Born and raised in Philandephia, PA, my love of animals began when
I was very young. My mother now jokes that she would not bother buying me baby dolls as I would only play with the stuffed animals. I would walk them, put them down for naps, name them all and pretend to be a veterinarian.
As I got older I studied every book I could get my hands on concerning training,
health, care and breeding on dogs, cats, horses, sheep, fish and any animal I could. By the time I was 12 I had every breed memorized out of the AKC breed book and was struggling between dogs and horses as my focus. Being that my family was not able to provide me with a barn and pasture, dogs were the sensible choice. Of course I would bring home various strays and my
mother was always very understanding. She would tease me though and say
"I better not come home to find a horse in your bedroom Lane Rae! ". I can laugh about that now but you don‘t know how close I came to actually having an equine room mate!
By the age of 21 I had been a professional handlers assistant for a length
of time, had graduated from professional grooming school and was married and started a family. Labradors were already a part of my life and thought I
was working full time I would attend shows as often as possible.
Any good Labrador will be one that is willing to enter Coldwater" and that seemed like a perfect prefix for our program. Of course we dabbled in Beagles as well and did a bit of large pack
competition, had a few Chesapeake Bay Retrievers and also a few German
Shorthaired Pointers at the time.
By the age of 33 I was divorced and had obtained certifications in small animal
nutrition, canine massage therapy specializing in sports medicine and canine behavioral science. I also attended handling, breeding and grooming seminars as often as possible. I also graduated from taxidermy school, earned a black belt in Taekwondo and raised two wonderful children who I am very proud of. Sadly, Beagles were in the past for me....but soon to be in the future!
Recently I have been forced to relocate to Lake Villa, IL. The move was a
very difficult one and thanks to my friends, new and old, they have made the move at least bearable and the dogs and I are currently settling in.
I still have a couple of dogs in field training, my Beagle partner and judge,
Kristin Block, has taken the lead during this difficult time to ensure the dogs are back out and showing. Now we are replenishing our kennel with new puppies and looking forward to the years ahead.
IGNATOV DIMITAR P
