|
Once upon a time the Patons had a pet Cocker Spaniel called Ben. When he died, aged 15, we couldn't bear to replace him with another spaniel, so we had a family conference and discovered that we all wanted a Border Collie who looked like Black Bob in the Dandy Comic, so in 1992 we phoned the nearest kennels, which happened to be Beagold Border Collies. A seven month old Black Bob look alike, called Beagold Gavin The Director was looking for a new home. He was incredibly handsome and just for fun, we began to show him at Exemption Shows. Gavin's success encouraged us to enter him in Open and Championship Shows. He won Post Graduate Dog at East of England Champ show in 1994 and in the same year, won Best in Show at East Anglian Border Collie Club Open Show. Gavin introduced us to the world of show Border Collies and helped us dabble in obedience and agility. Mostly he was a dearly loved companion, remembered with constant love. He made us Border Collie people and began it all at Willianways.
We obtained our affix in 1995 and since then our breed involvement has grown. We have both served on the East Anglian Border Club committee and Geoff is qualified to judge Border Collies at Championship show level.
Over the years we feel that we are slowly, but surely learning more about our beloved breed. Our move in 1999 to this beautiful spot in Norfolk encouraged us to improve our facilities and enabled us to take the next logical step towards breeding our first litter. In 2001 Cara joined us as our first brood bitch and she was the mother of our first litter of pups in 2004. From that litter by Mirage the Storm Lord she produced our first homebred Crufts qualifier in Rannoch who went on to take third place in Graduate class at Crufts 2008. In her 2006 litter from Sh Ch Tonkory Palmerston at Fayken JW she delivered our first Show Champion Willianways Scotch Accent ShCM.
|
|
