Who's that dog, anyway?

The photo at the top of the page is of Dalati Siarl CD, our first Welsh Springer. He came to us via Adrienne Bancker, way back in the dark ages - 1979. At that time Rich and I were attempting to obedience train our first dog, Brandy the ACS, at Town & Country DTC in Union, NJ. There were two of us, and only one dog, so Adrienne decided that we perhaps needed another dog to train. She approached us one night after class and asked us if we'd like to have a Welsh Springer Spaniel to own and train as an obedience prospect. "A Springer Spaniel, sure, we'll think about it" we said. "No, a Welsh Springer Spaniel" she repeated. After describing the difference to us, we went ahead and met Robbie, got permission from the landlord for a second dog, and brought him home to our 4 room apartment in Maplewood, NJ. So began our journey into Welshies. While Adrienne had sold him to us explicitly for obedience, he had been her hope for a show dog. Robbie had a brief foray into breed shows, appearing at the 1981 WSSCA specialty at Penn Treaty KC, and the 1982 American Spaniel Club show. He was the 4th place dog in the Open class at both shows, believe it or not! He had a lovely front, head and shoulder, so when a judge looked around the ring and needed another dog in a large class, he found Robbie. After his show career was over (much to Adrienne's relief), Robbie embarked on his obedience journey with me, and I turned over the Cocker's training to Rich. I eventually earned the CD on Robbie, Rich got the UD on that stubborn little Cocker, and the rest is history. So now you know why we always have a Cocker in the house and how we managed to get into Welshies. It's almost 35 years later, and we're still in the breed.