It wasn’t quite twelve months later that we found ourselves on the road to Co. Durham again (February 2007) and back to Paul and Angie, this time we really did come home with a ball of fluff, his name was Sanchez and he was our show boy.

Showing had never crossed our minds when we were getting Morgan, we had just wanted a big friendly dog, which we got. By the time we actually thought we might like to show we had Morgan ruined, there was no way he would stand still in a ring. So we headed off to Paul to pick up a puppy that was born on New Years Eve, a son of Byron, the fabulous boy Paul had over at Belfast.

This time we did everything right, we socialised, trained and groomed, but also remembered to have fun and Sanchez paid us back by being a natural in the ring. He came alive once he stepped in and he literally strutted his stuff. The first male Newfoundland in Ireland to become Junior Irish Champion by gaining 5 1sts with Excellent 5 shows in a row, he qualified and competed at Crufts on numerous occasions.

We lost Sanchez much to early at five and half years old to lymphoma and secondary liver cancer. He was such a trooper as the only sign was he went off his food a bit and didn’t seem himself, so the scan showing all the tumours was an awful shock. We lost him 3 days after that scan, nobody had expected it to be so quick but at least he didn’t suffer. Losing Sanchez only seven months after losing Morgan was very difficult.

When he died Sanchez had one Green Star and 23 Reserve Green Stars. There will never be another Sanchez, he was the ultimate flirt in the show ring, it didn’t matter if the judge was male or female…

RIP Sanchez
31/12/2006-26/07/2012