About Me
My parents bred and showed English Springer
Spaniels for approx 25 years under the kennel name DARAJEM.
Unfortunately they decided to move onto another hobby while I
was young. We have always had dogs and I have always felt a
close connection to Man's Best Friend. I moved out of home with
my husband when I was 21, we moved to a unit in Homebush which was
very nice except that I missed living with a dog! I very quickly
convinced him that we should buy a house and within 2 months we
had our very first Beagle - Nemo "Brialey Lil Bit Ov It". I
decided I would like to attempt dog showing and obedience. I like
the idea of doing things with your dogs rather than leaving them
at home all day long. I quickly discovered I LOVE showing so
decided not to continue with obedience (for now). I have also
met some very lovely people who have helped me so much, and of
course it's always nice meeting people who can also talk about
their dogs all day!
Since
getting Nemo, we have gone about setting up a proper kennel and
runs to ensure that he and future Beagles are as comfortable as
possible. We completed an
undercover concrete run therefore when it rains the Beagles have
somewhere to keep dry and warm, and it also provides a dirt-free
area to keep them clean when they are ready for a show. We moved
an existing fence at the front and back of the run to provide
more room, built a retaining wall to level the ground and
re-turfed the run. We also created a separate run which is utilized for a bitch in season or for
a litter of puppies.
I
am fortunate to become friends with Leanne & Christophe Duval
of Beagelee Beagles. Our beautiful girl Sienna (Beagelee Final
Match) who was to stay with us for a short while ended up
staying for good and is the foundation bitch of Athenabe Beagles. We also
imported Touti (Black Success of Pip's Made) bred by Christophe
in France. I thank Christophe & Leanne for all their help and
advice and entrusting me with these two beautiful girls. There
are many people who have assisted my learning of the breed &
showing abilities - Don & Bev James, Carol Boulton, Gwenda
Golding just to name a few.
Why Athenabe?? We decided to request a kennel name and were originally trying to obtain the same
one my parents used, or the name PALIJU which we have used as
our signatory since I was little. Our third choice was Athenabe
which basically comes from Athena (the goddess of wisdom) and be
(short for Beagles) in my opinion Beagles have a very wise
expression! Nemo is always thinking and you can often see his
mind ticking away.
