Bolognese & Us

We are Paul and Jacqueline Fuller. We have owned dogs since 1995, a German shorthaired pointer cross named Smeagol. At the time he lived with four cats. When Smeagol was 9 we got another dog, a beautiful Bloodhound cross German Shepherd called Lyra who had the misfortune to be poisoned accidentally by a neighbours slug pellet when she was 18 months old. We were very upset by this as was Smeagol so we quickly got him a new companion in a Jack Russell named Monty (now 13 years old) but he was too playful for him so we got another Jack Russell Dotti (also now 13 years old) for Monty to play with. Smeagol died of a brain tumour when he was 14 (we still miss him now).

When the Jack Russells reached ten (2016) we thought we would like another small dog and started researching the sort of breed we thought would suit us and the Bolognese looked promising as we thought we would also like to try showing. We put ourselves on a couple of breeders waiting list and went to watch our local Ring Craft club, it was at this club realized that we lived near in Kent’s main venue (Maidstone) for Open dog shows (about 12 shows a year). We went along to one of these shows and met the lovely Dennis and Carol Mulligan and their beautiful Bollies (we were hooked from that day).

Being eager to own one of these beautiful dogs we found one for sale in Wales and went to see the pups the next day and ended up buying our Purdey. It was then we found out what crazy, opinionated, adorable, hyperactive, mud loving dogs they really are. They are very talkative, attention seeking and bouncy and affectionate they are also very brave (will even go into the garden with fireworks going off). We started attending Ringcraft as soon as she was old enough and took her to her first show in Maidstone where again we met Dennis and Carol who were very helpful and willing to pass on their knowledge and tips on tear stains and grooming and feeding (I can’t say enough good things about these lovely people and their daughter Becky, we will miss them at Maidstone now they have moved to the Isle of Wight). We have not done badly at showing and were over the moon to qualify for Crufts in our first year where she got second in her class (could not have been prouder of her). Purdey started to get a bit too much for the Jack Russells so we got our Lovely Chihuahua called Binky as a playmate for her. In 2018 we got Purdey’s sister from another litter Missy and what a handful she has turned out to be, I can understand that these dogs are not for everyone as they like lots of exercise, you have to keep them well groomed or you have lots of knots which is not nice for dog or owner they are also very good at getting under your feet when moving around the house. These dogs are the most loyal, loveable and affectionate dogs we know and we cannot imagine our home without them.

If you see us at any shows please come and say hello as we are quite shy and tend to keep ourselves to ourselves.

Paul & Jacqueline Fuller