How I got into Dog Breeding

How did you get into Dog Breeding?

Well I’ll tell you how I got into breeding dogs, was, I went up to Tipperary and I got a dog for myself above in it – in Cloughjordan in Tipperary. Oh yeah! He was a pure-bred self-trained dog.  He was only six weeks old and I gave £250 for him and I never regretted it. That’s how I got into dogs. His name was Moss. Moss worked on the farm.

My first litter

We got another dog, and she was a bitch. That’s how we got into it and a great bitch she was. Her name was Jess. That was back in the 60s.  With Jess and Moss, I started breeding pups. I think ’twas four that was in the first litter. There was 3 dogs and a bitch. I kept them and trained them and then sold them. Oh yeah, I trained them myself. I didn’t need to train them, they were self-trained. I sold two of them in Roscommon, and I sold one back in Belclare and another to a fella back in  Ahascragh. That’s how it really started.

I had to give it up

I didn’t keep any for myself. I bred them every two years. The average size of a litter I think was five pups.  I did that for four years and then she (my wife) wouldn’t allow them inside here, pups and dogs and cats too. I had to get out of it.

Sweetie

My last dog died (Sweetie). She (my wife) went to hospital and she was bad. She lasted three weeks in the hospital. Here she always sat and the dog Sweetie used to come over and  smell the chair. I came home one morning at 4 a.m. in the morning. She was lying inside the door dead. She was heartbroken. She was 11 years old. She was pure heartbroken.  I wouldn’t replace her.

Why I didn’t replace her

The way I looked at it was, is this way.  I might have to go into hospital with this (the heart) and who is going to feed the dog. Don’t have a dog if you don’t look after him and feed him.  Because a dog is the same as a person.  If you had the brains of a dog or a horse, you would not live, or I would not live neither.  The brains they have!

I do and I don’t miss them. There is no point in looking back.  You always have to look out on front of you.

We always had two cats also.  Isn’t he up there looking at you. He’s up there in the photo.

(This interview is part of a long interview with Paddy about his life and times which will be published after I visit him when this Covid 19 pandemic is over to finalise a few minor details.)