Bringing Out Your New Maremma

By Allan Leighton

Where does one start to write a story? At the beginning I suppose.

When my family started to talk about another Maremma, I made a call to Anne Latimer and as luck would have it she had a litter on the way. I left it up to Anne to pick a puppy for us that we could show in the ring. We saw a photograph of the litter and all fell in love with one particular puppy, and when we spoke to Anne again she said that was the one she had chosen for us.

Then came the day for me to pick the puppy up. I set off at the crack of dawn to travel up to Carlisle by train. Anne met me at the station and I got the first glimpse of my little white ball of fluff. She was absolutely gorgeous with big dark eyes looking at me as if to say, "Who are you"? The puppy settled well on the train ride home, but didn't like it when we had to go on the underground. She curled up in my jacket and we became best of friends from that moment.

When I arrived home and walked in the front door, Jill took one look at her and just grabbed her. I didn't get a look in for the rest of the evening. Jill was totally smitten from that moment as well, so were the rest of the family as they met her one by one. The only ones not too happy to see her were our four cats!!! Things were a bit up and down with them for a few days!! After much family discussion we decided to call our new puppy “Kyla”. We started puppy classes as soon as we were able and she settled in well and made lots of new doggy friends. She played with all of them, big and small.

We then went on to dog training and I hoped that together with what I knew from having our first Maremma, (Sasky), everything would work out well in the show ring. So we come to our first show, the LKA in December 2006. I don't know who was more scared on that day. I thought everything would be all right. How wrong can you be?

We went into the ring, she stood well and then Jeremy Latimer asked me to move her round the ring. That was Kyla's signal, she thought “great - it's playtime - let's have some fun!”. She started to jump up, play with her lead and jump around like a rabbit. I remember Jeremy coming up to me later and saying that Kyla was lovely but I needed training in the show ring. So back I went to training school in preparation for Crufts. The big day arrived and Kyla was on her best behaviour all day. She let everyone pet and stroke her and I started to look forward to going into the ring. Jacqui Downes was the judge and after she looked her over, she asked me to move her round the ring. Kyla thought “great it is playtime!” again! She was so naughty and I felt sorry for Jacqui having to judge her. Kyla had a great time though.

After Crufts, Jill suggested some fresh chicken to train her for the ring. After a few weeks of this she seemed to get the hang of it and when we went to the Windsor show she did very well and I was proud of her. The next show was at the Malvern Hills. The judge asked me to move round the ring in a triangle and I thought she did it very well. She asked me to move her again but faster. Kyla thought once more “great - it's playtime!” again! So it’s back to the training again to try to get it right for the next show!

P.S. Just a short note to say that we were walking in the local park recently with Kyla off the lead. All of a sudden she just took off and wouldn't come back to me when I called her. I could hear her barking but couldn't see her. I ran into the other field where the barking was coming from. I could see her at the far end of the field.

When I got to her I found a woman lying in the bushes badly cut and bruised with all her clothes torn. I tried to talk to her but she was very frightened. I told her I was going to get some help and would be back. I rang the police and ambulance service. After they arrived I went home.

A couple of hours later Jill and I took Kyla back for another walk and the park was swarming with police and the ambulance was still there. The police wanted to speak to me again and we found out that the woman had been seriously assaulted. The woman asked to speak to me and she said thank you very much for mine and Kyla's help.

If Kyla hadn't run off and started barking things might have been much worse for her. I was so proud of Kyla that day