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About Us
Our story with Dals begins as most do with a very special dalmatian that touched our lives. I (James) read several books about dalmatians and contacted a breeder and brought my fist one home in 1997. Toby was an amazing dog and a wonderful best friend that helped me through some rough times in my life. Toby and I met Julie in 2002. Fortunately, Julie fell in love with both of us. Unfortunately, we both had to share in the tragic early loss of Toby due to complications with his bladder in 2006 at just a little over nine years old. It was hard to even think about a new dog for a while. I did some searching and found Marcia Givens' name and contact info. Finally, later in 2006, I decided to call Marcia and start talking about getting a new dog. We weren't sure about what activities we would be doing with him, didn't know if we would show him (mostly because I still didn't really know anything about showing dogs). Finally in January of 2007, our home was blessed with a spotted dog again. It was so wonderful to have Wicket in our lives. He is so gentle and loving with everyone he meets, I decided I wanted to look in to therapy work with him. That also led to reading about showing and we decided to show him in conformation as well. (For those who may not have read Wicket's page, he was named after the Ewok in Star Wars. At the time we got him, we still knew nothing about showing dogs, and didn't realize there was a measuring device called a wicket. Wicket is a small Dal, and a conversation that still amuses me is "Who would name their dog 'Wicket'?" "Somone who never has to worry about having one used.") We started showing Wicket in June of 2007 thanks so much to the members of the NW Arkansas Kennel Club who helped show us which way was up. We really learned how to show him in November 2007 at the Tulsa show. Special thanks to Marcia, Doug, Laurel, and Brad who helped really show me what I was doing that weekend. We have a long way to go, but it led to a night and day difference in showing Wicket, and led to his first point at his next show! For companionship and healthy play, we knew from the beginning we wanted to get two dogs. Along with meeting Laurel and Brad that weekend in November, we also got to meet their dog, Reggie. We fell in love with him right away. He is just beautiful and has a wonderful attitude. As the weekend progressed we found out there might be a Reggie puppy available. This brought Sparky into our life in February of 2008. Sparky started his career off right with a point at his first show right after turning 6 months. We look forward to the fun and adventure as we continue conformation and therapy and move into other areas of dog sports and activities. We look forward to lots of fun with our friends from the dog world, and sharing our dogs and information with those who aren't in the dog world yet, or can't be for some reason. Very special thanks to Marcia and Doug Givens who have been so supportive, a wonderful wealth of information, for all the tips and training, for watching our dogs while we're out of town, for making us part of your family, and most of all... for bringing spots back into our lives. Thanks also to Laurel and Brad Allen for all the encouragement and tips (and running around in Marcia's driveway with Wicket and me in the middle of the night!). The NW Arkansas Kennel Club members for welcoming us and getting us running the right direction in the ring. And thanks to the members of D.O.T. for welcoming us and being so friendly to the newbies with the spotted dogs.
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