We dedicate this page
to the memory of our beloved Sophie who left us at 5 3/4 years of
age extremely suddenly to Cancer of the
Lymph Glands, Lymphoma. She was our first Bernese and our only condolance
is that she never suffered any pain when she passed away.
The
story of our Sophie started for us on Tuesday 21st October 2003 when
we collected her as a timid 8
almost 9 week old puppy. 
We
traveled to Manchester on the Tuesday lunch time having managed to
blag some time off work and set off with our wedding
money, hoping that her breeder Sue Hammond (formally Southworth)
would think
us suitable
owners to be entrusted with her pick of
the litter. I remember
the day as if it was yesterday. Needless to say we passed Sue's test,
which consisted of letting all her adult Bernese into the living room
to jump on us and came home with Sophie. I
remember we got stuck in traffic on the M42 but it didn't matter as
I was very happy cuddling Sophie
on my
lap. She was such a good girl and made
no puddles, even though the drive took a good five hours.
Sophie
wasn't just our pet dog she was our best working dog as well. She
went everywhere with us and was quite a character. She always had to
have the last bark on everything. In the show ring
she always wanted to put her feet where she wanted and many a time
I whispered in her ear to keep still, especially when
the judge was eyeing up the class for placing. 
Later
on we were very lucky to be able to purchase a traditional Swiss Cart
and it
wasn't
long before Sophie was excelling in the carting. I think Sophie truly
enjoyed the carting more than any other working activity and I know
her tail wagged so much when she was harnessed up. We had such high
hopes for the future for her in the carting and she showed great promise,
which makes her early death even harder to accept. What ever she turned
her paw at she did well at and would do to the best of her abilities.
She would have excelled in the obedience had she not refused to sit
for the allotted time in competition much preferring to lye down
instead yet always did her heel work beautifully. I remember the day
she did
her silver Kennel Club Good Citizen award, she walked perfectly to
heal on a loose lead, behaved perfectly during all the tests and
once she knew she'd passed and I had her certificate she dragged
me out of the village hall back to the others.
Sophie started her
show career on the 18th April 2004 at just over 8 months of age and
won
Best Puppy in Breed and 1st in
Junior Bernese at her first show.
She
went
on to
win three Best Puppy in Breed awards before she was 12 months old.
During her showing career she also won 2 Best of Breed Awards and
3 Reserve Best of Breeds and her shining moment was winning a 3rd at
Crufts in 2007 in the Kennel Club Good Citizen Bitch class having
actually qualified for Crufts in 2004 & 2006.
During her showing & working
career she won:
23 x 1st Places
23 x 2nd Places
24 x 3rd Places
22 x 4th Places
15 x 5th Places
3 x 6th Places
3 x Best Puppy in Breed Awards
3 x Reserve Best of Breed Awards
2 x Best of Breed Awards
That wasn't all, she
also achieved her Bronze, Silver & Gold Kennel Club Good Citizen
Awards and was graded Excellent in her Character Assessment at the
Bernese
Mountain Dog Club of Great
Britain Working Day in 2007. During her short but successful carting
career she passed her beginners carting three times and her intermediate
carting
twice. She won the Beginners Carting in 2008 at the Central Bernese
Mountain Dog Club Open/Working Day and a fortnight later won Top Working
Bernese at the Southern Bernese Mountain Dog Club Working Weekend an
a achievement we are so very proud of.
Sophie
wasn't a one trick dog, oh no she could excel in any activity she
tried, be it
agility, obedience, carting or showing.
Over the years she learnt a whole array of tricks and could beg with
both paws, commando crawl, sit beg, bow and perform sit, stay, down
and up on command from a distance. When she wanted to attract our attention
she would run though her tricks in the hope of a treat and nearly
always succeeded. Even though she had very little practice around an
agility course, year after year she always managed to do well in
BMD competition and won her class a couple of times. She had a way
of putting her trust in me knowing that if I was with her then all
was OK as she certainly wasn't a brave dog normally.
Over the years we holidayed
all round the country with Sophie and enjoyed many walks and hikes.
She loved to paddle in cool
rivers on hot days and often rolled in nasty things when she thought
I wasn't watching. She always knew when she was going out and would
ensure she was in the car and later the dog van as soon as possible
to ensure that there could be no chance of being forgotten. In the
early
days we had a Ford Mondeo with a boot. Sophie would sit on the back
seat in a harness but on one particular day we were loading up the
car to go on holiday and Sophie being Sophie was very eager to get
herself
settled in the car. As she couldn't get onto the back seat she jumped
in the boot on top of the suitcases instead and just sat there, that
was just
typical of Sophie.
Sophie
had a thing about ice cream and many a time she dragged us towards
ice cream
vans whilst on holiday or out and about, we used to laugh and say
she could sniff one out a mile away. Sophie was never a lady when
it came to eating ice cream and instead of licking it would eat
it in one mouthful not being that bothered if she didn't quite get
all the
cone
as that part wasn't important. On one particular holiday we walked
up Malham Cove a waterfall in the Yorkshire Dales. Many people don't
manage to climb the waterfall let alone take a dog up with them,
especially a giant sized dog like our Sophie. But on that day she
put her entire trust in us, like she often did and as Mervyn and
another walker lifted her up onto ledge upon ledge, she sit perfectly
still waiting for the command to move. We have never since tried
to climb the waterfall with any of our other dogs.
We
mated Sophie to Champion Fortonpark Frankie Goes to Meadowpark in
the December of 2005 and 9 weeks later she produced her
first litter, of which we kept our Harvey. 15 months later she
had her second litter in May 2007 and had three lovely puppies to Fortonpark
G' Day Bruce. She went on to carry a third litter to Champion Collansues
Mexican Dream but sadly lost this shortly after I'd given birth to
our Abbie.
Sophie wasn't what one could call a natural Mother and not overly keen
on having her puppies jumping all over her, she was far more willing
to clean bottoms and
let everyone else look after them.
Our
Sophie meant the world to us and having lost her at such an early
age, seems so very
unfair. We are fortunate that she
lives on in her puppies and hope very much that the next generation
might be born this year. She was there to welcome both our girls into
the world, having actually been at the birth of our Abbie and always
felt
that it was up to her to protect them from the evils of the world.
We miss her so very
much and she'll always be in our hearts for ever more. She now proudly
sits on my desk and keeps me company whilst I work like she always
did whilst she was alive. The house is quieter without her and I
don't always know when the postman is around, for Sophie really
didn't like the postman or any delivery driver in fact along with
hoovers. We have planted a memorial rose called Sophie Perpetual
in a large pot on our patio and have had our van sign written with
a huge photo of Sophie pulling her cart, 
we like the idea that she'll
still continue to travel with us all over the country.
God bless you Sophie,
thank you for being our best friend and the most perfect first Bernese
anyone could possibility wish for. Thank you for being so wonderful
and trying your best at everything and giving us such wonderful memories.
Our lives were certainly enriched for knowing and loving you and
you will always have a special place in our hearts. I hope you're
entertaining everyone over the rainbow bridge. Loving you forever
Mummy & Daddy, Chloe & Abbie and Harvey & Amy xxxxx
Sophie's Gallery | Back
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