NL 
EN
 |
 |
When we moved to our new home in 1981, we decided to take a dog. My wife, Patricia, wanted an English cocker spaniel, but I didn’t agree. Till I saw a photo of a dalmatian in a dogbook, a dog you don’t see every day. I knew then, this is the dog for me.
Through a dog magazine we came in contact with a lady, who only breeds on occasions. She only bred one litter. From this litter we bought our first dog, a bitch, named Giba (petname Cora). She was out of Dallydis Diana x Ch. Fan Fan Plum Pudding. Fan Fan, Cora’s father, was then only 1 year old and still unknown. He later turned out to be a great champion. When Giba was one year old, we went to visit a dogshow and decided that we like to do this as well. We were by then already a member of the Belgium club of dalmatian dogs. In 1983 I became a committee member, which I still am with a small interruption of 2 years. Our first dog show was a club show in Vilvoorde, Giba was second in juniorclass. From that moment we were hooked and went to many more dogshows. We were very lucky with our first dog , still a novice in the breed, but our Giba became Belgium, French, German VDH and international champion. She was a very sweet and lovely bitch, you can find her picture elsewhere on my site. Giba had four litters, her puppies went all over to France, Holland, Belgium and Switzerland. Many of them became National or International Champion.
In the mean while, we acquired a new dog, Irdally’s Iron Image. He was out of Ch. Irdally’s Arlette x Ch. Fan Fan Plum Pudding. Iron became a Belgium and an International Champion.
Out of Giba’s third litter I kept on a dog named Mastermind of the Green Garden. Of the green garden is my affix, as you might have gathered. Master, as we called him, was out of Ch. Giba x Ch. Retma Special Envoy. Retma (petname Bond), was imported from Australia by the family De Ridder Onghena, added a lot to the breed. He had a lovely temperament. Master did very well at the dog shows, he soon had many CAC and CACIB’s, but at the age of two Master turned out to be suffering from lympf cancer. He died at a very young age. This led to a dark time, I lost my own bred dog. Till today I can say, I lost a great pal.
A few years later I started to follow a judging course and in 1991 I passed my exame as a judge for dalmatians. In the mean time I have over 20 years experience in the breed. In the summer of 1998 I bought a new bitch, Domani’s Xpepper (Ch. Irdally’s Nymphy x Ch. Blythes Balou from Erasmus). Pepper, as we call her, has done very well up to now she got quite a few CAC and CACIB’s. You can see her elsewhere on my site. She won the group (group 6) in Oostend and ended up as 10 th best dog in show. On the 4 th of January this year Pepper has been mated. Up until now Pepper has had three litters, of which we kept one male dog: Buster of the Green Garden. As I mentioned before, we did not intend to keep him with us at first, but then we found, he truly is a precious dog. He is our quietest Dalmatian and never dissatisfied: while he likes to overlook everything from his basket, he is always in for a steady walk as well.
He also does well in shows: at the age of three he already is Belgian, Dutch and international champion. At the beginning of 2005 he won the Europasieger 2005 and one week after that, he became Best of Breed in Alpen Germany.
Meanwhile we also bought a bitch imported from England with Stephanie Yates: Caprilli’s Cotton Candy. She was bred from a Swedish mother and an Estonian father (Jilloc’s Fancy me at Millview & Ch. Alphadirato Copyright).
Candy is the life of the party at our home, she knows what she wants and will not settle for anything else. We always have to keep an eye on her, because she always has some trick up her sleeve.
She is very communicative as well: if you ignore her, she starts barking and crying incessantly until you pay attention to her.