About

On a beautiful October Saturday, tingling with anticipation, myself and Elizabeth Montgomery, my friend and handler-to-be for my puppies, drove to the O'Neil's Rhode Island home to meet the long awaited foreigners. There they were, noses barely visible, in their airline crates, waiting for us. We opened Lincoln's crate first, and out he popped, a big fat happy wriggly boy! Then we opened Loreena's crate and nothing happened. We gave her a few minutes to size up the situation, and make a move, but when it became evident that she was going to need persuasion, Liz tilted the crate, and out slid Loreena, the most graceful Field Spaniel of my acquaintance, making a most ungainly grand entrance onto American soil. She made a rapid recovery, and was soon happy to greet us. This was our first clue about the individual differences in the personalities of these two delightful littermates.

The puppies were happy to be introduced to their new home with a big yard for romping. Their adopted older siblings, Geoff and Guine accepted them without any problem. They were immediately put on a starvation diet, and Lincoln never weighed as much as he did on his arrival at 6 months old, until past his second birthday. Loreena had fewer pounds to lose and so, reluctantly, I did the other Field Spaniel people in our area a favor by entering her in 2 weekend shows at the end of the following month, since 1 more bitch was needed to make a major.

Some favor! Loreena, an untrained puppy of 7 months, walked or danced, actually, away with the points! She already had it all together at this tender age, a very unusual trait in a Field Spaniel puppy, and a different case from her slower developing brother, Lincoln. The other Field Spaniel competitors did not again ask me to do them any favors by entering Loreena to help make points. In fact, when she finished her championship at the tender age of 14 months, with limited showing, having won at every prestigious Supported Entry, generally defeating the bitches and also robbing the boys of majors by taking Best of Winners, June O'Neil said, "thank God, now the rest of us can get some points!"

Lincoln was already a first time dad by the time he completed his championship 6 months later, in January 1994. He also did some prestigious winning at supported entries, but stalled out in the fall of 1993, needing just one little point to finish.

I had always loved dogs, but at that point in time had no interest in owning any. I was a busy wife and mother of two human youngsters, and also working 4 days weekly.

I walked around the show, pausing randomly by various rings to observe the judging. In my peripheral vision I became aware of some brown spaniel type dogs standing in one of the rings. I moved closer to the ring to better see these brown dogs. No sooner did I do this then my heart began to beat violently and I started to shake. In those split seconds, I'd fallen in love! I had no idea what breed these dogs were. I had to consult the show program to figure that out. They were, you guessed it, Field Spaniels.

I did not actually get my first Field Spaniel puppy until November 1987, since complications in my life conspired to distract me over that 12 year interval.

My first Field Spaniel was Wicksford's Lady Guinevere. Her brother, Wicksford's Geoffrey joined us 9 months later and went on to become my first dog to earn a championship. Both were sired by CH Lydemoor Leslie, the handsome British dog who had caught my interest for several years at Westminster.

Both dogs enjoyed the fine dog training resources of the Big Apple. They graduated from the then innovative Therapy Dog Training Program developed and taught by Mickey Niego at the ASPCA and were certified by TDI, (Therapy Dogs International). As each dog had different strengths, Guine went on to work with preschoolers and Geoff became a nursing home visitor.

When the technology became available to enable me to do my advertising job off site, the dogs and I left Manhattan to take up full time residence in my weekend home here in New York's Mid-Hudson Valley. I wanted to be able to breed Field Spaniels, hardly a realistic goal in my city apartment.

Although they were wonderful dogs and I loved them deeply, sadly neither Geoff nor Guine was healthy enough to be foundation stock for Avalon, the kennel I had moved to the country to establish. After assessing my options, I was not optimistic about obtaining Field Spaniels of exceptional quality in the USA. I decided I would impose on the friendship via letter writing I had developed with Margaret Nicholls, wife of Don Nicholls of Lydemoor Field Spaniels, breeder of Geoff and Guine's sire, CH Lydemoor Leslie, and ask her if they would send me a puppy from the litter expected there in April, 1992. And so it began-my Great English Gamble!

After long transatlantic phone conversations, flurries of correspondence, stacks of photos and the wonderful gift of a video taken by my friends, Jim and Agnes Clare, on their visit to the Nicholls' home, unable to decide which puppy of their litter of 2 I should take, I asked for both. On condition that I keep both puppies for their lifetime, even if they didn't turn out well enough to be my foundation stock, Don and Margaret Nicholls agreed to export both puppies to me. A footnote here is a reminder that until recently there was a 6 month quarantine for dogs entering England. Fulfilling the quarantine requirement was very expensive, as dogs had to be housed in specially designated government approved quarantine kennels for the duration. At that time, the cost of such an undertaking was about $5,000 per dog. Consequently, once a British breeder exported a puppy, they could rarely have the ability to reclaim them if the new home was unsatisfactory. This was, at best, a very risky arrangement for any responsible breeder, as we all stand ready to take back any dog we've bred over the course of its entire life.

The risk to both the Nicholls and myself would be somewhat diminished by the fact that the puppies would not be sent until they were 6 months old. This allowed time for Don and Margaret to more accurately assess their quality and their adult bites would be set by then. It also turned out to be great timing because June and George O'Neil, Geoff and Guine's breeders, had a trip to England planned, with a return home in mid-October, which was right after those puppies turned 6 months. They generously volunteered to take on the responsibility of supervising the puppies' long trip by having the puppies accompany them on their return flight as excess baggage, which hugely reduced the shipping costs in addition to increasing everyone's sense of security about the 7 hour transatlantic flight and subsequent customs inspection.

Meantime, I did all available health testing on my two imports, nervously awaiting the successful results that would give me the good news that they were healthy enough to be my foundation dogs. When both had good preliminary hip x-rays, I heaved a sigh of relief. Both also subsequently had clear eye checks, and Lincoln bred his first bitch at the tender age of 13 months.

Don and Margaret visited the USA in August, 1994, and helped me to select the sire of Loreena's first litter. At that time, I asked if they would do me the honor of allowing me to combine my proposed kennel name, Avalon, the mythical place of British legends, with their kennel name, Lydemoor, to give permanent recognition to the people and the dogs who had made it possible for me to realize my dream of breeding Field Spaniels. This is the origin of our name, Avalyde.