Was there one dog who started it all?

There was definitely one for me My aunts dog, Toby.

Toby was a Briard, and my aunt got him the year I was born so, he was always around when I was younger. We were besotted by each other, and when I was round at my aunts, we were inseparable. He wouldn't leave my side, and I didn't want to leave his! I still remember when I used to go to the toilet, and he would sit outside whining... and he absolutely refused to wait outside while I had a bath, he would have to come in and lie on the bath mat! Most of my first memories were with Toby, and I remember the many holidays in Mull together. We used to go up there in a caravan, and we used to share a bed My older sisters would go off with my cousins, and do things together, and me and Toby just did our own thing. Usually spending hours on the beach... He was a great character... such a big clumsy lump, and he was terrified of the cat!

He was the dog who taught me the love, and devotion that a dog can give.

I was devasted when he died, when I was 9. It was the first 'proper' loss I had. Family members had died previously, but they were at ages when I was too young to understand what was going on. When Toby died though, I knew exactly what was going on, and I remember sitting on the couch crying to my mum for hours... It was later that year that my parents got us our own dog... and I sometimes wonder if it was because of Toby that they decided to. It has been 14 years since he died, and I still miss him...

This is one of my most treasured photos... Me and Toby when we were both 5.


Just writing this is tearing me up... I do hope, and plan, that a Briard will be a dog for me in the future... I just fear they wouldn't live up to how amazing Toby was.

So, was there a special dog who started it all for you?

I've always wanted a briard!

Probably my sweep tbh, i'd always liked dogs, i used to spend hours annoying my grandmothers dogs. My mum inherited a collie x of hers when my grandmother moved into a flat, but it was more a dog that lived in my house than my dog. For my 6th birthday i was given a book all about ckcs and told i was getting one. He's been the light of my life for 14 years and is the most wonderful dog on the planet.

I could never get another CKC as they are all 'him' if that makes sense. He genuinely makes my heart sing. I adore him.

My Aunt and uncle's dog Beulah was my first love. Looking back i think she must have been a GSD X Collie, my uncle had found her abandoned at the side of the road as a puppy.
Although I didn't see her a great deal ( lived too far a way ) when i went to stay with them, she and I were inseparable She even knew when I was going to arrive and would wait on the garage forecourt, refusing to come inside until I'd arrived.
We spent many happy summers together, bumming about my uncles car scrap yard, sitting in ancient cars pretending we were going somewhere.
I still remember the phone call to tell me she had been pts

When I was a child we had just two dogs, Fudge, a mutt pup that my mum rescued crossing a busy road, and Sophie, our big lovely GSD.
Still, I never really had the desire to own a dog myself as an adult, I liked them, just didn't think dog owning was for me.
Until son brought home this bedraggled, smelly bundle, I'll never be without a dog or two from now on!

Max was the dog that got me hooked.

i brought him home when i was 12. the owners didnt want him, told me he was dog aggressive and kept attacking their puppy, if no one took him they were having him put down. so he came home with me. he's a terrier cross, true heinz 57 but definitely terrier through and through.

he wasnt dog aggressive, just seemed he didnt like being mythered. he gets on well with dogs as long as they dont get in his face and he loves spending time with asbo and daphni.

we would disappear for the whole day, i would leave the house at 9 in the morning, meet my friend and her two dogs, and we would be gone all day, i wouldnt come in until it was tea time.

he used to sleep on my bed with me, i would feed him, bath him, and every bit of pocket money i got went on him.

imagine how upset i was when i came home from a weekend away at the age of 16, and nana had gotten rid of him she sent him back to my mum, i came home and had no dog.
he still lives with my mum now, but i still see him as my dog, and he still sees me as his owner. he goes mad when i go round follows me everywhere, and sits at my feet. i have already told my mum, that when i move out if he's still going (should be hes going to live forever! ) i am taking him with me.

here is maxi moo and he is now the grand old age of 14. hes going blind in one eye, and is a bit hard of hearing (personally i think hes just being ignorant )

Nope. I've loved dogs for as long as I can remember but was never really around them as a small child so I have no idea what started it for me.

I used to beg to walk various neighbour's dogs and fell in love with Nikko, a Parson Russell terrier. I spent all the time I could after school and at weekends with him, walking him for his owner who I later realised had terminal cancer.


He was the most gentle and lovely dog. Very responsive and adored his owner - and me!

Sadly when I went round there one day, a grumpy relative opened the door and told me that Mrs Green had died. I had no idea she was so ill as I'd seen her only a few days before ...

I was too shy to ask anything and just left (they pretty much shut the door on me).

I found out later that Nikko had ended up with relatives in London and I never saw him again. He wasn't really a London sort of dog, so I hope he managed to end up with people who took him out over some of the good parks and heaths and not some horrid walk round the block.

I often think of him. I was pleased when my sister got a rough haired JRT later too, as it reminded me of him.

Wys
x

My first love was my Grandads dog Toby-Joe. He was a Lab x Collie, he barked a lot and my Grandad used to wave his stick at him to make him shut up. I was there a lot as a child and Toby was always there, I would sit on the floor with him and cuddle, give him his biscuits and go into the garden with him.
I always wanted a dog of my own and when we finally did when I was 12, I was at secondary school then and remember going to my Grandads house one day and Toby was gone as he had been PTS, I didn't even get to say goodbye

There were a few for me.
Skippy first, my Grandads dog, really he grew up with my mum (and was more spoiled than her - when the ice cream van came the dog cried for his ice cream - mum knew she wouldnt get one) but he was still going when I was little
and of course I grew up with the stories of him - he was a proper latchkey dog in his day, left home in the morning and walked everyone to school then wondered about having his own little adventures then back to the school gate in the evening.
He was a Collie cross Corgie, black with a white flash on his chest - and to th is day that is my fave look of a dog

2nd dog was Suzi - a King Charles
She was the first dog who taught me about dog training, I was reading circus books at the time so wanted to train her some tricks - which I did - after a fasion. Also she was walked every day pulling like made on a choke chain - so I decided to teach her to walk nicely - sad to say using the choke chain - cos I figured a little while with that was better than a lifetime hanging herself with it (I didnt know there were alternatives at the time)

Then of course there was the first Ben - a red a white collie cross belonging to a family friend. I dont really have exciting stories about him, he was just special, he smiled and looked in your eyes and you felt so connected there would have been no surprise at all if he had opened his mouth and spoke

and of course there were many many others - as a stupidly shy child I still went up to all grown ups - if they had a dog, I walked their dogs, trained them, played with them - I even was sent to catch all the cats in the neighbourhood when they needed to go to the vets

I guess for me it was our family labrador, Tally.
We got her as a pup ("reject" from the breeder, who is one of my mum's best friends) when I was about six and she died of old age while I was away at university.
I used to take her to obedience and agility training as a child handler and we even entered a few competitions around Cumbria and Lancashire. In agility she was always "slow and steady". She usually came away with no faults but I had to really gee her up to get her moving and even then she never broke a sweat. We won a few prizes thanks to her steadiness and I have some rosettes somewhere

Here we are at an agility competition



and here she is giving a lift to my mum's current lab, Beanie (another "reject" due to having an undershot jaw!) when she was a pup. Beanie is now nine