We are a small kennel based in Dollingstown in the Orchard County of Armagh in N Ireland. After several years studying the breed to get as much information as we could we decided that a Samoyed was the right dog for us. Meantime John moved to Hong Kong and I did not think it was the ideal time to get a dog as I was out working all day. I moved to Hong Kong several months later but we still kept in contact with the Irish representative of the Samoyed Association. In 1994 whilst back in Belfast for an interview, John was put in touch with a couple who were due to have a litter in July. This was ideal for us as we were returning from Hong Kong in June.

We received a call on 20 July to say that the puppies had arrived so we went to see them. We picked our puppy a few weeks later and when she was 8 weeks old she came home to live with us. This little girl was Dilroth Princess Sutska (her name being chosen by a Polish girl who worked with John). Sutska settled in very quickly and changed our lives.

She was bought purely as a pet but eventually her breeders, Mary & Jim Patton persuaded us to let them show her and she attended her first show at almost 4 years old. She won her first Green Star shortly afterwards and as her success continued we decided we should really go to a show to watch her. So began our interest in showing although it was quite some time before I ever handled a dog in the ring myself. Sutska became our first Champion in 2002. A first dog is always special and Sutska was definitely a very special girl. We were devastated when we lost her in October 2004 but we are glad that she shared so many years of our life and taught us so much about the breed. She was a pleasure to live with and we are so proud of her. Words cannot express how much we miss her.

After several failed attempts Sutska gave birth to her first litter sired by Pedita Polar (Ch Nikitta Winter Breeze x Calsam Snow Legend) who was owned by Jim & Mary on Christmas Day 1998. She had to have a C-Section so it certainly was a day to remember for everyone including the vets. Out of the 9 puppies born 6 survived. We decided then that it would be Sutska’s first and last litter. From this litter we kept a bitch – Holly – who was later to become Ir Ch Kynoch Aurora of The Dawn, our first homebred champion. Holly has had 1 litter so far – 7 puppies on New Years Day 2001.

In 2002 after a lot of research we imported a young dog Cabaka’s Tiger Ranger of McCoy from Cabaka Kennel the No 1 kennel in Denmark. He was the first Samoyed to enter UK under the Pets Passport Scheme and we were delighted to travel to Amsterdam to collect him from his breeders who were attending the World Show. Tiger was shown at this show and was Graded “Excellent” and placed 3rd in Junior Dog class. Within a couple of days it felt as if Tiger had been with us all his life.

In November 2002 we got a puppy dog again from the Dilroth Kennel. “Reuben’s” sire is Multi Ch Dilroth Bonnie Apollo who is the top winning dog in Ireland and his dam is Emeral Jade, a daughter of Ch Zamoyski Lucky Casanova at Roybridge, the UK Breed Record holder.

Although all our dogs are show dogs they are first and foremost much loved pets who live in the house as part of the family and have been successful in the show ring.