Well, if you were going to have a bitch come into season, what better timing than the World Sheepdog Trial. Dogs had been sniffing at Mary Lou's Dyna for a couple of weeks so I took the liberty of enquiring about stud dogs in advance just in case the timing worked out. As it turned out, Bobby Dalziel's amazing Joe, two time winner of the Scottish National and the 2006 Supreme International Champion (won when he was only two years of age), had a free space on his dance card. We crossed our fingers that Dyna would be ready. It was going to be close.

In the meantime, we looked at several other dogs, and decided to bring a few back with us. A daughter of Jim Cropper's Reserve World Champion Sid, another young bitch who is a daughter of Denis Birchall's World Trial finalist Bill, and a pup that goes back to much of the great old Irish breeding were among our choices.

The big date between Joe and Dyna arrived, and the location behind cars in the large field car park felt like some sort of...