About Us

Welcome to my website. My name is Sonja and I live in Cheshire with my dogs. I have Malinois and Boston Terriers and train and compete in Agility and obedience with both breeds

I have always been animal mad and kept a variety of animals throughout my childhood but I always wanted a dog. We had a Rhodesian Ridgeback for a while, but he died in a tragic accident and my parents decided they would not have another dog so I had to content myself with walking other peoples dogs when I could.

When I was sixteen I went to a local dogs home and came home with Rip a 6 month old German Shepherd.

My parents were not amused and said I couldnt keep him so I packed my bags and prepared to leave with him. Luckily they relented and let us both stay.When I left home to get married Rip stayed with my parents and I was dogless again for several years. My parents however were joined by several other dogs. Rip developed epilepsy and unfortunately died early in 1986. Not wanting another Shepherd with all the associated health problems my parents got a Tervueren puppy, Zoe (Talamo Flurry) and then Sadie (Grosse Gormande at Kyann) and went on to breed a litter.

Meanwhile my life was moving on and after my divorce I had boyfriend who told me his parents had a Belgian Shepherd and I went to see her. He brought out this very strange dog. It looked a bit like my parents dogs but it had no coat! Artemis or Missy for short (Gwashleas Artemis) was was my first introduction to Malinois and what a lovely dog she was. We spent many happy hours out walking the countryside together.

In 1991 I went with my partner to meet Betty Duffus and all her dogs and help him choose a puppy, Poppy. (Gwashleas Bagatelle) and we went to several shows together. At the same time I rescued a small black and tan dog called Daisy and I decided I would have a go at doing obedience with her and registered her with the Kennel Club, but we were never good enough to compete. Daisy turned out to not like children at all and as by this time I had four I decided it would be kinder to find her a home without children. A few months later I found another dog in the local dogs home, and Minnie came to live with us. The picture shows Minnie excited about going for a walk with Poppy looking on.

When my partner and I split up Poppy went to a new home leaving me with just Minnie until I got Cracker a GSD from Manchester dogs home .Mum then took on a rescue Malinois, Charlie who I got to know really well. In 2000 Just after Cracker died mum said she was going to Bettys see a litter of Malinois puppies and did I want to come too? So I went along for the ride and somehow came home with Casey, and that was the start of my love for the Malinois.

With Casey I became interested in training, learning about clicker training and starting to undestand why I had not got very far training Daisy. Now all my dogs are trained to at least the KC Bronze Good citizen award level with Casey having passed his Gold and Ruby her Silver. I clicker train my dogs and it is such fun for both the dogs and me. We train and compete in Obedience and agility and still go to breed shows when we can find the time.