Dochlaggie Kennel Visit. Published in the May, 2002 edition of the Pomeranian Reader.
Firstly let me thank Sharon and Benson and everyone at the “Pom Reader” for this Kennel visit. I am greatly honoured to be featured here.
As most people are probably already aware I am an Australian, living in Northern Victoria, about 3 hours north of Melbourne. We have a Dairy farm close to the Murray River and milk Friesian/Holstein cows. We also run Angus beef on another property.
My husband Noel and myself are the very proud parents of 4 adult children.
The eldest Grant, is now 30 and is an electrical engineer and has been based in London for the last 4 years. Our second child, our only daughter, Anita is now 28, Anita has a bachelor of building and is working for a Melbourne based firm doing construction estimates. Our third child Ross, now 25 is a physicist, also based in Melbourne and working as an acoustic consultant. The youngest of our brood, Stuart is 18 and has just started his university course at Melbourne doing Electrical Engineering.
I would like to explain, how I caught the incurable disease, this passion I have for the Pomeranian breed. I love all animals and as well as the Pomeranians have 2 farm dogs to work the cattle, 9 cats, and 5 cockatoos. The cats are all strays which I have had desexed.
As a young child I had numerous pets, goats, piglets, rabbits, kangaroos, any injured animal was brought home to be cared for. I collect any injured bird and when well enough these are released into the wild. The pet cockatoos are birds found injured, brought home and for some reason or another I have not been able to release back into the wild.
The Pomeranian passion started when I was about 9 years of age. I had a great aunt who showed Pomeranians for many years with great success. A visit to her home was such a special treat and the day a pet baby Pomeranian came to live at our home was such an unbelievable joy.
This little Pomeranian became my living doll, he put up with me dressing him up in dolls clothes, he would even suck a dummy. I would dress him in dolls clothes wrap him up in a bunny rug and take him for walks in my dolls pram, what a patient little man he must have been.
In 1975, I decided to start breeding and exhibiting Pomeranians. In some ways I had a head start because I already knew in my mind what I wanted my Pomeranians to look like. I had been watching show Pomeranians being groomed from an early age and had always kept my pet baby boy groomed to perfection.
Living on a farm, and breeding cattle and horses, I was aware of the need for good construction and of course what follows-sound movement in my Pomeranians.
While applying for a prefix, we had received a postcard from my mother-in-law ,
who had returned to visit her old home and relatives in Scotland. This card was from a place called “Dochlaggie”, on the spur of the moment, as I had already tried at least 40 names and they had been rejected, I included this name on my application and hence the Dochlaggie Pomeranians came into existence.
In 1977, I bred my first All Breeds Best in Show Winner and Champion Pomeranian Dochlaggie Decisive.
I did not breed many Pomeranians until the late 1980’s because I was helping on the farm and had 4 young children at home. Our children all played sport, had music lessons, went to athletics and as we live 20 miles from the nearest town, I had to devote a lot of my time to transporting our children to activities like football, tennis and guitar lessons. Our children also helped handle the Pomeranians and were successful competitors in child handlers.
I did manage to show the few litters I bred during those years and made up over 20 champions during this time. Along the way winning Best in Show Specialities with Australian Champion Dochlaggie Dancing Queen,
Australian Champion Dochlaggie Didgeridoo, and Australian Champion Dochlaggie Dyanna.
Our Pomeranians are only crated for travel to shows, or visits to the veterinarian. Over the years as our Pomeranian family has increased, I have had large areas fenced for exclusive use by the Pomeranians and another building was built to accommodate my breeding Pomeranians with 16 feet x 6 feet fully enclosed runs for night and the large lawn areas are available for our Pomeranians to run and play during the day.
Mothers come to stay in the house about 3 weeks before whelping and as the majority of our girls seem to whelp during the wee hours of the morning, most of my litters are born in my bedroom. Babies stay in the house until at least 12 weeks of age and are vet checked, vaccinated and microchipped before moving to sleep in the bungalow.
I feed fresh chicken mince, which is produced in natural conditions with no additives given to the chickens. During the winter months the Pomeranians also love a drink of fresh milk, still warm from the cow. We have our own beef cattle so our Pomeranians have a supply of fresh good quality meat. I also feed a premium dry food.
