Hi

We are Mike & Dee Patching owners of the “Maricanchi” kennel affix; we have both owned dogs all our lives, Dee with Irish Wolfhounds and me with GSD’s, then jointly a Rhodesian Ridgeback (Xena) who at the grand age of 14 passed away in October 2005. When that happened our home seemed so empty and quiet with her gone....it’s just not the same when you have had dogs around you all your life.

We had decided that we would not get another ‘Ridgeback’ out of deference to Xena; as we never wanted to find ourselves in the position of comparing dogs!  After much homework and research the Dobermann was by far our first choice, well, it was mine.  I don’t think Dee was as convinced, that we should even take on another dog?  This had nothing to do with expense, time & how they alter your lifestyle, but far more to do with going through all the upset when they ultimately go, which is a fair point, but, we must also remember, just how much they give and enrich our lives when they are here with us. 

Nevertheless, the one thing that we did agree about was  “if ” there was going to be a  next time, we wanted a dog; as for the most part we had always had bitches.  It was at that point that I got in contact with Jackie & Victoria Ingram at Jojavik Dobermann's (see our links page) and I have to say, they could not have been more helpful and purely by chance they live just around the corner from us.....literally, I never even knew there was a Dobermann breeder on the Island until then, just goes to shows you!

Jackie told me that one of her dogs, ‘Jojavik Ministry of Sound’ (Lucca) had been mated with ‘Jowendys Kinky Boots’ (Fizz) and that there was a “lovely” dog available from that litter, but the breeder, Wendy Burge really wanted him to go to a show home.

In September, after many discussions with Wendy (guess she wanted to make sure we were absolutely committed) I drove to Lincoln to collect our “boy”, I was so impressed with the dogs there & with Wendy herself.....I left the proud owner of Jowendy's Robocop.

We now know from the relatively short time that we have spent around the show circuit, that the Jowendy dogs are highly respected for their temperaments, quality bloodlines and with Wendy's reputation as a breeder.  Whenever I get ask about Maxx & I say he's a “Jowendy - Jojavik” dog, each time, I get that ‘knowing look’ and always without fail, get a positive response, so we consider ourselves very privileged indeed to have one of Wendy's dogs.

On the day I picked Maxx up, I had not told Dee about him at all, but felt, if ever we were ever going to be the owners of another dog in our natural lifetimes, one of us had to act and ‘grab the bull by the horns’.  In fact, to be honest, the first Dee ever knew about Maxx was when I opened the front door and said “hi Dee....this is Maxx....Maxx this is Dee”

I thought Dee was going to go absolutely ballistic, nothing could have been further from the truth; once Maxx had looked at her with his big eyes, grinned and stomped all over her with his huge feet, I knew from that point on.....I was home and dry.  

Then I was facing the prospect of telling Dee that Maxx needed to be a show dog & again I was met with a surprising reaction, “ok, how hard can it be”.....how wrong can you be!!

In October 2006, we joined The Barking Canine Club, which is where the Jojavik dogs go, so we could begin to learn about ring craft & showing, we thought, that if nothing else came of it, at least we would get to ‘socialise’ Maxx; I must say we were made to feel very welcome from day one.....thanks to everyone for that.

With loads of on going encouragement from Jackie, Victoria & lots of support from many others within the club, we entered our first ever dog show, The Horley & District Open Show at Ardingly. We had never shown dogs before and I have to say, it really showed, but again, so many people took time out to offer help & encouragement.

In particular, on the day, Pete Lovarini (I think Jackie had asked him to keep a ‘beady eye’ on me) who made time to sort out our ‘show section’ as we had entered Maxx under the wrong classification, but he sorted it all out with the show secretary, so we were not disqualified before we even stepped into the ring (that would have been a good start!).....cheers Pete & thank you.

Then there was Petra & Paula Gallagher, who were more than busy with their own dogs, but that never stopped them from finding time for me, they offered practically help and advice, in fact, every time I see them, they are as genuine now as the very first time I ever met them.....thank you very much.

Needless to say, we didn't get anything on the day (never really expected too!) having said that, we did get the ‘reserve’ place, but that was it, we now had the “bug” and were hooked on the show “thingy” plus, Maxx genuinely seemed to enjoy himself at the show, which after all, is the main point.....isn't it?.....well, it is to us; because after all is said & done, our dogs are family members they are not kennel dogs, nor are they part of any business enterprise and never will be.

Since then, we have been to a number of shows with a varying degree of achievement, including Maxx qualifying for Crufts 2008....good boy!  We have also made some great friends along the way and met some brilliant ambassadors promoting the breed.

In May 2007, after a bit of disappointment, we got ‘Molly’ a super Brown/Rust bitch & together with ‘the Maxximus’ she will be in the show ring and strutting her stuff throughout 2007/8.

We hope you will call back, for more galleries, news and updtes etc, but if you see us at a show, say “hello” I don't bite and neither does Maxx or Molly.....Dee occasionally does!

July 2007