            I wanted Chad for Obedience as I was very                                    

          much into  that at the time.                                                         

          I had a collie cross spaniel that did very                                      

           nicely at exemption show obedience.                                            

            Fran on the other  hand hated obedience                                       

           it took me 2 years to get                                                               

               her to win starters then I retired her!                                                

             With Chad I was determined that it would                                

          not be an uphill  struggle all the time so                                      

           I started him very young,  in fact he could                                    

            do a basic retrieve at 8 weeks of age!                                             

    One day while out with the dogs over the                              

 local park Malcolm Evans was there,                                 

              with Champion Tuffly's Sparky.                                                     

   He marched from one end of the park over to me                

   he told me that I was wasting Chad                                     

   in the Obedience ring I should show him .!                         

                 So with this in mind I entered in my first ever                                  

   Open Show locally at Stroud.                                             

To my surprise out of 12 pups  Chad came                      

second he was only just 6 months old .                            

His next show after this was an Obedience Show.             

             A week or so later I entered him in an exemption show with         

             over 40 dogs in the class we got another second!  I went on           

             with Chad to many places  and won in all breed obedience          

              and even agility we managed to get 7th out of nearly 400              

            dogs in the class!  Sadly we lost Chad who to me is the sort         

            of dog you only ever own once in a life.                                       

At one open show a couple came up to me                      

and asked  if they gave me a cheque I  could fill in          

any amount for him. Chad to us was priceless as            

              are all our dogs.                                                                             

They live in the house not in a kennel and are                   

            very much part of our family.                                                        

 When I lost Chad it was so upsetting that for a                   

long time I didn't do anything.                                          

I lost the bug so to speak.                                            

             These are just some of Chad's achievements the wooden plaque

               was for winning

              overall dog obedience at a Cheltenham and district dog training

              Open Show.                     

              The rest are all German Shepherd breed shows, most of them

              being in Wales.     

              One is a second the rest are all firsts. He was a very clever boy.

              We then bought Abbie  MRS JONES AT GURNEYS  she was

              Bedwins bred shown very lightly and got a  few places.

              I had another litter out of FRAN to produce Gurneys Dixie

              she also was shown but at the time I didn't drive so therefore

              couldn't get to shows so much. She was  a Zac Von Adeloga

              grand daughter, . Fran had a litter to Champion Tufflys Sparky 

              and produced an out standing dog, he was in the lead at

              Bristol Championship show first outing Minor Puppy Dog but

              due to a tooth not through got placed 3rd needless to say

              the tooth came through the next week! 

              Then 3 years ago I wanted to get back the excitement I had lost,

              so we got ICE from Bridgeview kennels. 

              KC Name  Bridgeview Summer Dream at Gurneys. Breeze.

             At the time my husband was out buying another bike...

             So I went looking at puppies, I ended up at Wiltshire in a

             home of a lady who, I now have become very good friends with!

             Breeze was the last puppy left, and I fell in love with her

             laid back temperament and friendly nature.

             So Breeze came home with us the next day with hubby's approval.

             As Breeze's dad was the top puppy in the UK show ring in 2000.

             I knew I was keeping my hand into my old love,

             "The German Shepherd Breed Ring".

             I new Breeze would be capable of producing good quality

             show winners. Breeze has tuned out to be a joy to own. 

             We then decided to get a dog, we couldn't find a local white

             dog that was to our liking, after a little searching we

             went to Shropshire to buy Bear his KC name is

                         HONEY MONSTER AT GURNEYS.                        

      Bear as a pup

© soothsayer/Gurneys 2007