My whole life has revolved around animals; I was raised in a house that was always filled with them, from dogs and horses through to lambs and piglets! I grew up with Basenji’s and Great Danes but horses, like all small girls, were my first love which I made a career of, training with Jenny Loriston-Clarke and then for a short time in Austria with Herr Bachinger.

On my return to the UK I had a bad fall that stopped me doing much with horses for nearly 2 years so I then turned to dogs. I bought a collie that was the most amazing dog around the farm but she couldn’t see the point of obedience, but I was hooked on it. A second collie was bought, ‘Bo’ and I sailed through the classes and were working ‘C’ when tragedy struck and she was diagnosed with hip displacea. By this time I had another collie, Leah, she was better suited to agility, however when she was just five she was diagnosed with Addisons disease. My fourth collie Bryn was attacked while working in the ring as a youngster and never recovered mentally from it, bolting back to the car whenever he had the chance.

My collies were all retired to live long and happy lives at home. However, I needed something to work and had spotted a Belgian Shepherd at Crufts a few years before and thought that might be just the dog I needed and as luck would have it a friend had a litter of Groenendaels. I went to see them and there was a Tervueren bitch in the litter and I duly came home with Corndael Tressa (Chalice).

Unfortunately Chalice had other ideas about anything to do with work and spent her time training me! I learnt a lot from her and she is my foundation bitch, so I have a lot to thank her for.