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It was a chance encounter that began our love for the Pekingese. When browsing in a department store, I observed a man holding a small Peke in his arms while patiently waiting for his wife to finish her shopping. He allowed me to pet this little one and I was hooked. Although I forgot about this chance encounter, Doug did not, and that Christmas when I opened a large gift box, settled down in the corner was a tiny Pekingese puppy, only 5 weeks old. "Ching" was a bright red, carried more than his share of coat, and had an excellent temperment. He adored us and the feeling was mutual. Thus began our "love affair" with this small breed that has taken us through some of our happiest and saddest times as well as some of the most thrilling and elating moments of our lives.
Because Ching received so much attention from strangers whenever we had him out for a walk, we decided to attend a dog show to see if other pekes were as beautiful as he was. They were! This whetted our interest and channeled our thoughts into serious breeding and competitive exhibiting... but not with Ching, who was happiest at home. As we prefered the smaller Peke,we decided the best place to begin our search was in England. Armed with a copy of the "English Pekingese Year Book" we searched for the type we wanted. Our first import was a 7 month old granddaughter of Eng Ch Mr Redcoat Of Kanghe, bred by Queenie Mould, followed shortly thereafter by a 7 month old daughter of Eng Ch Who's Who of Wanstrow, bred by Mrs. Iris Driscoll of Ladycross Kennels. Two months later my mother and I traveled to England via Norway and visited many Kennels, including: "Alderbourne", the famous kennel of Cynthia Ashton-Cross, where I held her favorite white dog, "Limelight Of Alderbourne". We attended the Peterborough dog show and upon heading home to Canada we were accompanied by a beautiful platinum bombshell, 8 months old, named "Glenferrar Crystal". Our doggy family was growing. Our next step was to decide on a kennel name. Our family name is Dutch, meaning, "little worries", which when translated into Mandarin Chinese, becomes sai-mai-fun. We then just combined these 3 words together and hence "SAIMAIFUN", "our little worries". In the late 70's "Bellerne's Yu-Benito" arrived from England to join our family. He was, we believe, at that time, the last living son of "Eng Ch Yu-Yang of Jamestown". Shortly thereafter we took our first of many holidays to England together and before coming home, purchased another pup from The Bellerene Kennel, namely "Bellerne's Gay Pippin", a daughter of Gold Medal Winner, "Eng Ch Samotha Gay Lad Of Beaupres". Now we had our nucleus: Yu-Benito for body, Crystal and Gay Pippin for glamour. We were on our way! On our next trip to England, Doug was privileged to show a young, handsome male named "Oakmere's Gentleman Jim", for Mr & Mrs Arnold Clay.. it was an exciting day as Gentleman Jim ended up challenging the Champions for the ticket, which is about as high as you can go and especially exciting coming from the open classes! In another trip Doug was honoured to be asked to judge the Birmingham Pekingese Open Show held in late fall. He had a record entry at the time of 242 Pekes to assess. It was a cold, blustery day and he ended up with a cold, but still says it was well worth every sniffle. We have shown mainly on the west coast, from Vancouver,(Canada) to San Francisco, (USA) and as far east as Saskatchewan (Canada) so far, and even attended the 100th AKC Anniversary Show in Philadelphia, bringing along 3 pekingese to be judged under English judge "Fiona Mirylees" of Beaupres fame. We had a wonderful time, met some lovely people, saw some beautiful dogs and ended up challenging for the breed with our "C/A Ch Saimaifun Hot Shot" in a class of over 40 Specials. Hot Shot was a grandson of Ch Bellerne's Yu-Benito and heavily linebred. After he died at the age of 14 years, we took a sabbatical for a period of 7 or 8 years, then as retirement loomed, bred our first litter in a long while. This produced "Ch Saimaifun Robbie Burns", who completed his title in one weekend, coming from the classes to take the breed and Group 1 all three days. We were back!! Since the early 70's in active line-breeding we have bred over 40 Champions, equally split between males and females... and 12 of these hold dual championships (American/Canadian). Out of these, 10 went on to become "Multi Group" winners, "Multi-Specialty " winners and best of all, an "All Breed Best-In-Show" win under Judge Rosemary McKnight, who gave this honour to our "Hot Shot". Following the judging, we found that she had trained under the late Jean Eisenman in England, breeder of the famous "Jamestown Pekingese". Hot Shot was, we think, the best dog we ever bred. He won Specialties in California, Oregon, Washington, and here in B.C,(Canada) as well as his All-Breed-Best-In Show and innumerable Group wins. For those of you just begining the impossible dream of breeding the perfect dog, you have ahead of you the pleasure of making many close and valuable friendships that will last a lifetime. If this hobby brings you nothing else, it will bring you a sense of togetherness with others also striving to better the breed. But remember- "the road to breeding will not always be a smooth one. Expect setbacks and heartbreaks along with the good times. There will be plenty of both". A poem we have always kept in our grooming case perhaps expresses our closing sentiments best of all:
"Make life worthwhile, fight on!
Written by Diane & Doug Kleinsorge "Saimaifun Pekingese".
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