As my 40th birthday approached it became clear that some skulduggery was going on, I was banned from looking at our Internet history and the wife and son were behaving rather suspiciously. When Peter's dog breed cards came out and he started asking me which were my favourites even I twigged that something big was afoot.
Eventually they confessed their sins and asked me if I was happy with the idea, which I was, and we set about short listing breeds and finally ended up right where they started - the Dobermann.
Phone calls were made and questions asked as we and our breeder sounded each other out and lastly, as I had absolutely no idea what a pedigree dog cost, we got to the stage where I asked him the price. Fortunately I was sat on the floor at the time, it reduces the bruising, but the wife nodded that it was o.k. so a provisional deal was set up. If I had only realised then what expense this would all lead to....ah well, too late now!
The trip to collect the new puppy went smoothly enough, considering it was February. The last hurdle was meeting the breeder in person and passing inspection, so to speak, happily this went well and we parted with the cash and received this little brown furry bundle of joy in return.
The only real problem with the whole trip was that the boat home was not until the following morning. We spent probably the coldest night of the year in a Weymouth car park, too tired to drive, but too cold to sleep properly. At one stage I ran the engine for forty five minutes before the heater produced anything.
Once we were able to take Barni out and about we found that he attracted loads of attention, although people rushing up and exclaiming "what a lovely, little chocolate lab" soon started to wear a bit thin, mind you it was bizarrely funny for a while to see them take a pace backwards in fear from this little puppy when we corrected them. Strangely enough as an adult he seems to have lost this mystic ability to terrorise people.....well.....almost.
I found it quite difficult for a long time to deal with the attention that he draws when we are out and about. Even now, as an adult, people are constantly coming up to us, admiring him, asking to pat him, telling us about the Dobe they used to have, or showing us photo's of the one at home, I just wasn't prepared for that.
We were aware that our breeder was showing at top levels but our own interest didn't extend beyond watching Crufts on the telly, and in any case Barni was not actually sold to us as a show quality dog, so nothing would have happened if we hadn't met Derryn who twisted my arm cruelly and persuaded me to have a go. I'm now glad that she did.
I'm sure that my experiences in showing are no different to the majority of people; there are times when we have come out of the ring with the red rosette feeling amazed at our good fortune and other occasions where we have come out and I have said "how the heck did we not get that?" Mind you it's probably a clue if the judge's walking stick is painted white. Never mind that's showing for you.
At one show Alison asked me "what breed of dog is that?" pointing to a bundle of fur sat on a table being back combed, well I doubt if even an expert in its own breed could have been certain from what could be seen, so quick as a flash I said "I think it's a Vileda" - needless to say in the very next class it wiped the floor with us!
