Dialynne • Beagles by Diana Spavin Interviewed by Mihaela Kosic
BIS: Thank You for taking the time to do this interview and for introducing us to Beagles and your work in the breed! When did you decide to become a Beagle breeder? What is the story behind your prefix? D.S.: My mother Marion Spavin started breeding and showing Beagles in the late 1950’s . She bred Cocker Spaniels along with my Grandfather until having 3 children when trimming became too much, so she decided on the Beagle. Our first Beagle was a good honest bitch and a good foundation brood Derawuda Vanity. I became involved in the mid 1960’s and my name was added to the Prefix. The prefix Dialynne is a combination of my name Dianna and Marilynne my sister. Later Stuart Milner and my daughter Melanie were added to the prefix. Stuart became more associated with the details of dog shows, my judging career started to take off and Melanie became more interested in showing so the dogs and Prefix were handed down to Mel. I still handle but prefer to watch Mel as she is a brilliant handler and gets far more out of the dogs than me. BIS: How many dogs do you have? Do you prefer to keep your dogs with you, or
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place them in families and co-ownerships? D.S.: We keep around 25 to 30 Beagles, we don’t place them in families as we like to keep full control of what we breed and show . All our puppies sold to families as pets are registered with endorsements not to be bred or sold abroad. Keeping them with us also means we can keep them in peak condition with controlled exercise and diet, because our dogs are not on the carpet like a lot of house dogs we never have to trim nails. We have done co- ownerships before but I prefer not to unless the dogs have come over from another country . Partnerships can get messy . We were lucky our partnership with Stuart is still going strong after some 35 years. BIS: Do you remember your first Champion? Do you know how many Champions you have so far? Which win do you consider the biggest one (in breeding or showing) ? D.S.: Our first Champion was from Mrs Clayton , a very prominent breeder at that time Ch Barvae Tamar who produced Ch Dialynne Opal. Our first home bred Champion was Ch Dialynne Huntsman who was the son of a North American import Bar-