We are Karen and Steve Waltham. We own the Dringshaw kennel name and we are based in Hull, East Yorkshire. We have been involved in the wonderful breed of Staffordshire bull terriers for over 35 years.
Having acquired our first Stafford in 1974 our love affair with the breed began. Knowing little about the breed, we decided to take him to a training class and it was pointed out that we might have a “good un” and was asked if we’d consider showing him. We entered a local show and won reserve best puppy in show and the rest is history.
The family then came along so we gave up showing for a while but always had a Stafford or two around the house.
When one of my oldies died I decided to look around for another but in those days they were not a popular breed like now. In fact people used to stop me in the street and ask “What breed is that” hard to believe now.
We struggled to find a pup that we liked but came across a lovely litter of English Bull terriers and bought a lovely brindle and white bitch who again, when shown, did some winning. When my last English Bull terrier died we decided we would like something smaller so looked around for another Stafford.
But again we struggled to find the right one, so we bought a bulldog. However she didn’t like to go out for a walk something I am passionate about. So we started to look for another Stafford by attending shows to see what we liked.
We bought a lovely stafford pied bitch called Carastaff Charisma the happiest dog I have ever known. As the children had grown we decided we would like to start showing again. Charisma qualified for Crufts and gave us a lot of happy times. She is nearly fourteen now and still going strong.
Steve decided he would like to have go at showing too so again we looked at dogs which we liked in the show ring and asked if their dog had been used at stud. Along came Rum Barrel Braker who did us proud and won a champ show puppy group (a rare occurrence for staffords). He also gained his KC stud book number which means he is qualified for Crufts for life.
Devastated by the loss of my Bulldog at the age of nearly 13yrs, I missed the snoring and my life did not seem complete without one. However looking around the shows they seemed to have got lot bigger than the one I had, so we decided that something smaller that would be ideal for us as we are now getting to be golden oldies ourselves, and decided on a French Bulldog as we have always liked them.
Again going to the shows we got chatting Vicki and Neil fisher (Grandesigns French Bulldogs) who said they had a litter planned in a few months time. I think I was camped out at their house most weekends watching the pups grow until the day I could bring my beautiful young man home, a big thank you for that. He now bosses all the Stafford’s around and lives a life of luxury, another wonderful breed which I love. A big thank you to Vicki and Neil for letting me have such a wonderful dog.
We are currently members of four breed clubs, and until recently was show secretary for Northern Counties, but due to work commitments had to give this up. We have also became members of both French bulldog clubs and like to support the shows and the breeds.
With Health the upper most in our minds all our dogs are health tested and we have become members of the Kennel Club Accredited breeder's scheme. We do not breed often only when we require something for ourselves. However we are willing to point you in the right direction of other reputable breeders.