I have had dogs my whole life, I dragged my first stray dog in off the street when it wandered by my house when I was about 2 years old, my parents let me keep him and with this first dog I learnt many valuable lessons on training dogs. My next dog was a cross bred also, a Chow/Samoyed called Butch and he came to us when he was about 4 years old and lived with us until he died at about 17 years of age. I took Butch along to Sydney All Breeds Dog Training Club and he soon graduated to the advanced classes we were invited to join the Club's Obedience Demonstration team and I competed with him in Club competitions and RSPCA trials, in those days cross breds and dogs not registered with the ANKC were not allowed to compete in ANKC competitions. Because I was limited to only 2 competitions a year to compete in with Butch I started to look for a pure breed so I could compete more regularly. My mother suggested I get a Samoyed just in case their "were any accidents with Butch at least the puppies wouldn’t look too bad".
So Tammy - Camkobe Vanessa came to live with me in 1973, I originally had only intended to trial her but her breeder convinced me to bring her along to a couple of shows. Our first introduction to dog showing resulted in a 4th out of 4 and I became hooked. Tammy was slow to mature and the only blue ribbons she ever won in those early days were if she was the only one in her class but when she turned 18 months that started to change and she quickly became an Australian Champion finishing her title going Challenge Bitch at a breed Speciality. She went on to take 4 more Speciality Challenges and 1 Reserve, 2 Best In Show Specialities a Runner Up Best In Show Speciality, and several Sydney Royal Challenges. She was the first Samoyed in the NSW Samoyed Club History to retire a perpetual trophy from competition by winning it 3 years in a row. She won the NSW Samoyed Club Pointscore one year with a whopping 196 points only one other dog that year got on the pointscore and it finished 2nd 171 points behind her. She became an outstanding show dog winning at all the major shows, Sydney Royal Challenges, Spring Fair Challenges, and many classes in Show and Goup. Tammy was the NSW Samoyed Club Bitch Pointscore winner 1976-1977 & 1978-79 she was just about unbeatable. Tammy also gained a Companion Dog title in obedience and became the NSW Samoyed Club’s Obedience Dog of the year in 1976, but the show ring was were she truly shone.
Of course showing led onto breeding as it often does, and Tammy was mated to Australian Champion Sever Imperator CD and a puppy bitch was kept. This puppy was to become Australian Champion Keftiu Rose Mellay (Sparky) and she soon followed on in her mothers foot steps taking a Best In Show at a NSW Samoyed Club Championship Show and becoming Bitch Pointscore winner in 1979-1980. She became the mother of Australian Champion Keftiu Arctic King (King) who was a Dog Challenge winner at Sydney Royal and won many Best In Groups and also the mother of Australian Champion Keftiu Arctic Legend (Ben). Ben was by the great Australian Champion Taz The Caliph and he was also soon following the family tradition of winning Challenges at Breed Specialities and he became a favourite of Breed Specialists having many nice wins.
Other dogs were bred and bought including Keftiu Silver Spray (Lady also became a BISS winner) and Australian Champion Amundsen Abigail (Abby), with Abby I ventured into Agility, she became the first Samoyed in Australia to gain a pass in Agility and should have become the first to gain a title but unfortunately at that time my husband died and with 2 small children to look after dog activities took a backward seat. I had always intended to get back to Agility with Abby but she was to die from cancer before that could become possible Some years passed and I was busy taking my two boys to various sporting activies on weekends and had no time to do any dog activities when a phone call from Clara Willis (Taz Kennels) was about to change everything A visit to see her new home was organised one weekend and she just happened to have 2 litters there at the time the last to be bred by her as it turned out. A male pup was put in my arms and I was asked if I would like him and so Harry, soon to become Australian Champion Taz Bright Spark came home to live with us and back into the show ring we went, and so the story continues.
