About Us The dogs that have been part of the Powdermill house over the years have all had one main thing in common – soundness. Whatever the breed, construction and movement have been paramount; luckily beauty has come with it too! We started in Surrey then Myself, Mum and Clive (my step father) moved to Devon in 2003.  We have now moved to Leicestershire with my Fiancée, so the Powdermills are nice and central for all of the show venues. Mum is now retired and on hand during the working day and is available whenever they whelp. I am a little more restricted being at work, although teaching Animal Care has its advantages like lots of students to socialise puppies and a grooming salon when they are particularly stinky!! In The Beginning Mum started agility and obedience training at the age of seven with Mitzi her Miniature Poodle. Obedience was the first discipline I was introduced to also when we started attending Esher DTC. For most of the time while I was growing up dog clubs were a big part of my life and I started competing in fun shows in junior handling with a collie owned by our friends who ran the club and my Chihuahua Billy who was my 5th Birthday present (he had a bad mouth, one testicle and slipping patella, but I loved him!). At the height of our dog club involvement in the 80’s we attended the obedience club on a Monday night, my parents ran a ring craft club on Tuesday nights and we attended another ring craft club where my father did the training on a Wednesday night. Our show dogs have never been as well trained as they were in those days! The Shepherds The Powdermill affix was registered over 35 years ago. Owned by my parents it was first associated with German Shepherds which is a breed my mother Ann owned from the age of 13 when she bought Skipper an all black dog. Possibly due to Skipper the interest in breeding blacks stayed and it was with pride that my parents watched one they had bred Warrior of Scutari to be the first all black to win a class at Crufts. Combined influences of the ever more apparent divide in the German Shepherd breed (we were and always will be advocates of the ‘English’ type) and the need for a smaller breed for me to compete in junior handling (at the age of 10 I was a little short to be able to run properly with a GSD!) led to a decision, after looking at different breeds, to get our first Pembroke Corgi. It was with a little sadness that it was decided to stop showing the Shepherds especially as in the final year she was shown Powdermill Generals Lady won the first CC for Powdermill and my parents. They still stayed with us for a long time though and we lost our last old girl Echo in 2009. The Corgis The first corgis arrived in 1987, having done her research and decided on the lines she wanted a chance meeting while attending a dog club party while on holiday in Devon run by a friend who had bought a GSD pup a few years before meant we were introduced to Pauline Eberle of the Patchesfarm corgis. Pauline had just mated her bitch to Ch Belroyd Nutcracker who just happened to be the dog mum had been most interested in! Needless to say we kept in touch and when the litter arrived there were three bitches and two dogs. I was a very excited 11 year old the day we travelled all the way from Surrey to Devon to see the pups. It was a bitch we were looking at and Pauline had decided she was going to keep a tri girl, which left a red and another tri. We were told we had the choice and that there was another breeder going to see if she wanted the remaining bitch the next day. My parents picked the tri and it was arranged when they would go back to collect her. In the mean time I had completely fallen for the red who had the biggest attitude you can imagine and I thought was much more fun. On the way home (keep in mind the length of the journey) I made it known, in typical 11 year old style, that I liked the red one and as it was supposed to be for me to junior handle couldn’t I choose etc etc! I can’t have been too bratish about it though as when we got home a call was made to Pauline to ask if the other lady didn’t want the red then could we have both. The next day the call came to say that the lady had been and looked at my red girl and was of the opinion that she would never make a show dog, so if we wanted to take the chance we could have them both. I was very happy!! It was also with some satisfaction that when Corrie my special red girl took her first CC not only was I the youngest person at the time to win a CC in the corgis, the lady who said she would never make a show dog was at the side of the ring watching! We were very lucky with our two foundation girls Patchesfarm Possum at Powdermill and Patchesfarm Pomander at Powdermill as they both became Champions for us. Spice (Pomander) also produced the first Powdermill homebred champion in our Pete, Powdermill Pure Magic who was sired by Ch Pemland Magnus. Pete was a beautiful dog who did not do himself justice in the ring. He found it all rather boring and had no interest in baiting for food which was apparently very like his father had been! Despite this you could count the number of times he was unplaced on one hand in his short career. His main problem was he would just about show for his class then not in the challenge with the attitude of ‘I’ve done this once, remind me why I need to do it again?’ Despite this, his quality was recognised and he did gain his title at the age of three when he had just started to grow up and look like he was going to show properly. At his final show when he gained his crowning CC he showed like he had never done before. Tragically one week later he died, and we never had an answer to why. The Powdermill affix transferred into the joint ownership of my mother and I in 1989 and we continued with the corgis until 2003 when our last show girl Powdermill Sweet Touch who had won well including a CC and reserves in this country went out to the USA to continue her career. There have been several overseas Powdermill corgi Champions who have made us very proud. The ‘corgi’ years were enjoyable ones filled with people who gave me lots of help, guidance and support while I was growing up, but showing was never quite the same after losing Pete. The docking ban was looming and I had less time due to going to work rather than being a student so it was decided to just concentrate on the Papillons for a while. The Papillons Similar to the chance meeting that led to our first corgis, a chance conversation led to our first Papillon. In 2000 I had taken one of our corgis to Teresa Maddox be mated and she had told me of her plans to move from Essex to Lincolnshire with her mum and Mike and Mark of the Nouveau Papillons. When I went home and relayed this story to Mum and Clive he made an innocent comment of how he had always wanted a Papillon and maybe if he had one he would start showing again (he used to show Borzois). So I went back to collect my bitch a few days later and told Teresa this, where a phone call to Mike meant I was taken round to their house that afternoon to have a chat and see if they had anything available. We couldn’t have been luckier than to have been allowed to have Nouveau Gypsy Lass on breeding terms. Mike and Mark have always been very particular who they let their dogs go to and we recognise that without the start we had with Gypsy we would not have the quality we have today. Not shown much while still with them, she has never been shown with us, her true calling was to be a superb foundation bitch. Her first litter produced Aus Champion Powdermill Touch of Magic, Powdermill Looking Good for Nouveau and Powdermill Look at Me who stayed with us (and in turn is dam to Int Ch Powdermill Sweet Touch Spinillons). Her second litter produced Am Ch Powdermill Touch of Art Nouveau who very nearly had his UK title too before being exported. Her final litter produced Powdermill Ace Touch who is a HWTM star with Pauline Graystock and Powdermill Look at the Stars who stayed with us and like her mother has been a superb brood bitch. Star has never been shown much and despite only being 9 inches in her heels has produced her litters with no problems. We are proud to say that the seven puppies she has produced have all had a successful show career. She is mother to Ch Powdermill Touch the Stars, has other sons with ShCM, a son who is a Dutch Ch, and quite nice daughters too!! The third generation Powdermills are also doing well. Powdermill Look of an Angel, after being successful over here, is now in America with Marichin and should do well both in the ring and as a brood to link in well with the Nouveau and Powdermill lines she already has. Powdermill Red Hot Touch has also had a great start with a successful puppy career. After being given a rest to mature he should be out again in the New Year against the older boys. We are very proud of all the Powdermill Papillons who are now with other people and doing well in the ring and in breeding programmes.    We continue to enjoy living with our lovely Papillons, and the one thing people from other breeds say to us that they like about our toy dogs is that they are not treated like little dogs, and don’t tend to act like it either! The Others When my partner Darren joined the team he was a little nervous of showing something as small as a Papillon, which was understandable really having previously shown beef cattle! His leaning was towards the Norwegian Elkhound after admiring Ch Kestos ISpy at Graythor JW ShCM when he took the group at Crufts in 2006. So after some research on my part (I always said I didn’t want a hound!) and some searching because there really aren’t that many of them around Lunar came to live with us. Luckily she fitted straight in, a very intelligent girl and easy to live with. Her hunting instinct is just too strong out and about though, if she flushes something she would follow it so we don’t take the chance and she stays on a flexi! Despite being a walking dustbin (we haven’t yet found anything she won’t eat!) I don’t think even food would take her mind off a deer if she saw one! Having a bigger dog to show again made me remember how much I enjoyed it so when a photo advert for a litter of Eurasiers appeared in the local paper looking so adorable it made me look at this little known breed. Having researched them and been to see the little bears (fatal!) Megan came to live with us. Everyone who meets her loves her especially the fact that she always looks like she is smiling, and that she has a black tongue! We had decided this was quite enough with our collection of toys also a hound and now a utility however one more was to join our team. Clive had, for a few years, been hinting that he would like a Border Terrier, he then was joined by Darren who also really liked the Borders, so thinking what is one more group anyway a terrier joined us in the form of Briar. She has been an absolute joy since the day she arrived and we are very happy with our mix of toy, hound, utility and terrier!  Oh and just as an add on, having said he never would Darren now happily shows the Papillons so don’t always look for me on the end of the lead, you may see him showing the occasional Powdermill too! If you would like to know more about Powdermill Papillons then by all means e-mail me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This page was last modified on 4th january 2012 Copyright © 2011, Ruth and Ann @ Powdermill. 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